Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow doesn’t need any extra motivation this week.
As the Bengals get ready to host the Baltimore Ravens (10-7) for the Wild Card round game on Sunday night, Burrow is ready to take his game to another level.
He thrives under the brightest of lights.
“It's do or die,” Burrow said on Wednesday. “It's where you like to be. In those moments is where I kind of make my best plays. It's where I'm comfortable and these moments are moments that you remember.”
The Bengals will face a team they are very familiar with. For the third time this season, Cincinnati and Baltimore will square off. The stakes are much higher for this one, though.
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In just his third season as the Bengals’ signal-caller, there’s not much Burrow hasn’t seen in terms of defensive schemes and playoff atmospheres. He led his team to victories on the road in Nashville and Kansas City en route to Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles.
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You can’t predict what will happen on Sunday night.
But there is one thing that is almost certain and it’s that Cincinnati’s QB1 will be ready for the moment. If the Bengals were to lose, it won’t be because Burrow was rattled. And if they win, it’s likely going to be because of his individual performance.
At 26 years old, Burrow is wise beyond his years. He’s expected to be playing in games like this since he arrived in Cincinnati.
His confidence isn’t a façade, either. It stems from his preparation and the work he does leading up to the game.
“That's why you prepare and that's why you practice all week, and I think you have to have that mindset as a quarterback in this league if you want to be really successful,” Burrow said. “You can't go out there scared in the moment. You have to be a little arrogant to go out there in that moment and make plays you need to make and so that's really something I've thought a lot about and something that I try to do.”
Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens aren't strangers
What’s unique about the game on Sunday is the familiarity both teams have with one another.
Baltimore’s defense has presented many challenges for Cincinnati’s offense this year. The Bengals offense has yet to score more than 20 points when facing the Ravens in the 2022 season.
And it’s not by coincidence.
The Ravens have one of the best defensive units in football. Baltimore finished the season ranked in the top 10 in multiple categories: Total defense (No. 9), run defense (No.3), points per game (No. 3) and red zone defense (No.3).
“They are a really good defense,” Burrow said of Baltimore. “They know what we try to do on offense, we know what they try to do on defense. They try to take away our bread-and-butter stuff and they’re pretty good at it. We play them a lot. They have a really good defensive coordinator who makes it tough on you out there.”
In his first season as defensive coordinator for the Ravens, Mike Macdonald has elevated Baltimore’s defense. When these two teams met in early October, Macdonald was still getting his footing. Now, he’s got his group where the Ravens expect their defense to be.
“When you watch the tape, and you see the evolution since our first game, I see a coordinator that's a lot more confident, is a lot more aggressive than he was early in the year,” Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “And you see the players feed off that, too. They've been more aggressive blitzing. They've been more aggressive in coverage. They've changed some from the beginning of the year, and they're playing with a ton of confidence. And I see a lot of remnants of what they've been there for a long, long time on defense.”
The Ravens also acquired more talent throughout the season. Baltimore traded for inside linebacker Roquan Smith on Oct. 31. He’s a key reason for their uptick in play over the final weeks of the season.
Regardless of what the Ravens throw at the Bengals, Burrow will be ready.
“I'm really confident in my work and my preparation,” he said. “I'm confident in the guys around me too and my coaches as well. When you have confidence in just about everything you do, it makes life a lot easier on Sundays."
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