CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2018, but there likely won’t be too much celebrating going on this week because their latest win came at a huge cost: Joe Burrow will likely miss some time after suffering a toe injury in Cincinnati’s 31-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There wasn’t very much celebrating going on in the Bengals’ locker room following the win, and that had everything to do with Burrow. Bengals center Ted Karras said he was thrilled that Jake Browning directed a 92-yard game-winning drive in the final minute, but it was hard to be happy about anything else.
“Very proud of everyone for that, but like I said, [Burrow] going down casts a pall over everything right now,” Karras said.
Burrow got injured in the second quarter after leading the Bengals to one touchdown on three possessions. Browning then came in to direct a field goal drive, but it only went 17 yards, set up by a Jordan Battle interception. The Bengals backup QB also threw an interception just before halftime. Between Burrow and Browning, the Bengals totaled just 131 yards in the first half, and the offensive frustrations, combined with Burrow’s injury, led to a “contentious” locker room heading into the break.
“That’s the reality of the situation. We found ourselves in an offensive nightmare, I felt,” Karras said. “Credit to everyone for digging ourselves out of that and not just folding in, because that could have easily happened. Came in at halftime. It was a contentious halftime.”
Although Burrow was initially listed as questionable to return to the game, he was officially ruled out during the third quarter. At that point, Karras said the Bengals had two options.
“We played horrible. We got to do something,” Karras said of why things got contentious at halftime. “That feeling as a player and as a unit is a very bad and low feeling. There’s two options: You can slink and die or you can get made about it and f—ing do something. We did enough to win.”
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Karras made it clear that the team has “100% confidence” in Browning if he ends up playing for an extended period of time, but the loss of Burrow definitely stings. It will be interesting to see how the Bengals respond to that in their next game, which will be coming in Week 3 against Minnesota.
As things stand, Burrow has reportedly been diagnosed with turf toe, and there’s a very real chance he could end up missing multiple weeks.