Cincinnati star quarterback Joe Burrow needs surgery on his injured toe and will be sidelined for at least three months. Obviously, that’s terrible news for the Bengals.
On the bright side, Cincinnati (2-0 straight up, 1-1 against the spread) rallied to beat Jacksonville 31-27 as a 3.5-point home favorite Sunday to give the club its first 2-0 start since 2018.
Jake Browning shook off three interceptions to complete 21-of-32 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns. His one-yard TD run with 18 seconds left capped a 15-play, 92-yard scoring drive at crunch time.
Remember, Browning helped the Bengals to a 4-3 record in seven starts when Burrow was injured in 2023.
Burrow sustained the Grade 3 turf toe injury in the second quarter against the Jaguars. He had connected on 7-of-13 throws for 76 yards and one TD without an interception before getting injured.
In last week’s 17-16 non-covering win at Cleveland, Burrow completed 14-of-23 passes for 113 yards and one TD without an interception. Many books had the former national title winner at LSU in 2019 listed as the ‘chalk’ to win NFL MVP honors coming into the season.
Burrow led the NFL in completions (460), passing attempts (652), passing yards (4,918) and TD passes (43) last year when he completed a career-best 70.6 percent of his throws. He was named to his second Pro Bowl and was the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year for the second time.
In 71 career regular-season games in his first six seasons in the NFL, Burrow has hit 68.5 percent of his passes for 19,190 yards with a 142/46 career touchdown-to-interception ratio. He also has 809 career rushing yards, 12 TDs and a 3.6 yards-per-carry average.
In seven postseason starts, Burrow had led Cincinnati to a 5-2 record. The lone defeats came in heartbreakers vs. the Rams (23-20) in Super Bowl LVI and at Kansas City (23-20) in the 2022 AFC Championship Game.
In those seven postseason outings, Burrow has connected on 67.3 percent of his throws for 1,826 yards with a 9/4 TD-INT ratio. He has 101 rushing yards, one TD and a 3.9 YPC average in the playoffs.
The 29-year-old Browning was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He was waived multiple times and picked up again by the Vikings from 2019-21.
After Minnesota waived Browning yet against in late August of 2021, he was signed to Cincinnati’s practice squad. He never got on the field for the Bengals in 2021 or 2022.
But in 2023, he beat out veteran signal caller Trevor Siemian for the backup job behind Burrow. In nine total appearances and seven starts in 2023, Browning completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 1,936 yards with a 12/7 TD-INT ratio. He added 127 rushing yards, three TDs and had a 4.7 YPC average.
If Burrow is able to return in mid-December, he could be back for the last four games: vs. Baltimore, at Miami, vs. Arizona and vs. Cleveland.
As of early Monday afternoon, most books had the Vikings listed as 3.5-point home favorites vs. Cincinnati in Week 3. The total was 42.5 points, and the Bengals were +170 on the money line. Minnesota had been -1.5 on the look-ahead line this past Friday.
In 2023, Browning led Cincinnati to a 27-24 win over Minnesota in overtime. He completed 29-of-42 passes for 324 yards and two TDs with one interception.
FanDuel has adjusted the Bengals’ odds to win Super Bowl LX to 80/1. The book now has Baltimore as -340 ‘chalk’ to win the AFC North. The next-shortest odds belong to Pittsburgh (+550), Cincinnati (+750) and Cleveland (60/1).