After a pair of up-and-down offensive outings to open up the season, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow sees one route where the team's offense can turn it around.
The Bengals are off to one roller-coaster start on the offensive end this season. While Cincinnati has shown promise in several key drives so far this season, the offense does rank 24th in yards per game with a 307.0 average.
One of the main criticisms with the Bengals offense has been the lack of assertiveness in drives, which was recently echoed by rookie wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.
Burrow believes that there is much potential for the Bengals to soon be a team that will not shy away from being aggressive in critical downs, but the one-time Heisman Trophy winner sees one notable hurdle in this goal, which he elaborated on during a conference call on Wednesday.
“I think there's spots where we can take calculated risks and then push the ball down the field,” Burrow said. “And it's just when you catch man coverage just taking advantage of that opportunity.
“I think one thing that we’re starting to realize is that we have a guy in Ja’Marr (Chase) who’s going to go down the field and make plays and we have a guy in Tee (Higgins) that’s gonna go down the field and make plays. The more that those guys continue to show that they can do that, I think the more we’ll push the ball down the field.”
Burrow has not had many opportunities to open up the passing game with key downfield throws, which is noted by his 7.6 intended air yards per pass attempt average. Out of the 26 quarterbacks who have recorded at least 55 pass attempts this season, 10 of them have a lower intended air yards per pass attempt average than Burrow's 7.6 figure.
Burrow and the Bengals offense will have a massive test ahead when they will face the Pittsburgh Steelers’ daunted defensive unit in Week 3.
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