NASHVILLE –– By the time Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow reached the Tennessee Titans 23-yard line on the first drive of the third quarter, he should have been exhausted.
Burrow had already been sacked six times, which was already tied for the most sacks he had taken all year. He had already received 11 hits. He had already tried in the first five drives of the game to run an offense that couldn’t protect him from being hit to the ground.
Then, on third-and-5, Burrow didn’t see any wide receivers. So he ran 7 yards and dove down the line of first down. On the next play, the Bengals scored their first touchdown of the game.
On Saturday at Nissan Stadium, the Bengals beat the Titans, 19-16, to advance to the AFC championship game. The Bengals will play their first AFC title game since the 1988 season.
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It was a fitting miracle ending to a miracle season. With 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson took out Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill. On the next play, Burrow again delivered under pressure.
In a game in which he took a career-high nine sacks, Burrow thrived in the closing seconds. With a 19-yard throw to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow put the Bengals within field goal range.
Evan McPherson made a 52-yard field goal at the buzzer to win the game, and now the Bengals will have a shot at the AFC title.
“He’s got ice in his veins,” Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor said of McPherson. “Not much more to say. It’s as cool as it gets.”
On Saturday, the Bengals couldn’t block for Burrow. He didn’t get a chance to make a deep pass to Chase. Burrow was running for his life at times, but the Bengals got ahead because of his willingness to take one more hit and risk it all.
Following an interception on the opening play by Bengals safety Jessie Bates, Burrow got in the pocket for an extra second and found running back Joe Mixon for a 21-yard interception. Although Burrow gave up two hits before the end of that drive, the Bengals opened the game with a 3-0 lead.
In the final four minutes of the first half, Burrow’s earpiece to communicate with the coaching staff broke for a series of plays. Without a direct line to the sideline, Taylor tried to yell plays at Burrow, and then Burrow had to run around the backfield to communicate with the rest of the offense.
Burrow made his best two half shots in that situation, and the Bengals took a 9-6 lead into halftime.
Then, on the Bengals’ opening drive in the third quarter, Burrow recovered from a first-down sack in Titans territory. On third down, he dove down the first-down line when he had no wide receivers. On the next play, Mixon ran for a 16-yard touchdown as the Bengals took a 16-6 lead.
At the start of the season, the Bengals weren’t supposed to be a team that could win tough games. Many believed that Cincinnati had too many new pieces on defense and no big names at any position on that side of the ball.
Like Burrow, the Bengals’ defense had all the qualities necessary to send the team to the next round.
Bates opened the game with an interception, Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton deflected an interception for himself, and Cincinnati’s running defense held off one of the best running backs in the NFL for most of the game.
While Tannehill found star wide receiver AJ Brown for three deep catches that kept the Titans in the game, the Bengals’ defense won at the line of scrimmage when it mattered. In one of the game’s biggest plays, Bengals backup linebacker Clay Johnston brought down Titans running back Derrick Henry at the goal line on a two-point conversion attempt.
Then, with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Bengals’ defense made an even bigger save. On fourth-and-1 from the Bengals 35-yard line in a tied game, Wilson and fellow Bengals linebacker Markus Bailey tackled Henry in the backfield for fumbles on attempts.
Following Wilson’s interception, Burrow threw his career shot and the Bengals made the game-winning field goal at the buzzer.
Burrow has said that he can’t recall a single moment at any level in any sport where on the biggest stage he hasn’t played at the level he expected.
When asked earlier this week, he laughed at the idea that he would have fought when it mattered most. Whether it was a high school basketball tournament or his legendary Heisman run at LSU, Burrow was always the best player in the biggest games.
Burrow didn’t have enough time on Saturday to play at the MVP level. But he set the tone when the Bengals could have collapsed, and now the Bengals are one more win away from playing in the Super Bowl.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism