Bengals, Joe Burrow take a little heat for holiday primetime date
The NFL put the Bengals in a big spot on the schedule, which has some hyping a game...and asking questions.
The Cincinnati Bengals are a big attraction for the NFL. It’s something made crystal clear by the NFL choosing the Bengals to go to Spain, Madrid, in Week 9, a key growth market for the league. Burrow is a face of said league , and went out of his way this offseason to show up to help the Pro Bowl before repping the league in a big flag football event.
The Bengals getting a New Year’s Eve primetime game against the Baltimore Ravens is more proof. It’s one of the best 11 games of the season for Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr , too, though it comes with a sort of asterisk due to the idea the Bengals might not be relevant by that point of the season. “I know this is a long way out to project a Bengals team as relevant, given the unreliability of quarterback Joe Burrow, who has started 10 or fewer games in two of the past three seasons,” Orr wrote.
“That said, the Bengals and Ravens have the two best odds to win the AFC North. ” There’s some praise from Orr too, plus interesting commentary about Lamar Jackson: “Cincinnati was one of my most clearly improved teams this offseason, and I think its rotational pass rush will challenge a newly rebuilt Ravens offensive line. Plus, there is always the possibility that new Raven Trey Hendrickson punishes a team he has long harbored some resentment toward, given how his contract situation with the Bengals ended.
” What’s interesting here is that while this is obviously the game of the week on a holiday, some of the hypotheticals about relevance don’t seem to apply to the Ravens. Lamar Jackson has had far from a reliable attendance rate over the years and he played in just 13 games last year while they missed the playoffs. The Ravens are also starting over with a new head coach, which brings some challenges, never mind going on the road in primetime on a short week.