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Film Breakdown: Analyzing Joe Burrow's Three Elite Traits

The 25-year-old is a special talent.

Mike Santagata

It’s possible that Joe Burrow had the best game in Bengals history in Week 17. 

He threw for a franchise-record 525 yards and four touchdowns against the Baltimore Ravens. This dynamite performance occurred in one of the biggest games of the season. 

The Bengals' playoff chances would've taken a huge hit with a loss. So in a high leverage game, Burrow put up possibly the greatest quarterback performance of the season across the entire NFL. 

Burrow relied on three specific traits in the blowout win: his pocket management, ball placement, and processing.

Let's take a look at the film and see how these three traits helped Burrow have a record-setting performance.

Managing The Pocket

Burrow’s ability to work within the pocket to avoid sacks was something that made him such a coveted prospect coming out of LSU. While the knee injury seemed to stunt his growth in this area at the NFL level, he has been lights out over the past few weeks. He has been able to avoid defenders with slight movements while keeping his eyes downfield. This has turned possible sacks into completed passes. Not to mention the explosive plays that Burrow has generated by working outside of structure as well.

Here you can see Burrow avoid a rusher that wins to the inside against left tackle Jonah Williams. To avoid a defender that wins to the inside against the tackle, the quarterback should slide around him in that direction. That’s exactly what Burrow does here. With the defender coming in hot to his left, he avoids him by sliding left. This play is also a very nice job of protecting the football and keeping his eyes downfield. He keeps two hands on the ball while making this move and then finds the open receiver for a big gain. His ability within the pocket turned what could have been a sack into a completed pass down the field.

This time Burrow faces interior pressure that is winning to the outside. Since the pressure is coming to him off his side and trying to bend the corner, Burrow counters by stepping up in the pocket. This helps him to avoid the pass rusher and sets up his block to rebound and win against the pass rusher. Once again you can see Burrow protect the ball with both of his hands while keeping his eyes downfield. Every great quarterback in the NFL keeps their eyes downfield while being pressured and Burrow showed that he can do that this week.

This play is not an example of Burrow’s pocket movement, but instead a showcase of his athleticism and strength. Which are traits that I consider adjacent to his pocket movement. He is able to eat this hit from the defensive tackle and stay on his feet to keep the play alive. Burrow is bigger than he looks at about 230 pounds. He also has the athleticism to keep his balance on this play while rolling out and working out of the structure of the play.

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Accuracy

Burrow completed over 80% (37-of-46) of his passes against the Ravens, but he was even more accurate than those numbers indicate. Burrow consistently found his receivers on time and on target. The ability to accurately place the ball both off-platform and from within the pocket is one of the most crucial skills to playing quarterback in the NFL. Burrow showcased his ability to accurately throw the ball this past week.

Most of what made this play work comes from the play design. Taylor places Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase on one side of the field which causes the post safety to cheat in that direction. They then run stick-n-nod with Tyler Boyd as the primary read and No. 3 receiver. 

The Ravens are playing zone match Cover 3, so Patrick Queen matches up with Boyd on this play. This is a terrible mismatch and looks even worse due to the post safety cheating in the opposite direction. Boyd smokes him and is wide open for the touchdown. Where Burrow shines is his ability to perfectly hit Boyd in stride on this play. Burrow's fantastic ball placement makes this touchdown possible. If Boyd slows down or stops to catch an errant throw, then there is a strong possibility that the defense stops him prior to scoring the touchdown.

This is one of Burrow's best throws from Sunday's game. He utilizes his aforementioned pocket movement to escape the sack. Just like in the previous plays, he is holding the ball with both hands while keeping his eyes downfield after avoiding the sack. Here he finds Boyd with good leverage on the safety because he bit on the double move. Burrow throws the ball as he is running forward. The ball is not perfect, but he puts the ball in a great spot 30 yards downfield while on the run. That’s a great play from the 25-year-old.

Again Burrow shows his ability to perfectly place the ball over the defense while out of structure and off-platform. When the defense takes away his primary and secondary reads, he can still make the defense wrong. The placement on this throw is absolutely picture-perfect as well. While running, Burrow is able to throw the ball where only Joe Mixon can get it. That is a special ability by the second-year quarterback.

Processing The Game

Lastly and in my opinion most importantly is Burrow’s ability to process the defense. What I mean by this is his ability to understand what the defense is doing and to know exactly how to beat it. Burrow excels at this both pre and post-snap and put on a clinic against the Ravens this past week. This is not a small feat either because the Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is one of the brightest coaches in the NFL. He routinely confuses quarterbacks and he creates pressure with just about anyone.

The Bengals run a common concept to the boundary. The No. 1 receiver will push vertically into the defense and curl to his outside while the No. 2 receiver is going to quickly sprint to his outside. This route combination creates a high-low read on the most outside zone defender. Burrow sees that the Ravens defense has this played well with a defender over the top of the curl and a defender outside of the flat. By the final step in his drop, Burrow has already moved on and is throwing the check-down to Mixon. 

By getting to his check-down on time like this, he gives Mixon a chance to run and set up the defense. When quarterbacks wait too long, they do not give their check-down much of a chance to work within space. Burrow does a fantastic job on this play to not hang on to the primary concept for too long. Instead, he can quickly move on and allow his Pro Bowl running back to go to work.

This play by the Bengals looks like a mirrored wrap concept to each side. The wrap concept is a dig outside of a sit/whip option route from the inside receiver. The idea is to occupy a hook defender with the inside receiver so that the quarterback can throw the dig behind them. The issue with this play is that Martindale has called a pressure that beat the Bengals' pass protection. 

The Ravens get a free runner through the B gap on this play after showing pressure all around the Bengals' offensive line. Burrow stays calm and understands that his hot route on this play is the sit from the inside receiver. He takes his three step drop and then throws the ball to Chase in rhythm. He gets the ball out fast enough that the free runner does not even get a free shot on him. Also, getting the ball to Chase this quickly and in rhythm allows for him to work after the catch. Chase picks up an extra 10 yards after he catches the ball. A good display of understanding where your hot route is and when to throw it.

The Bengals' split back gun formation killed the Ravens in the first matchup this season. When the Bengals get into this formation it allows for them to utilize 7-man pass protections with both a back and a tight end coming from depth to pick up blitzers. 

This neutered the Ravens pressure scheme which is something that they really excel at when they are healthy. The adjustment from the first game to this game by the Ravens is to just double all three of the wide receivers. This triple bracket coverage is smart because the Bengals typically do not have anything substantial coming from the tight end or the running back from this formation. Burrow knows that the issue with doing this is that it leaves the defense susceptible to the run. With all of the defender’s eyes on their wide receivers, the quarterback is free to run without anyone watching him. Once Burrow hits the bottom of his drop he has already processed exactly what the defense is doing and he starts to take off. It’s a free first down by the time any defender catches up to him. A nice, easy way for the Bengals offense to move against a defense that has made a well-called adjustment to their first meeting.

It’s not all that common that a quarterback will throw the ball to the opposite side of a called screen. Burrow does so here however because he sees that the defense is beating the blocking out to the screen. He knows pre-snap that the corner over his perimeter receiver to the boundary is playing nearly 10 yards off of him which creates the room needed to throw this ball. This ball also has to come out very quickly. 

You can see Burrow tie his footwork to his read with how quickly he takes this drop. Instead of a 3 step drop, he ends up with just a hop and throws. He still sets his feet towards his target and is sound mechanically, but he changed the footwork that is commonly used here to speed up the throw. A majority of quarterbacks in this league will probably still throw the screen or they will try to turf the ball, but not Burrow. Even with the screen beaten he finds a way to punish the defense.

This play is another shining example of Burrow’s ability to defeat defenses before the snap. The Ravens are showing a pressure look with seven guys on the line of scrimmage. However, by doing this, Baltimore left themselves vulnerable to a quick screen. Burrow knows that he has numbers to the three receiver side. 

He audibles into a flare screen. C.J. Uzomah can catch the ball in space and run for a first down behind some nice blocks from the wide receivers. Also, look at Burrow’s feet again on this play. He quickens up his footwork on these screens so that he can get the ball out even quicker while being mechanically sound with his feet lined up at the target.

I saved Burrow’s best play for last. This is a fade-out combination to the play side. Against most coverages, the quarterback is throwing the out route with the fade just there to create room for it. The out is also his hot route for any pressure coming on that side. The Ravens are playing a coverage that is meant to trick him and get him to throw a possible interception. It’s a 2-deep fire zone and the corner is watching Burrow and the out route. When the preponderance of young quarterbacks see that this is a blitz with a second-level defender, they will throw the ball where the blitz came from to their hot receiver. That comes directly from the elementary levels of quarterbacking. That is the trap laid by Martindale. If Burrow throws this to the out route it’s possibly a pick-6 from the cornerback who is anticipating just that. 

Burrow starts by wanting that as well. You can see him line up his feet to throw the out route, but then he sees that the defense is playing a variation of Cover 2. He takes an extra half of a second and instead loads up to throw the fade route in the honey hole of Cover 2. Not only does he throw this ball to the correct target, but his ball placement is fully on display as well. He perfectly throws this to Chase’s back shoulder which protects him against the boundary safety who comes screaming down to try to dislodge the football from his body. Chase then shows why he was the No. 5 overall pick with his elite body control and ability to hang on to this ball through the contact. It was not a touchdown and when watching live most people (myself included) were more in awe by the catch that Chase just made. When watching again from the all-22 angle the throw is what really sticks out and Burrow’s processing, in particular, is the shining gem of this play.

Yes, Burrow threw the ball for over 500 yards against a bad group of cornerbacks, but let’s not pretend that he did things that most quarterbacks are able to do. The Ravens were getting constant pressure, trying to confuse him, and made adjustments to how the Bengals beat them in the first game. Burrow needed all of his elite-level traits to have this career game against Baltimore. His pocket movement let him escape sacks despite being pressured 26 times according to Pro Football Focus. His ball placement let his receivers run after the catch and turned what could have been 50/50 balls into throws that only the receiver could catch. His quick processing allowed him to shred the defense and to hit the right receiver on every play. 

All of this worked together for the game of a lifetime for Burrow.

For more film breakdowns, go here. 

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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