Zac Taylor Explains Why He Kept Joe Burrow in the Game During Bengals' Blowout Loss to Steelers

Zac Taylor Explains Why He Kept Joe Burrow in the Game During Bengals' Blowout Loss to Steelers

CINCINNATI — Bengals head coach Zac Taylor kept rookie quarterback Joe Burrow in the game even though Cincinnati was trailing 36-7 late in the fourth quarter on Sunday against the Steelers. 

Burrow, 23, rolled his ankle at the end of the first half and was limping during various points of the game. 

"We tried to manage it some with the runs. We wanted to get some points, get some momentum going, to be honest with you, and we left him in there," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said after the game. "We want to move the ball and put some points on the board, and we felt like we shot ourselves in the foot a lot. Obviously they did some great things, but we just felt like we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We could get some drives together put some points on the board, get some momentum going, it just didn't turn out that way."

Taking Burrow out of the game seemed like a no-brainer. He was limping, the offense was struggling and the game was over. Instead, the Bengals kept him in and he re-tweaked his ankle on their second to last drive. 

Burrow jogged off the field, but was clearly favoring his right ankle. Despite the injury, he said he wanted to stay in the game. 

"I'm not a quitter. I'm not going out of the game," Burrow said. "Doesn't matter if we're down 100, down 10, down 20. I'm not going out."

The Bengals' coaching staff needs to re-evaluate how they're going to handle those types of situations. There's no way Burrow should've been in the game late in the fourth quarter. 

He was already banged up and they were getting blown out. Get the rookie out of the game and live to play another day. 

Burrow escaped without suffering a significant injury. Taylor and the Bengals got lucky on Sunday. 

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