What Bengals QB Joe Burrow Said About His Animated, Profane Discussion With Zac Taylor After Game-Clinching TD

Jay Morrison | 3 Hours Ago

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) sets up to throw a pass during the first quarter at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NASHVILLE – For the second time in six games, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was fuming after a victory.

FOX cameras caught Burrow having an animated, profanity-laced conversation with head coach Zac Taylor on the sideline after a Chase Brown 5-yard touchdown run gave the Bengals a 16-point lead with 1:09 remaining in the team’s 37-27 victory against the Tennessee Titans.

“I was just frustrated in the day that we had on offense,” Burrow said. “It was just too sloppy. We had too many penalties, too many procedural penalties. I had too many turnovers. It was just a frustrating day on offense.”

Woah.

Joe Burrow is heated on the sideline while talking to Zac Taylor. #Bengals pic.twitter.com/MlgvNQvnWC

— Joey DeBerardino (@JoeyDeBerardino) December 15, 2024

After a 41-24 victory against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 3, Burrow did most of his fuming in the postgame press conference, although he clearly looked agitated on the sideline as well.

The issues were similar. The Bengals jumped out to a big lead against the Raiders and Burrow wasn’t happy about the way the team played down the stretch.

And he also was setting the tone for a quick page turning to a Thursday night game in Baltimore.

Sunday’s performance was sloppy and careless from the jump.

The Bengals had five penalties and two turnovers in the first 16 minutes of the game.

They finished with 14 penalties, 11 of which came on offense. That’s the most offensive penalties the Bengals have had in a game since Week 4, 2005, when they had 13 in a 16-10 win against the Houston Texans.

“Too many self-inflicted wounds,” Burrow said.

The Bengals ran 14 plays on their game-clinching drive, but it should not have taken that many.

They had first and goal at the Tennessee 1-yard line after Burrow hit rookie tight end Cam Grandy with a 9-yard pass.

But somehow Burrow and the offense didn’t get lined up in time to run the next play and took a delay of game penalty.

“The headset went out a couple times on that same drive and sometimes I'm not sure what he's getting through there because mine was making a mistake, too,” Taylor said. “I should have been aware of it and called a timeout to keep it on the 1-yard line. Sometimes you're focused on getting the play in and on that one I lost track of the play clock, and he probably did, too.”

Burrow’s headset also went out in the 2021 Divisional Round victory against the Titans, only that was for a longer period and Burrow ended up calling several of his own plays on a scoring drive.

Compounding the issue Sunday was the fact that after the delay of game penalty, offensive lineman Matt Lee had a false start to push the Bengals back to the 10-yard line (somehow the officials, who didn’t have a good day either, only penalized Cincinnati four yards on the delay of game).

Taylor called the animated sideline with Burrow “Just a conversation back-and-forth.”

Had the back-to-back penalties inside the 10-yard line cost the Bengals a chance to score a touchdown in a tighter game, the conversation might have looked even more heated.

But the Bengals got the win and Burrow and Taylor were able to shrug off the issue and turn their focus to next week when they will play host to the Cleveland Browns to try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

“It's always in the back of your mind until you're out of it, but the chances are very slim,” Burrow said. “What I'm focused on right now is playing as good as we can play, myself playing up to my standard. That's what I was so frustrated, because I didn't feel like we did that today.”

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