Joe Burrow And The Bengals Poured It On Late Against The Ravens And I Have No Problem With It
Game well in hand, Joe Burrow went out there and had a little fun, cementing a place in some record books. Who could blame him? The JV Ravens hadn't stopped him all day and it was there for the taking. Might be a bit of an injury risk for a team likely headed to the postseason, but that's their prerogative. To the victor go the spoils.
Naturally, this has led to some pot-stirring on the interwebs. Who else could it be? The king of the pot-stir, Mike Florio, leading the way.
Problem with that is that it's hardly close to remotely true. John Harbaugh (and his players) hardly had a reaction to the entire thing. All I see is a coach after a tough loss talking about said tough loss.
And who would John Harbaugh be to criticize? It's not his first rodeo. He's not above any of this, and he was on the other side of this type of thing against the Broncos earlier this season. And admittedly so, Wink Martindale did poke the bear this week by saying Joe Burrow wasn't quite up to Aaron Rodgers' level (and he's not wrong regardless of today's result fwiw)
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But that doesn't mean Burrow doesn't have a right to channel that sentiment and use that to his advantage. He did exactly that, and admitted as such.
Whether it was against the Ravens 8th and 9th string corners or not, the guy still went out there and beat the snot out of the guys on the other side. Thems the breaks, gotta tip your cap.
But just because the Ravens are okay with it doesn't mean they'll forget it either. This 2021 Ravens team has been a shell of itself before we even got to week 1. The ship sailed on them a long time ago. But that doesn't mean for a second that those guys on the sidelines or sitting on their couches this season aren't watching and listening and taking notes for 2022. All the pieces are there for this team to be one of football's best next year. The Bengals will be right there too. And this year's Bengals just threw a bunch of fuel on the fire for next year's Ravens to come back bigger, badder, and stronger than ever.
Those games next year are gonna be WARS. Cannot wait for those and if the Ravens find themselves ahead comfortably late, you know they'll remember what happened today. Last time they had a real serious vendetta against an opposing team, it ended like this.
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2022 is going to be a helluva revenge tour in Baltimore.