The 2023 NFL season started off slow for Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. But after posting a 1-3 record through the first four games, they have now won four in a row, and are in as good a position as anyone of knocking the Ravens out of the top spot in the AFC North. The team is currently enduring one of the toughest parts of their schedule, but the cool hand of their quarterback helped them pick up crucial victories in Weeks 8 and 9.
Bengals Keep Winning Behind Joe Burrow
This play by Joe Burrow is INSANE pic.twitter.com/86URmTnJvS
— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) November 1, 2023
Perhaps the most impressive victory of the season came against the 49ers a couple of weeks ago. Burrow and company hit the road to play against one of the league’s top teams, and came out with a 14-point win over Kyle Shanahan’s squad. They were home the next week, and were featured on Sunday Night Football as the Buffalo Bills came to town for a big AFC showdown.
Joe Burrow was the star again. He threw for 348 yards on the night with two touchdowns and no interceptions, and the Bengals held on to win 24-18 despite a late comeback attempt by Buffalo. His counterpart, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, has 258 yards and threw a touchdown and an interception.
It was just the second time that Burrow went up against Allen since he was drafted in 2020, with the first meeting being Cincinnati’s win in the Divisional Round of last year’s playoffs. It makes Burrow 2-0 against Allen in his career, a good start for what will likely be a matchup of many meetings down the road.
Burrow Now 5-1 Against Allen & Mahomes
Joe Burrow is now 5-1 against Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes in his career pic.twitter.com/ieaaAWRiGW
— PointsBet: A Fanatics Experience (@PointsBetFBG) November 6, 2023
Allen isn’t the only elite quarterback that he has an impressive record over. The Chiefs and Bengals have met four times since the start of the 2022 calendar year, and Cincinnati has been victorious in three of them. That means that Joe Burrow has a combined 5-1 record against Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes in his young career.
But if you ask Burrow, he’d love to have that one loss back. It came in last season’s AFC Championship game, when he was out dueled by Mahomes and lost his chance at back-to-back Super Bowl appearances.
There is a good chance that Burrow and the Bengals will see one of Mahomes or Allen in the playoffs this year, but he’ll get a chance to improve to 6-1 before that. Cincinnati is scheduled to take on Kansas City in a Week 17 game that should have massive AFC playoff seeding implications.