It was all there for Joe Burrow, all there for the taking, a hostile stadium clad in pink wracked with anxiousness, all of the momentum on his facet, an opportunity to take the Bengals again to the Tremendous Bowl for the primary time in 33 years.
Patrick Mahomes had the ball first once more in additional time when Bengals backup quarterback Brandon Allen known as tails, however there can be no Mahomes Magic this time, and so all Burrow needed to do was march his staff into place for his kicker, Cash McPherson, to complete off Mahomes and shock the world and switch a championship starved metropolis into Euphoria, Ohio.
Which after all he did.
As a result of he's Joey Franchise.
As a result of that's what franchise quarterbacks do — even second-year franchise quarterbacks who're one way or the other capable of chortle within the face of an 18-point deficit and engineer Bengals 27, Chiefs 24.
Solely this one is a proud son of Ohio, who needed to play for the Cincinnati Bengals and restore the Who Dey roar and the glory.
Which after all he did.
Jessie Bates III had deflected a Mahomes cross in OT supposed for Tyreek Hill and Vonn Bell intercepted it on the Bengals’ 45, and right here got here Burrow.
“You simply need to guarantee that the sport is in his fingers in these important moments,” head coach Zac Taylor mentioned.
No second has ever been too large for him, not at LSU the place he gained a nationwide championship, not now following a wondrous comeback from his devastating knee damage.
Comebacks children can come again from something and all the pieces.
Burrow (23-for-38, 250 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) hit Tee Higgins for 9 yards and Higgins once more for 8 on a second-and-8 and Joe Mixon obtained McPherson nearer simply in case.
Taking what was a 4-11-1 Bengals staff a yr in the past again to the Tremendous Bowl appeared akin to baby’s play for Joey Franchise. However shoutouts from Child Cudi and a tweet from LeBron?
“The state of affairs that I’m in socially doesn’t actually really feel actual to me,” Joey Franchise mentioned. “In my head, I’m simply the identical previous man. That half is surreal … the soccer half, not a lot. That stuff is loopy.”
He was carrying a gold JB9 gold chain on the Zoom name. Somebody needed to know whether or not there have been diamonds on it.
“They’re positively actual,” Burrow mentioned. “Make an excessive amount of cash to have pretend ones so … these are actual (chortle).”
There have been different heroes: defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who throttled Mahomes within the second half with a three-man rush; former Big B.J. Hill, together with his interception that led to a discipline objective late within the third quarter; and Evan McPherson, as cold-blooded as Burrow, booting his eleventh consecutive discipline objective, this one from 31 yards.
When Hill positioned him on the Mahomes 27, Burrow tied the sport with a 5-yard TD cross to Ja’Marr Chase and the two-point conversion to Trent Taylor.
He had advised Taylor on Saturday evening that he would rush for 100 yards — he completed with 25 on 5 carries — however 18 of them got here on a pair of scrambles on the go-ahead field-goal drive that adopted an under-thrown interception.
“I kinda knew going into the sport that I used to be gonna need to make some performs with my legs,” Burrow mentioned.
And there was a goal-line stand on the finish of the half when Mahomes obtained grasping first-and-goal from the 1 with 9 seconds left and no want for a discipline objective. And Eli Apple, on second down, denied Hill on a cross behind the road of scrimmage because the clock expired earlier than intermission.
“I believe that was actually the turning level within the recreation,” Burrow mentioned.
Burrow and the Bengals had been hit and hit good within the first half with Mahomes haymakers. It was Chiefs 21, Bengals 3 and the QB rankings appeared like this:
Mahomes: 13-for-14 for 154 yards, 3 TDs and a 152.1 ranking.
Burrow: 6-for-13 for 28 yards and a 53 ranking.
Burrow by no means blinked.
“When the sport’s on the road,” Taylor mentioned, “he’s gonna determine it out.”
Burrow obtained it to 21-10 on the half on Samaje Perine’s 41-yard catch-and-run. He figured it out. Matthew Stafford and the Rams are subsequent.
“I believe should you would have advised me coming into the league after I obtained drafted that we’d be right here this yr, clearly it could be a shock,” Burrow mentioned. “Now it’s not.”
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