How Concerned Should We Be About Joe Burrow and the Bengals?

Week 2 of the 2022 NFL season was a massive disappointment for multiple fanbases. The Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders all blew big late leads to put one in the loss column, and the Los Angeles Chargers allowed a few missed plays to stand between them and first place in the AFC West.

However, no team has been a bigger surprise and perhaps a more glaring disappointment than the Cincinnati Bengals.

Cincinnati was the league's biggest surprise last season, too, only for the right reasons. The long-suffering fanbase saw its first playoff victory since the 1990 season and then watched as the Bengals made a run all the way to Super Bowl LVI. And they were far from embarrassed by the eventual champion Los Angeles Rams in the championship game, losing by three.

The Bengals were widely expected to be contenders again in 2022, perhaps even better after revamping an unquestionably a problematic offensive line—and they may still have a championship run in them. Cincinnati resides in the AFC North basement at 0-2, however, with a road trip to the upstart New York Jets (1-1) coming next.

Let's be clear: Last year's team was far from perfect. It ran the ball inconsistently (4.0 yards per carry) and ranked 18th in total defense. It also lost games it should have won—a stunner against the Jets and an inexplicable blowout loss to the Cleveland Browns dropped Cincinnati to 5-4 at midseason. The team still surged late to claim the division crown and push through the postseason.

How concerned should Bengals fans be about the 0-2 start, then? The short answer is very.

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Expectations Could Be a Problem—Execution Already Is

There's a big difference between this year's team and last year's, and it won't be found on the depth chart. The 2021 Bengals carried no expectations early in the year, and opposing defenses had limited tape on rookie wideout Ja'Marr Chase and really, on quarterback Joe Burrow—who played just 10 games as a rookie before he tore his ACL.

No one will take the reigning AFC champions lightly, and the Bengals will get every opponent's best shot in 2022. And they are facing the immense pressure of high expectations.

We've seen it from Super Bowl teams in the past, and yes, the Super Bowl hangover is real. The 2017 New England Patriots are the only team over the last decade to lose the big game and return the following year.

We've seen it over the first two weeks this year, as Cincinnati found ways to lose against the Mitch Trubisky-led Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cooper Rush-led Dallas Cowboys. Both losses were by three points, and the Bengals could easily be sitting at 2-0 instead of 0-2. They're not, and that's part of the concern.

They are in danger of mirroring the 2015-16 Carolina Panthers. Much like last year's Bengals, the Panthers reached the Super Bowl on the back of a phenomenal quarterback run (from Cam Newton). Things didn't go so swimmingly after they lost Super Bowl 50, however. Newton struggled (five interceptions in the first three games), and Carolina dropped five of its first six contests.

Championship teams figure out how to win close games, and it seemed that Cincinnati did just that during the postseason. However, the Bengals are making the miscues to lose them this year, as they often did during the 2021 regular season.

Last year, Cincinnati was just 4-4 in games decided by a touchdown or less—not counting the season finale in which most starters rested—and their 10-7 record was buoyed by four blowout wins over the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals have already blown their chance to sweep the Steelers in 2022.

In the opener, the Bengals faced a Steelers team that was ready for them. The Pittsburgh defense forced Burrow into five turnovers, while the Trubisky-led offense did just enough to squeak out an overtime victory.

The Week 1 loss was easy to dismiss, though. Pass-rusher T.J. Watt lived in the Bengals backfield before he exited the game with a torn pectoral. That stunk, but Cincinnati trotted out four new starters—La'el Collins, Alex Cappa, Ted Karras and rookie Cordell Volson—along the offensive line.

Burrow didn't play in the preseason while recovering from an appendectomy. The line, and the offense, were always going to take time to jell.

The Bengals rallied in the second half but then lost after losing long snapper Clark Harris to a torn biceps. The special teams execution was off with replacement Mitchell Wilcox in the lineup, and kicker Evan McPherson had a potential game-winning extra point blocked at the end of regulation and missed an overtime field-goal attempt.

Long snappers are usually overlooked until they're not in the game anymore.

"You're just hoping and praying a disaster doesn't happen," former NFL special teams coach Kevin Spencer told Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Disaster did happen in Cincinnati, and the Bengals couldn't find a way to overcome it. If you want to dismiss that loss as bad fortune, go ahead, but great teams figure out how to meet long odds head-on.

Another slow start plagued the Bengals in Week 2, as they mustered a mere three points in the opening half against the Cowboys. The Bengals also allowed Dallas to rack up 337 yards of offense and let Rush engineer a game-winning field-goal drive with less than a minute remaining.

With all due respect to Rush, a playoff-caliber defense doesn't let a backup beat it in that scenario—not with a supporting cast that put up a single field goal with Dak Prescott under center the previous week. And if you want to argue that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a championship-caliber defense and simply shut down Dallas, fine. That only further suggests that Cincinnati doesn't.

Optimists may point out that Cincinnati can get right back on track with a win over the Jets, and that's true. The Jets are one of the easier opponents—on paper, at least—on a schedule that is the third-toughest in the league in terms of 2021 winning percentage (.536).

If you think that New York, fresh off a miracle comeback win over the Browns, will lack confidence or a plan for the defending conference champs, you're mistaken. If the Bengals don't play to perfection, they could easily be sitting at 0-3.

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It's More Than Mistakes Costing Cincinnati

Miscues have certainly hurt the Bengals through the first two weeks. There was the kicking debacle against Pittsburgh and seven penalties against Dallas. However, Cincinnati's struggles go beyond a few miscues.

It's not injuries either. Aside from the Harris setback, the Bengals have been fortunate in the injury department.

Bigger concerns reside on defense and in pass protection. Defensively, Cincinnati has struggled to force turnovers. It has one after forcing an average of 1.2 per game in 2021. The pass rush has also been lacking, with only two sacks.

Cincinnati averaged roughly 2.5 sacks per game in 2021.

Offensively, sacks are still a problem. Despite the additions to the O-line, Burrow has been sacked a league-high 13 times. This brings us to what should be the biggest concern of all. Many of the Bengals' problems through the first two weeks have been caused by Burrow, who is supposed to be Cincinnati's best player.

He does a lot of elite things. He can be incredibly accurate, he can throw on the run and he's athletic enough to gash a defense with his legs. However, Burrow still has a tendency to hold the ball too long and take unnecessary sacks.

At this rate, he is on pace to be sacked 111 times in 2022. The NFL record (dating back to 1970) is the 76 taken by David Carr in 2002.

It's entirely unfair to place all of the blame on the new-look offensive line.

The reality is that Burrow's line has been better than last year's unit. According to Pro Football Reference, he was under pressure on 24.5 percent of his dropbacks in 2021. Through two games—which is admittedly a small sample size—he's been under pressure on only 18.2 percent of his dropbacks.

Per Pro Football Focus, left tackle Jonah Williams has allowed three sacks. Volson has also surrendered two sacks. Collins has been saddled with one sack allowed, as has Cappa. PFF hasn't pinned a sack on Karras.

That accounts for seven of Burrow's 13 sacks. The others are largely on Burrow, who appears to be struggling with pocket presence and perhaps identifying pressure and adjusting protection pre-snap.

To make matters worse, he has been careless with the football. We saw him forcing throws against the Steelers, and he's fumbled three times already—though he's been fortunate to lose only one of them.

While it may seem counterintuitive when talking about a quarterback who seemed to join the ranks of the elite in 2021, Burrow needs to rein things in a bit. He has to look for easier completions, get the ball out quicker and stop holding on for the big play as often.

Burrow's confidence is part of what has made him successful, but it can't lead to carelessness. Turnovers are game-enders, and the more hits he takes, the more likely it is that the Bengals turn into the 2019-20 San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers lost Super Bowl LIV and then lost quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a torn ACL six games into the 2020 season.

And if Burrow won't play smarter football, Zac Taylor and the Bengals coaching staff need to force him to do so. Cincinnati has a talented roster, but it will take another late-season spark by Burrow to get this team back to the postseason. What we've seen from him over the first two weeks won't cut it.

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It's Not Time to Panic...Yet

The Bengals definitely have reasons to be concerned about their performances over the first two weeks. However, it's not time to go into full panic mode just yet. We're two games into the season, and the AFC North remains wide open—the Steelers, Ravens and Browns are all 1-1.

Cincinnati needs only to look to last year's AFC Championship Game opponent for hope. The Kansas City Chiefs lost Super Bowl LV and then started off the 2021 season with some of the same issues the Bengals have.

The Chiefs opened last season with a 2-3 record while surrendering at least 29 points in each of their first five games. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked 14 times and had 11 turnovers in his first seven games. Mahomes, the offensive line and the defense settled in and went on a run, though.

Over the final 10 games, Mahomes had just six more turnovers. The defense finished the year ranked eighth in points allowed. Kansas City won 10 of its final 13 games and earned the conference's No. 2 seed.

Part of Kansas City's turnaround was the team finding chemistry. Part of it was Mahomes being more careful with the football.

The Bengals can be a lot more like the 2021 Chiefs than the 2016 Panthers or 2020 49ers, but it's going to take work. A lot of it starts with Burrow, his protection and his decision-making.

But if he can correct his deficiencies, the defense can start getting a few takeaways and the offense can get running back Joe Mixon (3.0 yards per carry going), Cincinnati can turn things around in a hurry.

Most of the key players from last year's thrilling postseason run are still on the roster, and the Bengals already know they can achieve the unexpected. They just need to start putting it all together and compile some wins, beginning this Sunday against the Jets.