Bengals update status of Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins ahead of Chiefs showdown

After the Cincinnati Bengals punched their ticket to the AFC Championship last week, quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Tee Higgins ended up on the injury report. Not to worry, though — they’re fine.

Burrow was a full participant in practice on Wednesday ahead of the showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday despite dealing with a knee injury. He was also on the injury report prior to Cincinnati’s Wild Card victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.

Higgins, meanwhile, hurt his thumb in last week’s win over the Tennessee Titans. But he also practiced in full on Wednesday, which is a great sign. That means Burrow will likely have Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase in his arsenal against Kansas City on Sunday.

The Bengals are coming off a thrilling win over the Titans thanks to a walk-off field goal by Evan McPherson. It sent Cincinnati to its first AFC Championship since 1988 when Boomer Esiason was under center.

Kickoff between the Bengals and the Chiefs is coming up Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on CBS.

Joe Burrow shares message from Evan McPherson moments before Bengals game-winning kick

Cincinnati Bengals rookie kicker Evan McPherson was the hero on Saturday night in the Divisional Round matchup against the AFC’s top seeded Tennessee Titans. McPherson stepped up as time expired, drilling a 52-yard field goal to secure the win for the Bengals. Prior to the kick, McPherson certainly wasn’t lacking confidence.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said after the game that McPherson had a simple message as he stepped up for the kick. He already knew that it was going in.

“That guy is unbelievable,” Burrow said, via Pro Football Talk. “He was talking to Brandon [Allen] as he was going out to kick, and he gave a little warmup swing and he said, ‘Ah, it looks like we’re going to the AFC Championship,’ right before he went out there and kicked it. We knew exactly what we had as soon as he walked into the building in camp and we just saw how he carried himself.

“You know exactly how a kicker is going to perform when obviously everyone at this level can kick through the uprights, but it’s how you handle yourself in the locker room that shows us that you have the confidence to go out there and make a kick like this and perform the way he did in a game like this. We knew exactly what kind of guy we had in camp.”