Joe Burrow comments on knee injury suffered during final drive

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow commented after the game on the status of his knee, after he injured it on the final drive of the game. Shortly after the game, Burrow told CBS Sports’ Tracy Wolfson that the injury wasn’t serious.

Joe Burrow injures knee late against Chiefs

“Asked Burrow about his knee, said ‘he’ll be fine,'” reported Wolfson after the game.

While it wasn’t clear initially what happened specifically to Burrow, after the play that injured him he sat on the field for a moment holding onto his leg. The Bengals opted not to take a chance on anything serious and pulled him out of the game for their final play, a kneel-down to set up a field goal.

The Bengals’ big win pushed Cincinnati into the third seed if the AFC playoffs began today, and put them within striking distance of passing Kansas City next week. However, the health of Burrow will be of major concern for the Bengals as they prepare their playoff campaign.

If Burrow isn’t fully healthy going into next week, the Bengals may have to decide if it’s worth risking him for the final game of the regular season.

Burrow went into further detail after the game on why he didn’t return for the final play.

“It’s good enough,” said Burrow via The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. “Sore after Chargers game. Nothing serious. Would have come back in, knew [we would] just knee it and then clock it. Let Brandon [Allen] do it.”

Zac Taylor takes fourth-down risk

Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor made the decision to go for a touchdown on fourth-and-one with the game tied and 50 seconds remaining in the game. Concerned that kicking a field goal would leave too much time on the clock for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, they went for the big play. On their first fourth-down attempt, the play was ruled “no play” by offsetting penalties.

With a second attempt, they tried again and got another Chiefs penalty to extend the drive. The cost they paid for their attempt was the injury to Burrow. The Bengals then took a knee with Burrow out of the game and opted to just kick a field goal, holding onto the lead afterwards and beating the Chiefs 34-31.