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John Harbaugh unhappy with Bengals, Joe Burrow amid Bengals historic passing day

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•12/26/21
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(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The Baltimore Ravens have suffered a ton of season-ending injuries across their roster during the 2021 season. Today, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and his team’s loaded corps of wide receivers took advantage of their depleted secondary and put up historic numbers in a 41-21 beatdown. Burrow took a flamethrower to the Baltimore secondary, torching them to the tune of 525 passing yards–the fourth highest single-game total in NFL history.

After the game, Ravens‘ head coach John Harbaugh was unhappy with the way the Bengals continued to call deep passing plays late in the 4th quarter, after the two-minute warning. “They call their plays, we call our plays,” Harbaugh told reporters.

After the two-minute warning, Cincinnati was leading 41-21 and the result of the game wasn’t in doubt. But Burrow continued to send deep shots down the field in order to become the first 500-yard passer in Bengals’ franchise history. He connected on a 52-yard bomb to his running back Joe Mixon to clear the 500-yard passing mark and etch his name in Cincinnati Bengals’ history.

ProFootballTalk wrote on Twitter: “John Harbaugh seemed unhappy with Zac Taylor for dialing up passes once the game was no longer in dispute.” Maybe Taylor wanted to improve Burrow’s stats. Maybe he wanted to rub it in the face of his rival head coach. Today’s performance quite frankly wasn’t much of a surprise. The Ravens’ secondary is full of backups and third stringers. Joe Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League.

When you combine that with the fact that Burrow torched the Ravens for 416 passing yards in Week 7, let’s just say the former LSU product was keyed up for a big day today. Keep in mind during Week 7, the Ravens still had their best corner, Marlon Humphrey. They didn’t have him out there on Sunday.

Humphrey suffered a season-ending pectoral injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers a few weeks ago on Dec. 5. He was the third starter in their secondary to suffer a season-ending injury this season, joining Marcus Peters and DeShon Elliott.

The backups in Baltimore’s secondary could find no answer for Cincinnati receiver Tee Higgins, who had a career day himself, hauling in 12 catches for 194 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He had an incredible catch deep down the field where he mossed two Ravens’ defenders.

Former LSU standout Ja’Marr Chase also had a big day, too, snagging seven catches for 125 receiving yards. Chase was recently one of four rookies to get selected to the 2022 Pro Bowl.

More historic numbers for Burrow

Joe Burrow accomplished even more history today. He became the first player in NFL history with two 400-yard passing games against a single opponent in the same season. Today against the Ravens, he completed 37 of his 46 pass attempts (80.4%) for 525 passing yards, while tossing in four touchdown passes and no interceptions.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh can complain all he wants, but it’s not going to solve the fact that he’s going to have to deal with Burrow and the high-octane Cincinnati passing attack multiple times each season for several years to come.