Fourteen months in the past, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was in Los Angeles to get reconstructive surgical procedure on his left knee. Now, he returns as a Tremendous Bowl quarterback.
Burrow has made a exceptional restoration from the knee damage that ended his rookie season after 10 video games. He has come again and gotten an increasing number of comfy on the knee, one thing that was clear within the Bengals’ win over the Chiefs within the AFC Championship sport. He confirmed his skill to increase performs and scramble in that sport. Burrow ran 5 instances for 25 yards and ran for 4 first downs.
“It’s night time and day from the primary half of the season,” Burrow stated. “I wasn’t actually in a position to do any of that the primary half. I’ve actually began to come back into my very own in that sense, making performs, extending performs. That’s one thing I’ve at all times been in a position to do, and I’m beginning to lastly really feel like myself and in a position to pull out of a few of these tackles when defensive gamers have me wrapped up within the pocket, and I’m beginning to have the ability to get out of these conditions and make some performs.”
As Burrow has gotten extra comfy, it has added one other dimension to the Bengals’ offense. He led the league with 10.7 yards per try when extending performs and had six landing passes thrown on the run, per NFL NextGen stats.
“I believe it bought extra comfy nearer to the bye and we began to say, ‘OK, he appears to be like like he’s again 100%,’ ” Bengals coach Zac Taylor stated. “It’s arduous to ever guess how far alongside he’s, however we may see his confidence rising and his motion expertise and definitely this again half of the season he appears to be like just like the man that performed for us final yr pre-injury.”
The return to Los Angeles is an fascinating footnote to Tremendous Bowl LVI for Burrow. Rams staff doctor Neal ElAttrache was Burrow’s surgeon 14 months in the past. Now, he will likely be on the opposite sideline.
ElAttrache could also be watching Burrow run on the Rams with that surgically repaired knee.
“His skill to increase performs, go off-script, do something that entails shifting the pocket and shifting the landmarks for the receivers and let these guys go create has generated a variety of explosive performs and first downs over the course of the yr,” Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan stated. “He’s bought an awesome pure really feel for shifting the pocket. It’s an enormous a part of enjoying quarterback within the NFL as of late. Guys have to have the ability to do this. He does it nearly as good as anyone else.”
