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When Joe Burrow was replaced by Jake Browning for the Bengals when the franchise quarterback went out injured with a wrist injury against the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati fans feared the worst.
The gloom further deepened when the starter was ruled out for the season, and they lost the subsequent game to fall down to 5-6. However, against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday Night Football, Jake Browning provided one of the all-time performances from a backup quarterback.
The 34-31 overtime win against the 8-3 team coming into this game led the back to a 0.500 record. Sitting at 6-6, they are now tied with the Denver Broncos and the Buffalo Bills, firmly on the bubble for making the postseason. They are just one game behind the Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.
The current starting quarterback for the Bengals finished with 354 passing yards against the Jaguars. Burrow had an astonishing completion rate of 86.5 percent. He became just the 10th quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw for more than 350 yards and have a completion percentage higher than 85.
Burrow had one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown. He also led the drive that led to the winning walkoff field goal in overtime and had a passer rating of 115.5.
Jake Browning was so good that his numbers were better than Joe Burrow had had this season. The latter did not have a single game above 350 yards.
Therefore, fans were quick to say that perhaps he's a system quarterback and looks good only because of Zac Taylor. One tweeted:
"Joe Burrow is a system QB. I've seen enough"
Here are some of the top reactions on X (formerly called Twitter):
Fans trolling Joe Burrow might try to remember the time before him
Today Jake Browning and Zac Taylor might get the plaudits and rightly so, but without Joe Burrow, the coach returned a 2-14 record in his first season. With the ensuing first pick in the NFL Draft, they got the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner out of LSU.
After he was injured in his first season, they again finished with a losing 4-11-1 record. Since then, Joe Burrow has led them to two AFC Championship games and one Super Bowl appearance, breaking the longest playoff win drought. If there's a system in Cincinnati today, it revolved around him.
