There are a lot of big storylines going into the NFL’s Turkey Day Tripleheader this year. Joe Burrow’s return to the lineup might be the single biggest one. But will Burrow have the kind of impact many are expecting of him right out of the gate?
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It’s tough to say. The Cincinnati Bengals (3-8) QB has had to knock off some rust when coming back from injuries before. But this one feels different. He’s been on the shelf for 11 weeks, and he had surgery to repair his turf toe. That means, unlike someone like Brock Purdy, Burrow has no pain to manage.
However, some analysts don’t believe Burrow will be playing at 100 percent capacity on Thursday night. NBC’s Chris Simms counts himself as one of those. He believes that after 11 weeks out with injury and having “only practiced a few days”, Burrow won’t be up to snuff against the division-leading Ravens (6-5) in Baltimore.
“I just can’t buy into that. I mean, Joe Burrow, he might be capable of proving me wrong. But I’ve seen that very rarely, in my football lifetime. Where somebody misses 11 weeks, and they come back and go, ‘Hey, we’re playing one of the best defenses in football over the last six or seven weeks, I’m gonna just dice them apart, and I don’t have one of my best receivers in Tee Higgins.’ I just don’t see that happening.”
The absence of Higgins will hurt, but the return of a re-energized Ja’Marr Chase following his embarrassing suspension offsets that somewhat. Cincy’s offense is very talented, but Simms thinks the banged-up Ravens defense has been playing top-level ball over the last few weeks and will be able to stymie their division rivals.
“I think Baltimore’s defense has played really well as of late. You can’t run the ball on them. They don’t give a lot of big plays in the pass game right now. So I love that aspect.”
Baltimore’s overall numbers on defense this season don’t look great. They’ve suffered a ton of major injuries. But they’ve been coming together a bit in recent weeks. Over the last five games, Baltimore has allowed just 13.4 points per game, best in the league. Their 97.4 rushing yards allowed per contest during that time also ranks eighth.
Whether it’s Joe Burrow’s return that revitalizes the Bengals or the rejuvenated defense of the Ravens that wins the day, we’re likely to get an exciting game: five of the last seven matchups between these two teams have finished a one-score game. Both Burrow vs. Lamar Jackson matchups last season were instant classics.
