Can Joe Burrow Still Lead the 4-8 Bengals To Win AFC North?

Joe Burrow hasn’t lost a game this season, but the problem is he simply hasn’t played most of it. His Grade 3 turf toe surgery in September forced him out for nine straight weeks, burying the Bengals in a hole that dug deeper every Sunday until Joe Flacco came to their rescue.

But on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore, Cincinnati’s talisman finally returned and somehow, after nearly three months away, Burrow looked startlingly close to himself again.

He threw 46 passes, 32 in the first half alone, the second-most of his career before halftime, and finished with 261 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-14 dismantling of the Ravens.

Yes, there were early misses, and yes, he did admit rust. But by the second half, his rhythm returned, and suddenly Cincinnati looked like a team that had just gotten its heartbeat plugged back in.

“There’s a lot that has gone into this, I’m proud to be back,” Burrow said afterward. And inside the locker room, the sentiments were even more blunt. “That’s who he is… I can’t say enough about No. 9,” center Ted Karras said.

So now the question that’s in everybody’s mind is: Can Joe Burrow still lead the 4-8 Bengals to win the AFC North?

And if NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho is to be believed, the answer is yes. In fact, he believes the math is shockingly straightforward.

“9-8 will win the AFC North,” Acho wrote on X while laying out the exact roadmap Cincinnati needs. “So here’s how the Bengals make the playoffs — Bengals win out and finish 9-8. Winning out implies Ravens have 7 losses, so how do Ravens get to 8? Lose to either Packers/Patriots. Steelers need 3 more losses: Ravens (play them 2x)/Lions/Bills.”

In other words, the door is wide open for Joe Burrow, provided he and his teammates run the table. Winning out would push the Bengals to 9-8, plus beating the Ravens again would hand Baltimore its seventh loss.

All Cincinnati would then need after that is for either Green Bay or New England to hand the Ravens one more defeat. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh, currently 6-5, must add three more losses to its column. Between two games against Baltimore, plus the Lions and Bills still ahead, expecting Mike Tomlin & Co. to slip up amid Aaron Rodgers’ injury issues is hardly far-fetched.

But once again, all of this only matters if Cincinnati holds up its end of the bargain. And that begins immediately.

Up next, they face the Buffalo Bills, a defense still mean even as the offense sputters. Then a rematch with Baltimore, followed by three deceptively tricky games — a Dolphins, currently on the up under HC Mike McDaniel, a Cardinals team with nothing to lose, and the Browns, led by sack machine Myles Garrett and rookie QB Shedeur Sanders.

Make no mistake, winning all five is certainly a herculean ask for a team that was 4-8 just days ago. But if there is one quarterback in the NFL with whom you can trust for this job, it’s Joe Burrow.

Safe to say, interesting times are ahead in Cincinnati.