“Wake the Fu*k Up”: Mic’d Up Joe Burrow Lashed Out at His O-Line Mid-Game for Constant Errors

If the Cincinnati Bengals had won a few more games last year, Joe Burrow would have been a shoo-in to win his first MVP. Burrow led the league in passing yards and TDs while his top wideout, Ja’Marr Chase, won the receiving triple crown, becoming just the fifth player since the 1970 merger to do so. And yet, they finished 9-8, and had no postseason for the second straight year.

Why? Well, their defense was awful, for one. But another big reason for the team’s shortcomings every year has been their offensive line. Since entering the league in 2020, Burrow has been sacked 196 times, second-most despite the fact that he’s played fewer games than all but three others in the top 12.

Burrow has been top 10 in sacks in four of his five NFL seasons, including his rookie year (when he played just 10 games), and this past season, when his 48 sacks were good for fourth-most. With all the mistakes and errors being made in front of him, it can be frustrating for an elite talent like Burrow.

And that frustration came through during his Week 15 mic’d up moments for the Netflix show Quarterback.

“What in the f*ck are we doing man! Wake the f*ck up! F*cking mental mistakes all f*cking day. … Embarrassing performance by us, f*cking embarrassing. … F*ck that, f*ck that. We sucked today. That was embarrassing. We jumped offsides f*cking eight times,” Burrow can be heard saying.

In the clip, Burrow is absolutely fuming as he walks off to the sideline after another penalty committed by his offensive line. Despite the fact that the Bengals beat the hapless Tennessee Titans 37-27, Burrow is none too pleased when head coach Zac Jackson comes to him with praise at the end of the game.

When Jackson says they should enjoy the wins even with the mistakes, Burrow says “f*ck that.” Clearly, he has high expectations for himself, his team, and his teammates. While the former LSU Tiger was undoubtedly frustrated about his two interceptions, the Bengals did rack up a whopping 14 penalties for 113 yards in that game.

And, as we pointed out, penalties are far from the offensive line’s biggest issue. Burrow’s 196 sacks rank eighth all-time for a QB in his first five years. His 2.22 average time in the pocket across his career so far is also the second-fewest in the league during that span. His six games of 6+ sacks are the most since 2020, and his 38 games with 3+ sacks rank second.

Burrow still has a subpar offensive line in Cincinnati

Arguably, the best stats we have for offensive linemen are the ones compiled by Pro Football Focus. In Burrow’s five years in the league, Cincinnati’s pass-blocking unit grade has ranked 27th, 29th, 31st, 22nd, and most recently 29th in 2024. Apart from center Ted Karras (who will return in 2025), the group was a no-holds-barred mess last year.

At the all-important left tackle spot, a combination of the expensive Orlando Brown Jr. and utility lineman Cody Ford gave up eight sacks. Ford was one of the worst-rated tackles in the league last year. Brown disappointed for the third straight season since signing his big deal to join Cincy in 2023. He was a Pro Bowler every year from 2019 to 2022 prior to arriving. Make of that what you will.

At right tackle, 2024 first-round pick Amarius Mims struggled as a rookie. He gave up four sacks and finished in the bottom 25 percent for PFF’s pass-blocking grade among tackles. He’s still young, so they will hope he can develop.

The interior protectors on either side of Karras were the real issue last year, however. Right guard Alex Cappa gave up eight sacks, second-most among guards, and finished with a 39.7 pass-blocking grade, which ranked 73rd out of 80 qualifying guards. On the left, Cordell Volson wasn’t much better. He finished with a 48.8 grade (68th) and gave up six sacks (t-8th-most).

Unfortunately, almost all of them are back and expected to start, except Karras. But guess who will be replacing Karras at right guard? Cody Ford. With all of the draft capital and salary cap space they had, all they did was use two late-round picks on guards while spending $2.1 million on a veteran at the position in Lucas Patrick.

Meanwhile, they spent nearly $300 million on two receivers who had excellent seasons last year along with Burrow. This is somewhat Burrow’s fault, as he pushed for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to both get big contracts.

They’ve had this excellent trio of QB-WR-WR paired with an awful o-line for several years now, and they have not been able to get over the hump. But here they go again with the same strategy of roster construction in 2025.

What’s that saying about repeating the same action and expecting a different result?