While 2022 is Cincinnati Bengals‘ quarterback Joe Burrow’s third season in the NFL, Sunday marked the first time he’d ever played against the New Orleans Saints. And that came in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where Burrow last played in 2020 when he completed LSU’s perfect season by leading the Tigers to a 42-25 win over Clemson in the CFP National Championship Game. This time around, Burrow again led a tiger-themed team to a win, but it was over the hometown side. And the key moment there started with a botched punt by Saints’ punter Blake Gilliken just outside the final two minutes, with New Orleans leading 26-24:
"Gillikin will want to get a good one off. Short! Horribly short!" A fourth-quarter punt from Saints' punter Blake Gillikin that only netted 29 yards set the Bengals up. pic.twitter.com/kpXXlbJ4Jp
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 16, 2022
That punt was only good for a net gain of 29 yards, giving the Bengals possession on their own 40. And that saw NFL on CBS color analyst Adam Archuleta talking about how easy it would be to get into field goal range. But Burrow didn’t even need that, finding his old LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase (Burrow even wore Chase’s LSU jersey from that championship game into the stadium Sunday) for a 60-yard touchdown strike on first down:
"All they really need to get to the outer limits of field goal position is about 20 yards." Joe Burrow promptly throws 60-yard touchdown pass on first down to Ja'Marr Chase. pic.twitter.com/IJlYXzgYZk
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 16, 2022
After that, a Bengals’ two-point conversion failed, and the Saints got the ball back down by four. But the Cincinnati defense shut them down, giving the Bengals a 30-26 victory. And both Burrow and Chase were big parts of that.
On the day, Burrow completed 28 of 37 passes (75.7 percent) for 300 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions and also ran four times for 25 yards and another touchdown (seen above), while Chase caught a team-high seven passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns. So the two ex-Tigers were pretty good for their current tiger-themed team against the pro team from their college state. And while Burrow has talked about growing up as a Saints’ fan in Ohio, he’s probably happy that his current team got this win Sunday.
[Photo from Cara Owsley/The Cincinnati Enquirer]
