Joe Burrow receives stunning praise after Bengals’ preseason opener

Eduardo Razo

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Joe Burrow receives stunning praise after Bengals’ preseason opener image

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The first week of the preseason is in the books, and when it comes to the Cincinnati Bengals, the offense looked ready to go with Joe Burrow under center. If Zac Taylor and his team are going to get off to a good start, they need their quarterback firing on all cylinders.

On Monday, while recapping the action over the last few days, ESPN's Dan Orlovsky praised the form that Burrow is showing.

"Flawless," Orlovsky said on "Get Up." "There's no one better in the league right now throwing the football than Joe Burrow. Just absolutely flawless. I know, starters, backups, all that. The ball went exactly where it should on a consistent basis.

"I heard him say he thinks he's throwing it better right now than he has in years. He threw for 10,000 yards last season, so that would be somewhat scary for the rest of the conference."

The Bengals' offense has to be one of the best in the NFL with Burrow having all his targets back from last season, as Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase signed their contract extensions in the summer. Moreover, tight end Mike Gesicki is back, too.

Cincinnati's only question on offense will be whether they can hit the ground running in Week 1, as last year they only scored 10 points in the surprising loss to the New England Patriots.

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Outside of that, the expectation will be to rack up points, but the concern will be whether they can outscore their defense with many question marks. The Bengals found themselves on the losing end of several shootouts because their defense couldn't make a key stop.

It will be interesting to see if Burrow can carry the entire team on his back and score enough points to put a game out of reach because the defense might not even have Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals could repeat what happened last season should they struggle to make stops this campaign.

Eduardo Razo

Eduardo Razo is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He has covered teams for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Bay Area. Eduardo also previously served as an editor at Athlon Sports.