What Burrow & the Bengals Showed with Their 35-Point 2nd Half vs Ravens in Wk 7

You very rarely see a team trail 13-0 at halftime and win 35-13. The Cincinnati Bengals did exactly that in Baltimore on Sunday, and Rich thinks it showed who they are.

The second half was a 35-0 avalanche, and it exposed a strange split in the Ravens' season. Rich noted Baltimore is plus-65 in the first half of games this year and minus-70 in the second half, with half of that deficit coming from this one game.

Joe Burrow threw four touchdown passes for the 11th time in his career, which Rich said is tied for the second most in the NFL since Burrow entered the league in 2020. Aaron Rodgers leads that category this decade with 13.

Tee Higgins was the other story. He finished with six catches for 148 yards and a touchdown, all of it in the second half after getting just one target in the first. Rich framed that as Burrow's ongoing conundrum, keeping all of his weapons fed, and said the same goes for the play calling.

Burrow's postgame message was clear. "We know who we are. We know who we have to be," he said. "We let our big-time players go and make big-time plays. We have too many great players on offense to be conservative in that spot." He credited the coaching staff "for letting us go and do it and giving us the freedom to go and make those plays," before adding, "I think that's who we have to be."

Rich heard a little something extra in that answer. "That was a little sour and sweet, right?" he said. Let's not be conservative, but credit to the coaches for letting us do it.

Either way, the second half was the version of Cincinnati Rich expected. It is part of the reason he picked the Bengals to win the division, along with a belief that they did enough on defense. That part is holding up too. The Bengals have multiple sacks in all six games this season, the third-longest streak to begin a season in franchise history, behind seven straight in 2012 and eight straight in 1982, back in the Ken Anderson era.

For Baltimore, the problem is finishing. "They got to figure out how to finish strong here," Rich said. Step one is getting Lamar Jackson back on the field, and soon, because Buffalo is next. Otherwise, Rich said, the Ravens are looking like a .500 team. "And in this division, that ain't good."