The Ravens gave Joe Burrow some fuel last week. The KC Chiefs won’t make that mistake
The NFL is known to be a game of adjustments — whether that means adjusting to your own mistakes or reacting to someone else’s gaffes.
This is an example of the latter.
A week after the Ravens ignited a fire under Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow — by not yet being ready to induct the second-year quarterback into the Hall of Fame, of all things — the Chiefs went drastically in the opposite direction. They compared him to the all-time best.
Here’s the context: NFL defensive coordinators meet with the media once per week, and as he prepared a game plan against Burrow a week ago, Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was asked if he planned to cover the Bengals’ top wide receivers in the same double-team manner by which he’d defended Packers wideout Davante Adams.
After noting that he thought Adams was the best receiver in the league, Martindale also felt it comfortable to point out that, “Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Fame QB. I don’t think we’re ready to buy a gold jacket for Joe.”
In the never-ending search for motivation, the comment trickled into the Bengals’ locker room. And then Burrow promptly threw for a franchise-record 525 yards in Cincinnati’s blowout against an undermanned Ravens secondary.
Oops.
Asked after the game if the Hall of Fame remark had fueled him, Burrow smirked.
“Maybe,” he said.
Well, a copycat league sometimes means learning what not to copy.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo took the exact opposite approach Thursday when facing a question about Burrow, who the Chiefs will see Sunday in a matchup of first-place teams.
“This might sound crazy,” Spagnuolo began. “But I see a young Tom Brady.”
OK, then.
For the record, Spagnuolo wasn’t asked to make any comparison. He just decided on his own to throw out the name of the seven-time Super Bowl champion.
“This guy does everything,” Spagnuolo continued. “He does not look like a second-year quarterback that missed a lot of his first year. Totally impressed with him.”
When talking with his own players, Spagnuolo began Tuesday’s defensive meeting by highlight some of the snaps from last week’s Chiefs win against the Steelers. Then he quickly moved on to the Bengals.
The first name he brought up?
Burrow.
The Bengals’ second-year quarterback is sixth in the NFL with 4,165 yards. He’s seventh with 30 touchdowns. His 8.7 yards per attempt leads the NFL.
“Because I think he’s that good,” Spagnuolo said. “All the weapons we’ve talked about and all that, but you’ve got to have a quarterback that can get it done, and he really does. We’ve got to try to find out some ways to make him uncomfortable.
“Easier said than done.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 3:17 PM with the headline "The Ravens gave Joe Burrow some fuel last week. The KC Chiefs won’t make that mistake."