Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and star quarterback Joe Burrow apparently weren’t on the same page after their loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.
After the loss, Taylor was asked about the communication issues that Cincinnati seemingly experienced on offense early in the game against the Cowboys.
Taylor told reporters that he wasn’t happy with the communication — specifically in the first half.
“Not great in the first half,” said Taylor. “Not good enough in the first half I should say…It led to some errors that were difficult when that shouldn’t have happened.”
Burrow had a different tone than Taylor after the game when it came to communication.
“Communication was great today,” said Burrow. “I thought third-down communication was good. Obviously got to eliminate the false starts to get out of first and fifteen. The whole first half felt like we were in first and fifteen, so we’ve got to eliminate that. But, other than that, I thought the communication was good.”
This might just be Burrow not wanting to throw shade at teammates — which is understandable.
But also, something was clearly off early on Sunday against Dallas.
And Burrow, who has shown great leadership, shouldn’t be afraid to call out issues.
That might be the only way it gets fixed.
I think Burrow has the potential to be a Hall of Famer.
He plays the game the right way and he’s an incredible teammate.
But he’s also still a young quarterback and he can improve on some things.
And maybe publicly calling out a teammate or two is what needs to happen right now.
The Bengals are 0-2 and they need to get things turned around quickly.
But they’re not in the danger zone quite yet.
A fiery locker room speech could be what’s needed to get this thing turned around.
That’s not typically how Burrow operates, but he’s going to need to evolve as a leader if he wants to leave his mark on the NFL.
