Shannon Sharpe appeared to catch the “blame Joe Burrow” bug after the Cincinnati Bengals Monday Night Football loss, and Marcus Spears wasn’t having it.
The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3, Joe Burrow is their quarterback. Those two things are factual. The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3 because Joe Burrow is their quarterback, however, would be a ridiculous statement to make. Not for Chris Canty and Shannon Sharpe.
Canty went on his ESPN Radio show Tuesday morning and claimed “Joe Burrow let his team down” after he played nearly perfect football during Cincinnati’s 38-33 loss to the Washington Commanders Monday night. Dan Orlovsky thought it was a ridiculous take. Stephen A. Smith, Jeff Saturday and Marcus Spears thought it was a ridiculous take. But Canty had a backer in Shannon Sharpe.
Tuesday morning on First Take, Jeff Saturday asked Sharpe a very direct question, “Did Joe Burrow play well last night?”
“He played well, not well enough to win,” Sharpe said definitively, prompting Spears to get up from his chair and walk away from the First Take set.
Either Sharpe didn’t watch the entire game or he’s spent way too much time with Skip Bayless, because this has performative hot take written all over it.
“I’m gonna be honest. I don’t want to live in a world where a quarterback throws for 330 and three touchdowns with no turnovers and we’re gonna say he didn’t do enough to win a football game,” Spears said, responding to Sharpe with clear disappointment. “I don’t want to live in that world in the NFL.”
“I do!” Sharpe interjected. “You live in a world where they make $55 million. Why do they make so much if so much isn’t expected of them?”
Sharpe went on to explain that Burrow essentially needs to put the team on his back and be “Superman,” making sure he matches his opponent on every score.
“WHEN THE HELL IS THREE TOUCHDOWNS FOR 330 NOT SUPERMAN?!” Spears erupted. “Shay, he needed six touchdowns?”
Maybe Sharpe needs to watch more film. Because there’s no way Kurt Warner is watching Burrow’s Monday night performance and waking up Tuesday morning blaming the Bengals’ loss on their quarterback.
Cincinnati never punted or turned the ball over against the Commanders on Monday Night Football. In fact, the only drive they failed to score on was a missed field goal in the first half. And in the second half, Burrow and the Bengals offense scored three touchdowns on their three drives. Burrow can’t do much more than that. He can’t force Washington to give him the ball back.
There are plenty of times where great quarterbacks have great games and great stats, but falter with the ball in their hands in the fourth quarter, but this wasn’t that.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com