Steelers shut down prized Bengals rookie QB Joe Burrow, who said ‘I (stunk) a lot’
Joe Burrow is no ordinary rookie quarterback, but the Pittsburgh Steelers sure treated him like one in a 36-10 victory Sunday.
The Cincinnati Bengals took Burrow with the No. 1 overall pick this past spring after he won the Heisman Trophy in leading LSU to the national title, and, halfway through his first season, Burrow came into Sunday’s game on pace for 4,544 yards in 2020.
Against the Steelers, though, Burrow barely completed half of his 40 passes, and he managed just 5.3 yards per attempt.
Burrow isn’t the first highly-regarded young quarterback the Steelers have made look bad, but that was of little comfort to him after.
“We’re in that game if I don’t (stink) in the second half,” Burrow said, “and I don’t (stink) a lot.”
In the second half, Burrow was 5 for 15 for 24 yards.
Including a win against the Cleveland Browns’ Baker Mayfield last month, the Steelers have extended their winning streak against QBs drafted No. 1 overall to 14 games.
“I think it’s very important to welcome quarterbacks in the AFC North the appropriate way,” defensive co-captain T.J. Watt said. “We know what Joe Burrow is: their franchise quarterback. And we’re just trying to let him know what to expect when he comes to Pittsburgh.”
The Steelers are 25-4 against rookie quarterbacks since 2004.
Coach Mike Tomlin downplayed that statistic — “I’d imagine that everybody’s record is generally pretty good versus rookie quarterbacks,” he said — but veteran cornerback Joe Haden was asked if sending a message to Burrow was part of the Steelers defense’s mindset.
“One-thousand percent,” Haden said.
“It was more of a respect factor, too. Joe Burrow is a great young quarterback, and we know he is going to be in the division for a very long time, so we kind of wanted to set the tone with him. We didn’t want him to think he was just going to be playing Pittsburgh and throwing it wherever he wanted, running around …
“We just wanted to make sure we put pressure on him and never let him get comfortable to know he’s going to be playing against us for a long time.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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