As the Pittsburgh Steelers trudged their way through a rather embarrassing home-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Acrisure Stadium, the three other teams in the AFC North were in action, including two against each other.
The Baltimore Ravens blew out the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. It put an end to some silly, unnecessary bulletin board material from the Browns with a 41-17 beatdown. The Cincinnati Bengals, on the other hand, found a way to win a wild game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31-27.
But the win came at a cost as star quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a potentially serious injury in the win. It could keep him out for multiple weeks.
According to Jeremy Rauch of Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Burrow could miss multiple weeks with turf toe and torn ligaments in his toe. It’s yet another significant injury for Burrow in his career.
He was injured early in the game, but backup Jake Browning came off the bench and led the Bengals to a win.
Burrow led the Bengals to a touchdown on one drive, finding star receiver Ja’Marr Chase for a 4-yard touchdown. But he was later injured on a sack, limped to the locker room, and never returned. In his place, Browning threw for 241 yards and two touchdowns, but he threw three interceptions.
At one point late in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars had more than an 87% chance of winning, according to ESPN’s win probability, but the Bengals rallied.
Mitchell Tinsley hauled in a 13-yard touchdown pass from Browning, and Tee Higgins had a 42-yard touchdown pass from Browning. Eventually, the backup quarterback gave the Bengals the win with a 1-yard QB sneak for the score.
Chase finished the game with 14 receptions for 165 yards and a score. The Bengals improve to 2-0 on the season, but the news about Burrow is not good, and could leave them shorthanded moving forward. Cincinnati is back in action in Week 3 on the road against the Minnesota Vikings.
In Baltimore, the Ravens heard all the trash talk the Browns had, and then proceeded to let their play do the talking to the tune of a 24-point blowout win.
Baltimore jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Lamar Jackson cooked all day with four touchdown passes, finding Devontez Walker for two touchdowns, while adding touchdowns to DeAndre Hopkins and Tylan Wallace. Though the Browns kept Derrick Henry bottled up, Baltimore did whatever it wanted offensively, rolling to the blowout win.
Along with Jackson’s aerial proficiency, rookie kicker Tyler Loop had a strong day, drilling two kicks in the win. Defensively, the Ravens dominated the Browns, picking off Joe Flacco in his first return to Baltimore since his trade in 2019. Nate Wiggins returned the interception 61 yards, setting up another Baltimore score.
The Browns eventually pulled Flacco, giving rookie Dillon Gabriel his first action. He finished 3-for-3 for 19 yards and a touchdown in garbage time. His first NFL touchdown was an 8-yard pass to rookie running back Dylan Sampson.
With the win, Baltimore sits at 1-1 on the season and will host Detroit next Monday. The Browns fall to 0-2 and will host the Green Bay Packers next Sunday.
