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          Bengals coach Zac Taylor: Joe Burrow showed control of offense

          • Ben Baby, ESPN Staff WriterAug 21, 2020, 06:28 PM
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              Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN's NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
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          CINCINNATI -- The Bengals conducted their first scrimmage of the preseason and rookie quarterback Joe Burrow showed control of the offense, coach Zac Taylor said Friday.

          During his first two drives, Burrow had only one incompletion and threw a couple of touchdowns as he continued the process of getting ready for the season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 13.

          "He did a nice job communicating and had some nice drives for us," Taylor said in a teleconference afterward.

          Burrow was 9-of-10 passing for 101 yards and two touchdowns in his first two drives. According to the pool report, Burrow finished the day with 13-of-19 passing for two touchdowns, including the team's situational drills.

          Even with top wide receivers A.J. Green (hamstring) and John Ross (reserve/COVID-19 list) out, Burrow had no problems finding his rhythm early.

          On the first drive of the scrimmage, Burrow completed all six of his passes, including a 6-yard touchdown throw to wide receiver Auden Tate in the back-left corner of the end zone. Burrow completed two more passes on the next drive as the offense again moved inside the 6-yard line.

          The streak of consecutive throws ended at eight after a pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah sailed over his head.

          "Other than that, I thought he led the offense," Taylor said.

          Burrow ended the drive with a 7-yard throw to Tate, who tallied six catches for 67 yards and two scores in the two opening drives.

          Burrow's low point was arguably a deep ball that hung in the air long enough for a defender to get under it and force an incompletion. Taylor said he needed to watch the tape to get a better understanding of what happened on the play.

          But if Burrow appeared to have a promising first scrimmage, Taylor said Friday's outing wasn't about learning something new about the projected Week 1 starter.

          "I wanted to see guys hit and compete and get guys on the ground and break tackles -- when the juices are ramped up, to see how our team responds to that," Taylor said. "I just thought overall that it was a good start for our guys."