Joe Burrow and the Bengals have been haunted by the Cleveland Browns since Burrow has entered the league. The nightmare needs to stop if the Bengals have higher aspirations this season beyond a high draft pick. Sitting at 2-4, a date with the 1-5 Browns could be Burrow’s first win in Cleveland. But it won’t come easy. History and Myles Garrett, who has nine sacks against Burrow, are not on the Bengals side.

2020

Joe Burrow’s first game against in Cleveland is by far his best showing vs the Browns to this day. In just his second career start, Burrow impressively tossed for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns off of a whopping 61 attempts in his primetime debut. In his first ever 300-yard performance, a 35-30 loss is the closest Burrow has gotten to winning in Cleveland. Also, notably this game marked his first ever touchdown pass.

2021

Joe Burrow did not play in Cleveland this season due to the team resting the star quarterback for the playoffs. The Bengals had already clinched the AFC North in week 17 following an upset win vs the Chiefs. Had the Bengals needed Burrow in this game, this very well could have been Burrow’s first and only win in Cleveland thus far.

2022

While Joe Burrow’s first game in Cleveland wasn’t so bad, it did not get better from there. Once again on the primetime stage on Halloween night, the Bengals fell to the Browns in a dominating 32-13 game. Burrow was without his best friend Ja’Marr Chase due to injury. His 232 yards and 2 touchdowns in garbage time helped soften the blow to a terrible night. The Bengals offense was shut down, in large part by Myles Garrett who tallied 1.5 sacks during a 5-sack night for the Cleveland defense.

2023

Week one of the 2023 will likely go down as the worst game of Joe Burrow’s NFL career. Burrow was coming off a calf strain suffered in the offseason. It was unclear if Burrow would or even should play in the opener. His mere 82 yards and 14-31 passing in a rain-soaked Cleveland may have answered that question. The Bengals offense was dominated, only mustering 3 points in the entire game.

2024

Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense has been utterly dominated in their last two trips upstate. That has to change this year. The Bengals are 2-4 and another loss to the Browns this time around would plummet the Bengals to 2-5, making their bid for the playoffs even more distant.

The Browns, at 1-5, have seen better days. Wait–have they? Regardless, the Browns have always given the Bengals a hard time. The Browns just traded away Amari Cooper to the Bills ahead of their week 7 matchup. However, Nick Chubb who has 903 career rushing yards vs the Bengals is set to make his return following a knee injury that kept him out of most of the 2023 season. The Bengals defensive line is getting healthier however as B.J. Hill, Sheldon Rankins, Myles Murphy, and McKinnley Jackson have all returned to the lineup. It is no coincidence the Bengals defense just had their best showing in week 6, only allowing 7 points the whole game.

Cincinnati needs this win badly, the Bengals can’t afford to lose this one. Can Joe Burrow, Zac Taylor, and the Bengals finally get a win in Cleveland for the first time since 2017?