Paycor Stadium seemed to be in regular-season form Saturday night with a big, buzzing crowd rewarded by a Joe Burrow touchdown pass on the Bengals' first possession of the season.
Welcome to the league, rookie right tackle Amarius Mims, starting his first NFL game.
"I walked out there, man, I could definitely feel the energy. This is real life," Mims said after he helped keep Burrow clean in the 12-play march. "I knew the Cincinnati fans were great. I didn't expect that many people for a preseason game. They packed it out."
They got their wish. The touchdown drive was a 6:26 tutorial on why Burrow was the hottest quarterback in the game when he went down with a season-ending wrist injury last Nov. 16 in Baltimore.
Memo received.
Burrow and head coach Zac Taylor's first offense looked just fine as he hit five of seven passes for 51 yards, the last a 10-yard touchdown flip to Tee Higgins that may be good enough to last until the Sept. 8 opener.
In those dozen plays it seemed as if Taylor were able to run many of his formations and personnel groups with his new slot receivers and running back. With Zach Moss sidelined by illness, Chase Brown got the call as the back.
Taylor got a 23-yard catch from Andrei Iosivas in the slot running away from the safety across the field on third-and-five. He got six- and five-yard runs inside from running back Chase Brown behind tight end/fullback Drew Sample. He saw Brown step across the formation and pick up a blitz on the touchdown catch. He motioned new tight end Mike Gesicki from outside to inside and back again.
"There's a mixture of things. We had some runs and different types of things mixed in. Ultimately we wanted to protect (Burrow) of course," Taylor said. "We didn't want to put him in harm's way and do too much drop back. I thought we did a good job getting everybody involved, so everyone was able to kind of touch the ball on that first drive and get in the end zone, and get those guys out of the game."
Burrow didn't come in with a checklist. But he got the ball to three different receivers, and the touchdown checked a box.
"It was nice to score that touchdown. Had a little help, but it was a nice start," he said.
The help came in the form of a pass interference call against Higgins on third-and-17. But Burrow made them pay.
And his two incompletions each had asterisks. One was a safety blitz Burrow had to eat and the other was a 58-yard laser to Higgins on a deep route head coach Zac Taylor could rewind back to Higgins' 2021 Paycor 52-yarder against Baltimore.
Burrow rolled to his right and threw a dime back to Higgins doubled covered and he still had his hands on it as he fell back into the end zone. But safety Kaevon Merriweather knocked it out at the last instant. The fact that Burrow felt good enough to throw it into double coverage had Taylor pumped.
"Really, how different is it from than the catch (Higgins) made against the Ravens in 2021 here? We've seen him make that play, so when the quarterback sees one of our guys in that position, put the ball up and let them go get it, which is what he did," Taylor said. "I think their DB did a good job just getting their hand through there to knock it down. I expect our guys to throw that ball a hundred out of a hundred times, and more times than not our guys will make it. I thought their DB did a good job getting it out."
Burrow had no qualms.
"I put it where I wanted to. I had another option in my head of where else I could have put it," Burrow said. "I don't know, he made a good play."
After playing in the first preseason opener of his five NFL seasons, Burrow liked the feel. No adrenaline rush like there'll be here against the Patriots in four weeks in the opener.
But …
"It's always nice to get the feeling of a real game out there," Burrow said. "Go through your pregame routine, pregame warmups, run out with the team, be in front of fans. It was a nice start."
He's not sure, though, that he's one and done and just waiting to see which quarterback New England starts against him.
"That's a Zac question there. He'll make that decision. We'll see where that goes," Burrow said.
