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Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow was brutally honest when speaking about his team after Sunday’s 41-38 overtime loss to the rival Baltimore Ravens dropped Cincinnati to 1-4 on the season.

“We’re not a championship-level team right now,” Burrow said. “We’re not. I like to think that we’ll come back and improve throughout the season to get to that point, but right now we are not and we have to get better.”

Burrow certainly did his part on Sunday.

He completed 30 of 39 passes for 392 yards and a career-high five touchdown passes in a duel with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was 26-of-42 passing for 348 yards and four TDs. Jackson also rushed for 55 yards on 12 carries.

Burrow’s lone interception and mistake came with 3:01 left in regulation. Cincinnati was leading 38-35 when his pass on second-and-15 from the Ravens 33 was picked off by Marlon Humphrey, and Baltimore turned the mistake into Justin Tucker’s game-tying 56-yard field goal.

“I know exactly how we are 1-4,” Burrow said. “We’re not making plays at the end of the game to go and win it. Definitely not in disbelief. I know exactly what’s happening.”

Cincinnati missed out on the postseason in 2023 after losing in the AFC Championship Game a year prior. It also fell in the Super Bowl to cap the 2021 campaign.

–Field Level Media