Joe Burrow's Touchdown Pass to Andrei Iosivas vs. the Ravens was Quarterbacking at its Finest

Joe Burrow returned to the field on Thanksgiving for the first time in 11 weeks and led the Bengals to a key road division win over the Ravens.

It wasn’t perfect by any means, and it took him a couple of quarters to truly get into a groove. But his ability to manage the game and be in absolute command at the line of scrimmage proved to be a difference maker.

No play was a better representation of what the Bengals have been missing than Burrow’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Andrei Iosivas at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Baltimore had just scored a touchdown to cut Cincy’s lead to 19-14. They faced a 3rd-and-9 from the Ravens’ 29-yard line. They absolutely needed a conversion.

Pre-snap, the Bengals sent running back Samaje Perine to the perimeter to try to get some kind of indicator of what the coverage might be. The Ravens left cornerback Chidobe Awuzie over him, an indicator that this was zone:

Burrow noted the coverage and saw the 7 Ravens defenders hovering near the line of scrimmage. Given the situation and defensive look, a blitz was likely. He brought Perine back in and moved his tight end up just behind the center in the left A-gap to account for it. The Bengals were keeping 7 in to protect:

The route concept the Bengals had called here was “Dagger” with just 3 receivers running routes:

Since the route concept was to the offense’s right, that meant Burrow’s eyes would go to the right at the snap as well.

In an ideal world, a quarterback does not want to have to peak in one direction and then get his eyes back to the other side in order to decipher the coverage and work through his progressions. That adds time and can be hard to do. So Burrow set the protection so that he was completely secure to his left:

But after Burrow set the protection, you can see the Ravens communicating and adjusting their blitz. The slot cornerback to the right, Marlon Humphrey, crept inside as an 8th potential rusher: