Two things can be true. The Cincinnati Bengals are having a disastrous year that will likely end with the team missing the playoffs, even though Joe Burrow is having an MVP-caliber year.
But making room for that nuance would be pretty lame television, so instead we get First Take segments like the one on Monday morning that pit Dan Orlovsky against Shannon Sharpe in an argument for the ages.
As the desk tried to find an answer to the question of how much of the Bengals' 44-38 loss on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Steelers is on Burrow, Sharpe and Orlovsky weren't just on different pages—they were reading from entirely different books.
Things did not get off to a good start as 16 seconds in to the clip below, Sharpe asks Orlovsky to "not say Shannon, that's my name, I know my name, they gave me a name tag and everything." And well, it goes on from there.
Do the Bengals' struggles fall on Joe Burrow?@ShannonSharpe and @danorlovsky7 debate 🍿 pic.twitter.com/s736MuYGgD
— First Take (@FirstTake) December 2, 2024
Sharpe seems to be grading a person who has thrown for 21 touchdowns and three interceptions in the Bengals' eight losses on a pretty steep curve. Orlovsky pointed this out a few times, as well as the fact that Cincinnati has six losses when they've scored 25 points or more, four when they've scored 33 or more and two with 38 or more. Sharpe retorted by bringing up the fact that Burrow got strip-sacked by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2, and that Marlon Humphrey had a pick-six against the Bengals that changed the game.
He then went for the kill by asking Orlovsky if he remembered when Peyton Manning was putting up big numbers but not winning. Orlovsky did not remember, but Sharpe did, because he was on CBS and said they crushed him for it.
This seems to be a reference to one of the worst playoff losses of Manning’s career, which came in January of 2003 when the Chad Pennington-led New York Jets beat Manning's Colts 41-0. It should be pointed out that Manning took Indianapolis to a 10-6 record that year, and would win back-to-back MVP awards in the following two seasons. It should also be pointed out that Orlovsky was busy playing quarterback for the UConn Huskies, so he wasn't giving out any Manning takes on the air.
One can understand the 2024 version of Orlovsky's frustration here—this is not an argument that anyone is going to win. Burrow is surely partially responsible for the Bengals not having a successful year, but short of him suiting up on defense, it's tough to ask him to do much more for his team—even if he, like every other quarterback, cannot play completely turnover-free football.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Shannon Sharpe Broke Dan Orlovsky's Brain During Heated Joe Burrow Argument.
