Joe Burrow plays through calf injury, leads Bengals to first win - ESPN

CINCINNATI — One thing mattered most when it came to Joe Burrow playing Monday night: If the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback felt good enough to compete, he wanted to be on the field.

Eight days after he aggravated a strained right calf, Burrow played every offensive snap and helped the Bengals pick up their first win of the season, a 19-16 decision over the Los Angeles Rams.

The Bengals (1-2) were facing their first potential three-game losing streak since Burrow's rookie season in 2020. That was a big factor in Burrow pushing hard to play in the prime-time game despite the calf issue.

«There is risk to go out there and potentially reinjure it,» Burrow said. «But there's also the risk to not go out there and be 0-3. So I wanted to be out there for my guys, and I was confident that I would be able to do what I needed to get the win.»

Burrow was 26-of-49 passing for 259 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Afterward, he acknowledged that he and the offense need to be better. However, their performance was enough on a night when Cincinnati linebacker Logan Wilson had two interceptions and the defense tallied six sacks and held the Rams to one touchdown on four red zone drives.

Burrow said he went through a workout Monday morning and felt good enough to play. He said the criteria was simply not having any setbacks. Once he practiced Friday and Saturday, he said he felt confident in his ability to compete and voiced that sentiment to team personnel.

Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase was vocal throughout the week about Burrow not playing if he wasn't completely healthy, and Chase repeated that opinion before the game.

«I was like, 'You got nuts, boy. I didn't want you to play,'» Chase said. «That just shows that