Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is the MVP favorite. The Steelers already beat him once

The Bengals had just lost in Jacksonville to fall back to even, and Joe Burrow went to the podium with one message. “This isn’t Armageddon,” the Cincinnati quarterback said. Four straight wins later, he is the betting market’s favorite for MVP, and the division rival that has already beaten them once is coming to town on Sunday night.

The coverage of the win in Madrid has led with the numbers, and the numbers are loud. What they skip is the throw. A week earlier, against Tennessee, Burrow had floated a wobbly deep ball toward Ja’Marr Chase, who had beaten his man clean; it was intercepted, and Chase slammed his helmet on the sideline. Five plays into the Madrid game, Burrow went back to the same shot up the same sideline and dropped it in for a touchdown.

“I worked hard on that this week so I don’t miss another one like that,” he said afterwards, according to Bengals On SI. The whole player fits in that sentence: no drama about the miss, no victory lap about the fix. Just the rep, repeated until it holds.

Burrow refuses the panic and the coronation

The Bengals beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-17 at the Bernabéu on November 8. Burrow went 24 of 29 for 271 yards and three touchdown passes, then pushed in a fourth score himself on a quarterback sneak. Cincinnati scored on its first four possessions and five of its first six. At 6-2, it is the franchise’s best start since 2015, the first of Zac Taylor’s tenure.

Burrow’s verdict on all of it? “We didn’t score on every single possession, so you know, always room to improve.” He meant it as a standard, not a joke. It is the same voice that, at two wins and two losses, refused to call it a crisis. The temperament doesn’t swing with the scoreboard, and that is rarer in a quarterback than any stat line.

Taylor sees it from the sideline. “Joe doesn’t force the ball,” the head coach said in Madrid. “He takes the ball where it needs to go based on the looks.” With Chase catching 10 passes for 155 yards on Sunday and Tee Higgins already at 48 catches, 758 yards and six touchdowns through eight games, Burrow has two answers every time a defense picks one.

“We lose that game for the last three years”

The week before Spain told the other half of the story. Against the Titans, Burrow threw for 462 yards and five touchdowns, then scrambled untouched for the overtime winner in a 43-36 game the Bengals trailed 13-0 after one quarter. He also threw three interceptions, and the team turned it over four times. Local 12 reported he became the first player since 1951 with at least 450 passing yards, five touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown in a game. His summary: “a lot of good and a lot of bad.”

Then he said the line that frames this season. “We lose that game for the last three years.” He wasn’t exaggerating. Cincinnati missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons. A freak wrist injury cut short his 2023. In 2024 he led the league in passing yards and touchdowns, set the club’s single-season records with 4,918 yards and 43 touchdown passes, and the Bengals still stayed home. Last year another freak injury took out the middle of his season and the team finished 6-11.

So when Burrow said after Madrid that he wanted “to put on a show” and that “hopefully people took notice,” there was some history under it. The last time he led the NFL in touchdown passes, he finished fourth in the MVP vote. This time he leads the league in total touchdowns, has 23 touchdown passes against six interceptions, and FanDuel had him as the MVP favorite at +210, per Bengals On SI.

The Steelers have already beaten this team

The Pittsburgh Steelers are also 6-2, tied with Cincinnati atop the AFC North, and they own the tiebreaker after beating the Bengals 30-27 in the third week of the season. They come in off a bye. The Bengals come in off a transatlantic flight and a division game the week after an international trip.

“They’ve already gotten us once this year, so we got to handle this flight back the right way,” Taylor said. “We got to get our bodies recovered. We got to have a great week and be ready for our home fans on Sunday night.”

Burrow framed it in fewer words. “We have a big game next week against the Steelers for first place in the division. You know we’re gonna have to go and get that one.”

There is a record on the table too. Burrow has accounted for at least four touchdowns in four consecutive games, all wins. One more and he ties Peyton Manning’s five-game run from 2004. But the number that matters on Sunday night is the one in the standings: win, and Cincinnati sits alone in first with the season series split. Lose, and Pittsburgh is a game up with a sweep in its pocket, and the quarterback who wouldn’t call it Armageddon gets asked the question again.

Tags: quarterbacks, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Ja'Marr Chase, Joe Burrow