Joe Burrow's hands were so hot that he could fry the steak.
In order to break his ceiling and become a true superstar, he needs to rediscover the real match elements. In the second half of the season, he did find it.
Heisman moments
In 2019, when Burrow and LSU swept the country, his game footage was filled with a lot of impromptu play outside the offensive structure. While history books will chalk it all up to the "Heisman Moment," the reality is more than that.
The first thing that comes to mind is this ball with the University of Georgia:
In fact, in Burrow's first game at LSU in 2018, these on-the-spot treatments in the escape were not his game content, and the first year of entering the professional arena was not often seen. Instead, he relies heavily on handling balls within the offensive structure. While he's been doing great in his pocket for the past two years, he needs those flashes of presence to help him evolve to the next stage.
If Burrow unleashes his offensive abilities outside of these structures, he can take the Tigers' offense to new heights. And that's an important factor in his coming out of the younger generation of quarterbacks.
Of course, these playing styles will put more pressure on the offensive front line, and will also expose Boro to more grappling. It's a high-risk, high-reward style, and what matters is how Burrow reduces the tackle rate.
While it remains to be seen whether this will last, it's why he's now the highest-rated quarterback in PFF this season.
"Nobody calls me a coward"
Speaking of Burrow's flaws, he always lamented that he didn't have elite-level arm strength, but that didn't stop him from throwing the ball into the backcourt. His classmate Justin Herbert's arm is even beyond the level of a video game, but it's interesting to see how two players use their arms from college to the pros.
While most of the Tigers' offense is short-mid-range passes within 20 yards, Boro is no coward, and he has the courage to shoot as soon as he sees an opportunity to single out the outside. As a result, Burrow's "back-shoulder pass" attempts this season have been the third most attempted in the league.
He has been experimenting with this style of passing, but last season the average of each pass attempt was just 2.8 yards, and this season it has soared to 17.4 yards. Considering the addition of college partner Jamal Chase and the progress of sophomore Thiggins, such a difference is not surprising.
Herbert, on the other hand, found a way to use his arm talent in short passes this season, with a short pass PFF rating of 83.7 league-high, a little higher than Burrow.'
Burrow's arm was not strong enough, but accurate enough; Herbert was not accurate enough, but the arm was strong enough, and now they have found their own way of survival.
Disperse the joy of the offense
With Burrow able to play outside the structure and throw long passes, coach Zach Taylor was relieved to let him handle the ball in a dispersed attack.
Early in the season, Taylor simply wanted the outside receivers to line up and get rid of them by personal ability, in fact, this year's no. 5 pick Jamal Chase and last year's second round pick Tim Higgins performed well, but they have not yet reached the ruling level. So the opposing packers took advantage of this, and the defenders waited on the short-distance route that the Tiger receivers liked.
The real reason why the Tigers like to use external hands to win one-on-one heads-ups is that Taylor actually has no other tricks and will play heads-ups, thanks to Boro's extraordinary ability to master this simple and rough style of play.
Since week 5, the Tigers have added three outer receivers and reduced the use of emptying the backcourt. But it is still a fierce blow to disperse the offense, and there are not too many fake running real passes to help Boro share the pressure, knowing that in the league's 43 quarterbacks this season, Boro's fake running real pass usage rate is only the ninth to the bottom.
Of course, when your quarterback is at its peak, it doesn't seem to matter if you hit the breakout offense. For example, the Cardinals and Tigers have a similar configuration: multiple talented receivers + super quarterbacks make all the problems simple. However, after Huo Dad's absence, the Problem of the Cardinal was exposed. Beal's problem was similar, with josh Allen going around with the ball going well, but the attack stalled when he honestly stayed in his pocket.
Taylor believes Burrow is a player of this caliber as well. He didn't have the athleticism of Murray or Allen, but his passing ability in his pocket made up for it.
Now Boro's performance fulfills all the fantasies of the Tigers who selected him with a champion. With the realization of the double-kill Raven and a win ahead of the opponent, the two weeks left in the season have almost announced the arrival of the Northern Throne, although it is impossible to predict whether Boro can lead the Tigers to the Lunar Year of the Tiger, but he does have all the qualities of the league's first-line quarterbacks.