The Backstage Story Of Trenton Irwin’s Rise With Bengals

“It takes about an hour-and-a-half,” Craig Irwin says. “He just likes to hear somebody else say it. He takes great pride in knowing all three positions. He wants to understand what’s going on.”

The other days of the week they have plenty to talk about. Like books such as “Relentless,” “Outliers,” and “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” by Carol Dweck.

“We’ll talk about mindsets, books, communications,” says Trent Irwin, who majored in science, technology and society at Stanford. “I’m a big reader. Some self-help. Different perspectives. Autobiographies. A self-help book, in my opinion, is a demonstration of someone’s mental space at that moment, so they’re just able to put on paper where their thoughts are at. If those thoughts help, you can take them with you or leave them there.”

But the touchdown? A one-yarder in the back of the end zone as Burrow sprinted out to the right, saw his options swallowed and waited for Irwin to break free? Two weeks before Irwin thought he had that first touchdown at the end of another Burrow red-zone scramble that was wiped out by the idiosyncrasies of replay.

“No, I don’t think that one was in the game plan,” Craig says. “A lot of times when he scrambles, it seems like a lot of times Trenton ends up with the ball. So now when I see Joe scramble, I’m thinking, ‘Here we go.’ But all he wants is for the team to win. That’s all he cares about.”

It looks like Sunday in Tennessee (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) could be another off-script day. Their best runner, Joe Mixon, is out with a concussion. Their best wide receiver, Ja’Marr Chase, is questionable with that hip injury and could miss a fourth straight game. So it could be like the second half in Pittsburgh last week. The one that Burrow says reflects the steel-belted culture of a deep roster that picks up everybody and anybody.

“I knew exactly what I was going to get from a guy like Trenton Irwin,” Burrow said this week. “I know he knows what he’s supposed to do, runs the route…