Time for Jake Browning to receive a prolonged standing ovation from the Paycor Stadium crowd at Sunday’s regular-season finale (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) against the Browns.
Browning, 27, has done what no Bengals quarterback has done in their 56 seasons. He came off the bench to make his first six NFL starts in November and December in the teeth of a playoff run with each game bigger than the next. And he kept them in it until last week’s penultimate game in Kansas City and the Super Bowl champs erased the 17-7 lead he forged in the first 22 minutes.
Bengals right end Trey Hendrickson, the NFL sack co-leader with 17, is appreciative.
Even though for the first time in his seven NFL seasons, not only is Hendrickson not going to the playoffs, but he’s also not hosting a postseason game as a division winner for the first time.
“It gives me a different light on the blessings of going to the playoffs. Looking at it from the outside in. It’s different. But Jake put us in position where we knew for only one week we were eliminated,” said Hendrickson this week. “You and me can do anything for a week. I’m ready to go get the Browns to beat. One week is good. Six weeks knowing you’re eliminated, I don’t want to know that feeling. But credit to Jake stepping up for our team and our organization and the guys around him supporting him.”
And in the kiln of the playoff picture, Browning went toe-to-toe with the only Bengals quarterback to be a rookie of the year in 1969’s Greg Cook.
According to Pro Football Reference, in his first six starts, Browning rates first for the Bengals with the most yards (1,712) and the best completion percentage (71.1), the second-highest passer rating (97.1), the second-most yards per attempt (8.4), and the third most touchdown passes (8), tied with Boomer Esiason.
Cook, who never started another game after that rookie season because of a shoulder injury, is the leader with…
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