ESPN personality Bart Scott, who spent much of his playing career with the Baltimore Ravens, came to work with an axe to grind Thursday, lighting into Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow during his appearance on Get Up.
Burrow went ballistic in Week 16, handing the Ravens, who are suddenly in danger of missing the postseason, their fourth straight loss on the strength of 525 passing yards, a franchise record and the fourth-most in NFL history. Yet his performance didn’t register with Scott, who didn’t appreciate Burrow running up the score on his former team.
“The last thing you ever want to do is poke the bear,” said Scott. “You want to run the score up, you won’t get the benefit of the doubt. I guarantee you. It’s called a red dot. And every former Raven knows what the red dot means.”
This isn’t the first time the Ravens and Bengals have gotten under each other’s skin. When these teams played in 2020, the Bengals kicked a late field goal to avoid being shut out (they were losing 27-0 at the time), which didn’t sit well with Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale.
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“I guarantee you [Burrow] will not last long in this division,” warned Scott, clearly bitter about the Ravens losing both of their matchups with Cincinnati this season. “They’re going to make sure they become head hunters whenever they go against them. He’s going to get rib shots, neck shots, [they’re] going to tackle his arms, make his head [hit] the ground. He’s getting all that.”
Scott seems to think the Ravens will retaliate against Burrow, though as colleague Louis Riddick reminded him, the former linebacker doesn’t have much control over that. “You’re not playing anymore, Bart!” said Riddick. “It ain’t your team anymore.”
But Scott wasn’t backing down. “It doesn’t matter. It’s the culture. They still have killers. Cincinnati, they got nice athletes, but they don’t have killers.”
That’s big talk from a player whose team just lost by three touchdowns. The Ravens could potentially meet Cincinnati in the playoffs next month, though getting there will be a challenge with tough upcoming matchups against the Rams and Steelers and a hobbled quarterback (Lamar Jackson is battling a sprained ankle) to boot.
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