CINCINNATI – It was a bad day for the Cincinnati Bengals offense, but it could have been a lot worse after rookie first-round pick Shemar Stewart knocked quarterback Joe Burrow to the ground on a pass rush.
Burrow hopped to his feet and jogged away from the site of the collision, Stewart went to the sideline and no one else reacted, probably because everyone was too stunned by what they saw.
But center Ted Karras said Stewart’s actions “warranted a response.”
And after the second-team offense went three and out, right guard Lucas Patrick delivered the response by starting a fight with Stewart.
“We’ve gotta protect 9,” Patrick said. “It starts with me up front. I’ve got to play better, protect better. Can’t let 9 get hit.”
Had it been a game rather than practice, Burrow would have been hit a lot on a day when starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. did not practice.
Defensive tackle TJ Slaton said there would have been at least four sacks had it been live action.
“The D kicked out ass,” Karras said.
On the play where Stewart hit Burrow, he looped inside of defensive tackle Kris Jenkins on a stunt and had what looked like a free run.
Patrick gave Stewart a shove, and the rookie stumbled. He tried to regain his footing but continued stumbling into Burrow’s legs.
A couple of plays after the fight, Stewart ran a similar stunt, but this time Patrick stood him up and aggressively took Stewart to the ground, finishing the block.
Stewart declined an interview after practice, saying “Today is not the day.”
But after that he went over to Burrow’s locker, gave him a fist bump and had a short conversation.
Every day is a learning experience for the rookie, who sat out all of OTAs and most of the first week of camp as part of a contract holdout.
For Patrick, who is entering his ninth season, training camp fights are nothing new.
Neither is moving on from them.
“You be a pro about it. Man to man you talk to the person and squash it there,” Patrick said. You know, it’s hot. It’s long days. We’ve been going Bengals vs. Bengals for I can’t even remember when we first reported.”
As far as what he’s seen from Stewart since the rookie first reported two weeks ago, Patrick offered nothing but praise.
“His play speed is pretty significant,” he said. “You can tell he’s starting to get comfortable. I mean, there’s not too many guys who can get to full speed in two to three steps like him. It’s great to practice against, and it’s a great guy to work fundamentals (against) and see someone who can move like that.
“There’s very few people on this planet who can cover ground like him at the line of scrimmage.”
Stewart obviously didn’t intentionally hit Burrow. His already elite speed may have been further accelerated by the shove from Patrick.
And that, combined with Stewart stumbling off balance led to the near calamity.
But Karras said that’s moot.
“It doesn’t matter. The result is the result,” he said. “C’mon, man. That’s our hopes and dreams right there.
“But it happened, we had to respond, and we’ve got to go into this meeting and get better.”
Asked what he expected the coaches to say in the meeting, Karras said, “Don’t suck so bad.”
The offense ran five series in the practice. The first one went 12 plays and ended in a disputed touchdown pass to Tee Higgins on play where Slaton likely – definitely, if you ask him – would have sacked Burrow.
After that, the offense went three and out on the next four series with Joseph Ossai, rookie Howard Cross and Jenkins adding one.
Slaton also dropped a Burrow interception on a screen pass to Noah Fant.
Burrow was 4 for 12 on the final four drives, with two of the four completions coming on screens.
The offense also had a false start and delay of game.
And that was just the first-team offense.
The second team offense had three delay of games and never crossed midfield, even after the drive starting point was moved up from the 20-yard line to the 40.
The frustration from a poor day coupled with the understandable scare of seeing Burrow knocked to the ground left to the fight, which was the first real one camp.
Asked if he was surprised it took 14 practices for something like that to flare up, Karras tried to put it in context.
“Some things that transpired warranted a response, and Lucas handled that,” he said. “I think we handled it well overall. It wasn’t like a shut-down practice type of scuffle, and it’s probably about time we had one of those.
“Zac said in the spring that he wants us to be the closest team in the NFL,” Karras said. “I think we’ve really taken to that, more so than any team since I’ve been here in the past. There’s a lot of across-the-ball relationships, and I think we have a lot of really good pros.”
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