Joe Burrow: No better feeling than seeing your work pay off

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow dismissed the idea that he would have been content to sit out the rest of the season to let his toe injury heal simply because the Bengals were 3-8 going into Thursday's game against the Ravens and he showed the difference he makes to the team in his return to action.

After a shaky first half, Burrow went 9-of-14 for 96 yards and two touchdowns in the second half of Cincinnati's 32-14 win over their AFC North rivals. Both of the touchdowns came in a third quarter that saw the Bengals pull away from the Ravens and left Burrow with a feeling of accomplishment about how hard he worked to get back to that situation.

"There's no better feeling than that," Burrow said, via a transcript from the team. "Putting in work for a long time and going out and it paying off, there's just no feeling like going out in front of the world with a group of guys that work really hard to go try and win games. Going out and putting on a good performance and winning that game. Obviously, we have a lot of games left, but we're going to enjoy this one. We have a mini bye weekend. Everyone's going to go home and have Thanksgiving with their family, smile and eat, and feel good about it."

Burrow said he "was a little more mobile than I expected to be" in his first game back and his overall performance will keep some hope alive that the 4-8 Bengals can go on the kind of season-ending run that will allow Burrow to keep playing into January.