Joe Burrow attributes his scowling to leadership

Despite throwing five touchdown passes in a victory over the Raiders on Sunday, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow got more attention for his facial expressions.

On Tuesday, two days before a Thursday night game at Baltimore, Burrow explained that periodic scowling is part of leading.

“Maybe I could have not let my emotions show quite as much, but it’s also something that I’ve tried to do more and I know people in the locker room have wanted me to do a little more, whether good or bad,” Burrow said, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “But I can’t show my emotion positively and then when things don’t go well, not let that be known as well. . . .

“I know that people feed off of my emotion in a positive way. It’s tough for me as a quarterback. I play my best when . . . I’m not up and down and pissed and then happy and all that.”

One of his most important teammates, Ja’Marr Chase, is fine with Burrow wearing his emotions on his face.

“That’s always been him,” Chase said. “He’s always been that type of guy to hold himself to a standard. He’s just doing it more vocally now.”

With five losses in nine games, the Bengals need something to propel them to enough wins to get to the postseason. The margin is narrow. So even in the games they win against lesser teams, if Burrow sees things that will make it harder to win enough games against better teams to erase a start that was far slower than what the Bengals have experienced in recent years.

It starts on Thursday night. While a loss to the Ravens won’t end the season for the Bengals, 4-6 will force them to go 5-2 down the stretch to have a shot to get in. A win would give the Bengals confidence that they can indeed make it into the seven-team playoff field.

And it might even make Burrow smile.