Bengals potentially hiding Joe Burrow's injury just one lowlight of ugly Thursday night for NFL

BOSTON -- It seems as though the NFL season has reached the point where Thursday Night Football is all about survival, and nothing else. Nobody walked away from Thursday night's game between the Bengals and Ravens feeling happy.

The Ravens did get the win, improving to 8-3. That was a positive for the home team.

But the night as a whole was a bit of a mess.

Did Bengals hide Joe Burrow's injury?

Officially, the NFL requires teams to report injuries so that teams are on a level playing field in terms of strategy. Unofficially, the NFL requires teams to report injuries so that the betting world knows how to approach the game. And it's often felt like the latter reason has led to the NFL issuing some major fines to teams that are found to have been skirting the injury reporting mandates.

The Bengals may find themselves on the receiving end of one of those fines, after Joe Burrow left the game in the second quarter with a wrist injury. Considering the Bengals deleted a social media video that showed Burrow with his hand and wrist in a wrap when arriving in Baltimore on Wednesday, and considering Burrow left the game after what looked like a non-contact injury to his throwing hand/wrist, it seems awfully coincidental.

Head coach Zac Taylor denied that there was a pre-existing injury for Burrow.

"Not that I'm aware of," Taylor said postgame. 

Taylor was asked again later if he had prior knowledge of an injury.

"That was the first I saw anything about it," Taylor said of the in-game injury.

It's hard to believe.

Burrow did take a hit from Jadeveon Clowney one play before suffering the injury while throwing a touchdown pass, but it wasn't a hit made with excessive force, and it didn't result in major contact. If that was what knocked Burrow out of the game and rendered him unable to hold a football ...

... then saying Burrow entered the game at full health is a tough stance for the Bengals to take. (Tom Pelissero reported Friday morning that the NFL is looking in to the matter. Fortunately, the NFL's record on investigations is sterling. I have no doubt they'll properly handle every bit of this matter. That's the Roger Goodell Way.) Reports pregame said that roughly 60 percent of the public's bets were on the Bengals getting four points to cover the spread. Suffice it to say, if Burrow had been on the injury report, that number would have been lower.

Considering the NFL these days is basically sponsored by DraftKings and brought to you by FanDuel and presented by Caesars Sportsbook in association with WynnBET ... this is a pretty big deal. The Bengals may try to explain away their situation, but the damage appears to be done, my friend. 

(UPDATE: Burrow is now out for the year. It will be even more difficult for the Bengals to try to explain that this season-ending injury occurred on Thursday night, rather than it being a reaggravation of an existing injury.)

Mark Andrews Suffers Likely Season-Ending Injury

Sometimes, guys get hurt on Thursday nights because their bodies aren't ready to play a live NFL game just four days after playing in a game. The injury to Mark Andrews was not one of those instances, but the end result is a devastating one for the Ravens.

The All-Pro tight end suffered what is a likely season-ending ankle injury after being tackled from behind by Logan Wilson. This one came on a "hip-drop tackle," which is a phrase that entered football fan's lexicon over the past year or so. Many players want the tackle banned in the same way the horse-collar tackle is illegal, and it's easy to understand why.

Of course, with defensive players having limited ways to legally bring down ball carriers, it may be a difficult one to enforce.

That, though, is a story for another day. For now, the Ravens appear to be without their most reliable pass catcher in Andrews, whose six touchdown receptions this year are twice as many as anyone else on the Baltimore roster.

Phantom Pass Interference Penalty Changes Game

In the first half, a very questionable holding penalty on Odell Beckham Jr. negated what would have been a 68-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown for Baltimore. It was a bad call, but the Ravens ended up scoring a touchdown on that drive anyway.

Later in the first half, Adrian Hill's crew made an even worse call that left everybody watching baffled. It came on a first-and-20 pass from Lamar Jackson to Zay Flowers. Jackson's pass was behind Flowers, leading to the receiver spinning to try to make the catch. An official -- field judge Mearl Robinson -- saw that spin and assumed the defender had hooked Flowers' hip, so a flag was thrown for pass interference, giving the Ravens 28 free yards and a first down.

There are many candidates for worst call of the year, but that one should hold as a finalist at the end of the season.

The Ravens scored a touchdown four plays later, going up 21-10 before halftime. 

"Conclusive" Video Negates Trent Irwin Catch

A minor matter in the grand scheme of things, sure. But late in the second quarter, Trent Irwin came up with a big catch to convert a third-and-3 for backup quarterback Jake Browning. The replay official stopped the game to take a closer look at the catch, though, and Walt Anderson ruled back in New York that Irwin had lost possession of the ball during the course of making the catch. The broadcast didn't raise too much of a stink about the play ... but did Irwin actually lose control of the ball when it briefly hit the turf?

The ball clearly hits the ground, but Irwin did have the ball pinned to his thigh ... to some extent. It was a close call. Maybe it was the right one. (Be honest: The catch rules are arbitrary and change on a case-by-case basis.)

But Walt Anderson showed a few weeks ago that he's free and available to hop on with national broadcasts to explain why he's right whenever he wants. He opted not to explain this one, or the aforementioned pass interference penalty. Either he should join the broadcast to try to explain himself, or he never should have set a precedent by joining that Monday night broadcast.

Either way, very few football fans have confidence in Anderson's decisions in New York or the calls made on the field by officials on a regular basis. This game did nothing to help that problem.

 B.J. Hill, Cam Taylor-Britt Suffer Injuries

Unlike the Andrews injury, these Bengals injuries appeared to be the result of players playing in an NFL game too soon after the previous one. 

Defensive tackle B.J. Hill dropped to the ground after the snap late in the second quarter:

Hill did return to the game, though.

Cam Taylor-Britt wasn't so fortunate. The cornerback was in coverage on Rashod Bateman's touchdown before halftime, suffering a quad injury in the process. He didn't return.

Lamar Jackson Twice Gets Dinged Up

Lamar Jackson made it through the game, but it wasn't easy. 

After taking a hit near the sideline in the first half, he stayed down on the ground and required some attention from the trainers and a trip to the medical tent. He didn't miss a snap after dealing with what appeared to have been an ankle issue.

In the third quarter, after Jackson gave himself up and then limped to the huddle, he took off running on a third-and-12 in the red zone. After getting stopped well short of the line to gain, Jackson again got up with a bit of a limp.

Both moments were scary for the Ravens, but Jackson downplayed the injury after the win.

"I'm good. We need to stop talking about this ankle. I'm good," he said at the podium. "You see I just walked up here? I'm good. We ain't gonna talk nothing into existence. Speak nothing into existence. I'm good."

Odell Beckham Jr. Suffers Injury

Odell Beckham Jr. was on the Ravens' injury report a couple of weeks ago with a shoulder issue. It popped back up for him after a late catch-and-run that ended with a big-time hit by Logan Wilson.

That hit ended what was Beckham's best game in a long time, as he caught four passes for 116 yards.

Game Delayed Twice By Drones

And in what was a fitting note for Thursday Night Football, the game had to be stopped twice due to someone flying a drone over the stadium.

The NFL can't be having drone delays. It just can't happen. Perhaps the league can dip into its rainy day fund and find a way to employ someone in charge of preventing such events from occurring.