The Cincinnati Bengals are set to square off with the Baltimore Ravens tonight on Thursday Night Football in a crucial AFC North showdown.
The game will also be just the latest matchup between former LSU teammates Joe Burrow, now the Bengals’ star quarterback, and Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen. The two seem to have beef dating back to their college playing days.
Patrick Queen’s Beef With Joe Burrow
Burrow and Queen were both key parts of LSU’s historic 2019 National Championship team. Burrow threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns and ran for five more scores, while Queen was the team’s third-leading tackler with 85 tackles (37 solo), 12 tackles for a loss, and three sacks.
Queen and Burrow did not always get along, though.
It’s since been revealed that the pair actually fought each other during a practice that season, which was first discussed by then-LSU head coach Ed Orgeron during a 2020 interview on ESPN early in Burrow’s rookie season in the NFL.
“One of our defenders ran into [Burrow] … tried to miss him but ran into him and knocked him down, and I think it aggravated Joe a little bit,” Orgeron said. “The next play was a screen, and he ran up for some reason, I think Patrick Queen might’ve had a questionable hit, and him and Patrick Queen got after it. I had to stop the fight.”
The fight resurfaced again on Wednesday when Queen went on teammate Marlon Humphrey’s “Punch Line” podcast and was asked about it. The now fourth-year linebacker had a slightly different recollection of the events.
“Coach O actually went on ESPN and lied and said Joe won,” Queen said. “They were lighting us up play after play, then we started getting stops. It got heated, hot summer day in Louisiana, we all know that. We just started blitzing to get Joe off the spot and a couple of us hit him.
“I hit him one more time, and one thing led to another. Next thing you know, we’re on the sideline, I got him in a headlock and he’s punching my ribs.”
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Burrow and Queen have since squared off several times as divisional rivals and will do so again on Thursday night. It’s been a competitive matchup in those years with Baltimore carrying a 4-3 head-to-head record into the players’ eighth meeting.
Queen left no doubt he is still fueled by the longstanding beef with Burrow.
“If I do get a chance to touch him, I’m definitely going to tell him a couple of things,” Queen said on the podcast.
The game between Baltimore and Cincinnati will also be crucial in the AFC North with the Ravens (7-3) currently holding a half-game lead in the division and the Bengals (5-4) sitting in last place. Both teams are coming off disappointing defeats on Sunday that should add some extra fuel to right the ship as well.
Add that to the tension between Queen and Burrow, and there will likely be no shortage of fireworks in Thursday’s crucial clash.
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