All anyone could realistically ask from Joe Flacco in his debut as Bengals quarterback was a hint of competence, a modicum of professionalism, a scintilla of hope. After a rocky start, he certainly provided all of that in Sunday’s 27-18 loss to the Packers in Green Bay, a defeat that handed Cincinnati its fourth straight loss after a 2-0 start. Not only did the Pack have to work hard for the win, it seemed for a few fleeting moments like Cincinnati might actually pull off a road upset.
In fairness, you couldn’t really expect Flacco to have instant success after just five days with the team, especially against a tough defense. As I wrote on Twitter, “Give the man a half at least.” The Bengals were dead in the water over the first 30 minutes, and only an opportunistic defensive effort kept the score to just 10-0.
After Sunday the Bengals have now been outscored 79-9 in the first half of the last four games, an unheard-of differential. Over the last 25 first-half drives, essentially since Joe Burrow limped to the locker room never to be seen again, Cincinnati has mustered 12 points on four field goals, punted 14 times, and turned it over seven times. To say that this is unsustainable is a massive understatement.
Coaches and offenses usually get criticized for being unable to move the ball or score points outside of early “scripted” series (a notable trait of the late-stage Andy Dalton/Marvin Lewis teams). These Bengals, ever determined to march to their own drummer, have the opposite problem: They can’t muster anything even from their practiced plays.
To his credit, once Flacco (aka “Joe Bur-sitis”) got his sea legs under him, he moved the ball with quick hitters and precision intermediate throws. The dumps and emergency check downs didn’t do much beyond avoiding the dreaded cliche “getting behind the chains,” but then staying out of third down and a mile is half the battle in today’s NFL. Meanwhile, Flacco was 6-for-7 on intermediate throws, at 13 yards per attempt and a robust 1.38 EPA per play. The fact that the Bengals were able to run the ball a bit and have mostly clean pockets for Flacco to throw was a direct result of keeping the game manageable and having a quarterback who, unlike Jake Browning, didn’t constantly make bad situations much worse.
Cincinnati scored 18 second half points, a total that might have been more but for a crucial drop on a third down slant by Andrei Iosivas and the late 56-yard missed field goal by Evan McPherson (the timeout that negated his 67-yarder at the first half gun was crucial in retrospect, and not just for Money Mac’s legacy). They forced the Packers to keep scoring—which they did, alas, coming up with big plays when they needed them, especially the crucial 31-yard pass to Matthew Golden on 3rd and 8 late in the game that all but extinguished Cincinnati’s hopes.
I know the entire point of media criticism of sports is to refract everything through the local team’s failures, but in this case it took an incredible play by Jordan Love, throwing some 40 yards downfield off his back foot with a defender in his grille, and an excellent route by Golden, a rookie receiver, who flattened his route at the last moment and foiled Cincinnati’s coverage. Love had just enough time to get it to him. It was Matthew Golden over Al Golden, his fellow rookie as a defensive coordinator. Sometimes you gotta tip your cap—though having Trey Hendrickson and/or Shemar Stewart on the field for that pivotal down might have helped.
Flacco’s best quality at this point in his career is his calm; he’s the antithesis of “Joe Frantic.” He has seen it all and knows how to escape bad situations without disaster striking. He did it to great effect in Green Bay, and when you can mix in some “Ja’Marr is out there somewhere” throws to Chase and Tee Higgins, Cincinnati can certainly be competitive with the Ancient One under center.
Chase’s incredible TD grab in the fourth quarter was high theater—and should have counted for two scores, given how badly he was interfered with on the play. Overall, the entire operation ran a far sight better than it did with Browning. They might not win many games, but they won’t be such an abject disaster to watch.
That theory will be put to the test quickly, as the Bengals play tonight! Yes, no chance for Flacco to even get a full week of practice in as Thursday Night Football waits for no man, not even an 18-year veteran. The 4-1 Steelers come to town looking to put an early kibosh on the AFC North race; incredibly, the Bengals are still in second place in the division. In another unusual turn of events, both quarterbacks in the game will be on the “right” side of 40 (he wrote as someone there myself). Aaron Rodgers is 41, and the combined age of the starting QB’s tonight is 81, the second-oldest in NFL history after a trio of Tom Brady-Drew Brees encounters back in 2020-21.
Rodgers has quieted the self-induced insanity that surrounded him with the Jets, and while he isn’t exactly defying Father Time with his play thus far, he, like Flacco, has brought stability and serenity to his offense. Rodgers has been basically league-average in his advanced numbers, DVOA and EPA per dropback. And Pittsburgh similarly is mid-pack (17th) in offensive DVOA. Rodgers has mainly avoided mistakes (three interceptions in five games) and let his snarling defense (7th in DVOA) do the heavy lifting.
The Steelers are tied for second in the NFL with 20 sacks, with one fewer game than Seattle. Denver leads the league with 30 sacks, and if Pittsburgh gets anywhere close to them after tonight’s game that would mean big trouble. The Steelers are “only” 12th in pressure percentage, however, meaning the Bengals can certainly make some hay against them, particularly Chase. The Steelers have struggled to cover No. 1 wideouts thus far, with only five teams giving up more yards per game than Pittsburgh’s 78.
It will take more than a few chucks in Chase’s general direction to win this one, however. Zac Taylor and his staff need to come up with a way to mitigate their O-line issues, get some reliable heat on Rodgers (Trey and Stewart appear to be on track to play), and make some open-field tackles, for God’s sake. No part of the game figures to be more critical, especially as the Steelers are first in the league in Yards After Catch per reception.
Everyone will recall the “Ryan Finley Game” from 2020, when Burrow was hurt and Taylor prepped a gameplan that saw Finley play his only good game in Stripes, leading 2-10-1 Cincinnati to a 27-17 upset of the 11-2 Steelers. Tonight won’t quite be the same scenario with Flacco in there, and it isn’t late enough in the season for Pittsburgh to be in full swoon mode. But there was one memorable aspect of that game that the Bengals really need to repeat, something (to me) more valuable than schematics.
Surely you remember Vonn Bell decleating the reviled JuJu Smith-Schuster? That play set a tone not only for the game but for the defense over the next two seasons, a physical “we ain’t gonna be bullied no more” attitude that may have waxed and waned on occasion but was certainly present more often than not. Recent defenses don’t have a lick of it. They sorely need someone (Stewart?Jordan Battle? Demetrious Knight?) to knock one of the Steelers into next week and restore that fire to a unit unable to summon any of late. True, there isn’t anyone on this Pittsburgh team with a face quite as punchable as JuJu’s, but the uniform itself should suffice.
But if the long history between these two teams holds and Pittsburgh smashes a Bengal insensate, be it Flacco or anyone else, any optimism from Sunday’s decent performance will vanish into the midweek night.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, and Deadspin. He guests on Mo Egger’s radio show every Thursday in the 4 p.m. hour. Follow him on X at @robwein.
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