It was his second start with his new team in a five-day span, ending a four-game losing streak for the Bengals (3-4) and putting them just one notch below Pittsburgh (4-2) in the division standings. Fans were heard chanting “Thank you Cleveland” after the game.
Tomlin seemed to have known what could be coming earlier this week when he voiced his complaints about the intra-division trade, but Flacco did not take a chance to rub it in Thursday in his postgame press conference.
“Listen, I have so much respect for Mike and the battles that we’ve had in (Cleveland) and Baltimore,” Flacco said. “I played him last year in Indianapolis. I love playing them. I didn’t really feel that way to begin with. I didn’t love going into Heinz Field. And you know, they did that my rookie year. They beat us three times. But those games against those guys, in my career, those games have been different than others and just the physicality and the energy. Mike has been doing it so long and has those guys ready to play every single week for so long now. Nothing but respect for him.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Flacco threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, leading the Bengals to scores on seven of the last eight drives, including the game-winning possession in the last two minutes. He connected with Ja’Marr Chase on a pair of mid-range passes, then hit Tee Higgins deep to set up Evan McPherson’s game-winning field goal with seven seconds left, and then, his coaches and teammates taught Flacco the celebratory “Who Dey!” chant afterward in the locker room.
Rewind even just 11 days earlier when Flacco was about to embark on his second straight week as the benched quarterback in Cleveland. He had no idea that on Oct. 7 he would suddenly be given a new starting job with the Bengals, and he wasn’t sure at the time if he would ever feel the thrill of leading a team to victory again.
“It felt like I might not, to be honest with you, so it’s pretty special,” Flacco said.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said Thursday was exactly what he had hoped for when the organization made the move to acquire Flacco. It took him four drives in his Cincinnati debut last week at Green Bay to get a feel for the offense, but since then, he has helped the Bengals score points on 10 of 15 drives, including seven of 10 possessions Thursday.
That was enough to rally from a 10-0 deficit in the second quarter and collect a critical AFC North win.
“He has 18 years of experience playing these games,” Taylor said. “We had a short week playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that we needed to have. It’s easy for him, or so he makes it seem, because he’s putting in the work. He’s just so experienced in this situation. You gain a lot of confidence from that, because he goes out there and it’s not too big (for him). … I thought he did a great job managing the game.”
Flacco has played the Steelers more than anyone over his 18-year career, and he is now 12-11 in his 23 regular-season starts against them.
That experience against Pittsburgh helped make a short week go smoother than it might otherwise have been for another quarterback trying to learn a new offense in 10 days. Flacco had the benefit of already knowing his first opponent with the Bengals in Week 6 because he already had played and beaten Green Bay with Cleveland.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Taylor was not at all surprised Flacco got his first win so quickly.
“This is what his skill set is,” Taylor said. “He is able to stay back there and throw the ball and manage the game. That’s what he’s done for a long time. He’s won a lot of games, played in a lot of playoff games, and played in a lot of huge AFC North divisional battles of this magnitude. So, I absolutely thought that he was capable of this.”
It helped that Chase and Higgins had big games, combining for 257 yards and two touchdowns on 22 catches.
Flacco said his eyes were opened to what Chase and Higgins could do last week as he began working with them for the first time, but on Thursday, he was able to see the problems they create for opposing defenses.
Cincinnati is 1-1 with Flacco now, but Thursday was a big step in the right direction and a confidence booster for a team that could have started waving white flags after Burrow went down. Flacco gave credit to the other players for keeping their “head into it” and beat a good football team.
Chase said there’s more to come.
“This is what I was talking about - we knew we were close,” Chase said. “Last week, we felt like we just figured out about how we’re going to go about Flacco, and just the offense period. I think today we showed what we’re really capable of, and showed how prolific this offense really can be.”
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