Bengals Shock Steelers and Re-Ignite Their Season in the Process

The Bengals finally stopped their four-game skid with a surprising (and crucial) win over the AFC North-leading Steelers.

The first 20:34 of the Cincinnati Bengals contest against the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football went about exactly how everyone expected.  Aaron Rodgers was finding D.K. Metcalf for big gains, the Steelers run game was picking up chunks of yardage, and the Bengals offense looked about as threatening as the Gerber baby.  It looked like it was about to be another long, painful, dispiriting loss for the Bengals in a season that’s already had its fair share of long, painful, dispiriting losses.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, the Bengals became a competent football team.  A flip had been switched – and that switch was called Joe Flacco.

Turns out, Mike Tomlin’s misgivings about the Cleveland Browns trading their opening-day starter at QB within the division to a team with massive QB-problems were well founded.  The Steelers may have the league’s most expensive defense, but they stood no chance against the 40-year-old QB who was acquired by the Bengals exactly…ten days ago.

The Bengals’ 33 - 31 win should not have been possible.  Once Joe Burrow was lost for much of, if not the entire season, the Bengals were supposed to suck, and suck for good.  The window had closed.  The Bungles were back, and in force.

It’s incredible how one game can change everything.  And that’s not just a cliché – with Flacco under-center, the Bengals are thriving.

It turns out, you can’t replace Joe Burrow with any other JB like Jake Browning, you have to go out and find another Joe.

It can’t be understated how important this win was.  Coming into the game, the Bengals had lost four in a row while the Steelers were riding high at the top of the AFC North and on a three-game win streak.  Pre-game, it appeared these two teams were on completely different trajectories.  The Bengals were crashing and burning without their superstar QB, while the Steelers were rounding into form behind Rodgers’ arm and an elite, well-compensated defense.

As it turned out, the Steelers defense might not be so elite after all (though they’re certainly not getting any cheaper).  Flacco carved the Steelers secondary to pieces, though he had more than a little help from Ja’Marr Chase, who turned a Bengals-record 23 targets into a Bengals-record 16 receptions, along with 161 yards and a touchdown.  His counterpart Tee Higgins was no slouch either, going for 96 yards on six receptions and a touchdown, while contributing one of the biggest-plays of the night when he beat Jalen Ramsey for a 28-yard gain and followed it up with a heads-up slide to essentially ice the game for the Bengals late in the fourth-quarter.

Between Ramsey, Darius Slay, and Joey Porter Jr., the Steelers have invested quite a bit in shoring up their pass defense for opponents just like the Bengals, and apparently that investment has completely gone to waste.  Chase was an equal-opportunity abuser last night.  No one could stay with him one-on-one, though the Steelers seemed curiously content to try that strategy over and over again.

It would, however, be incorrect to say this game was all about the Bengals receivers and their geriatric QB.  The Bengals much-criticized offensive line held its own against T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward and company, keeping Flacco upright and opening holes for a Bengals run game that finally got going.  Chase Brown, who hadn’t surpassed 47 rushing yards all season, doubled that total with 108 on just 10 carries.  In one game, Brown jumped his yards per attempt this season from 2.7 to 3.6.

The balance on offense was only possible because of the play of the offensive line and the steadiness of Flacco, but Zac Taylor deserves plenty of credit for the incredible game he called last night.  Many Bengals fans were ready for the end of the ZT-era after the four-game losing streak, but the embattled head coach has done a masterful job getting Flacco ready to play exceptional ball despite very few practice reps.  The Bengals were ready for anything and everything the Steelers were going to throw at them, and nowhere was that more exemplified than the beautiful call to target slot receiver Andrei Iosivas on a seam route when the Steelers double-teamed Chase and Higgins on a crucial 3rd and 4 late in the third quarter.

This was a game the Bengals desperately, absolutely had to have, and they found a way to get it.  The Bengals relied on their offensive stars, but this was a complete team effort.  Right tackle Amarius Mims bottled up four-time All-Pro T.J. Watt for four quarters. Cornerback D.J. Turner II, who is playing like an All Pro himself, turned in another interception and stifled D.K. Metcalf, who managed just 11 more receiving yards following a 39-yard reception on the Steelers first drive of the day.  Evan McPherson, meanwhile, connected on four field goals, including the game winner, and is steadily regaining the “Money Mac” moniker that he forfeited last year.

But, at the end of the day, this win was about one man: Joe Flacco.  For the first time since Week Two, the Bengals appear to have real belief.  Browning, as has become abundantly clear, is not a viable starting QB in this league, and his reputation as a competent backup has been severely tarnished, probably irreparably.  With Browning under center, the Bengals were doomed.  With Flacco, hope is rekindled.

As of today, the Bengals are sitting at 3 - 4 at the almost-midway point of the season.  Not great, but not terrible either.  Their schedule gets a little easier too, with winnable games against the New York Jets and Chicago Bears coming up at home before they head into their bye-week.  There’s a non-zero chance the Bengals are 5 - 4 heading into their Week 11 rematch against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.  It’s not reasonable to expect Flacco to continue putting up 300-yard, 0-interception performances every week, but it’s also not unreasonable to expect the Bengals defense to perform a bit better than they did against the Steelers, especially considering they were without star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson.

It simply cannot be overstated: this win was monumental.  The Bengals are just a game back of the AFC North lead.  They’re 2 - 0 in the division  with three games still to play against the combined 2 - 10 Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns.  Seemingly everything that could go wrong this season has, but the Bengals are still right in the thick of things.  See how important that 2 - 0 start to the season was?  The Bengals haven’t righted the ship completely, but with Flacco now the established QB until Burrow returns, there’s at least a prevailing sense that the ship can be righted.  And that’s a far cry from where we were ten days ago.