Bengals Beat: Joe Flacco Feels ‘Obligation’ to Play For His Bengals Teammates, Zac Taylor Calls Team Response This Week ‘Outstanding’

CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor was desperate for someone to step up and make a play at the end of the meltdown against the Jets last Sunday.

What the head coach saw this week at practice leads him to believe the message got through.

“Great. Outstanding. I hate losing. I hate the way you lose but it does reveal a lot of guys and we’ve had a lot of guys step up. And so for me, really encouraging to see who views themself as a leader on defense step up and try to do everything they can in their power,” Taylor said. “I mean those guys out there practicing the last three days, it has been tremendous. The energy. The attention to detail. You don’t see a team come off the loss we just came off of and the heartbreak. You see a team that’s hungry and trying to do everything right to win the game. That’s been awesome to see. That’s all we can control during practice.”

Taylor realizes those are only words and platitudes. The results this season have been lacking, especially on defense. Sunday is one final chance before Tuesday’s trade deadline – and the bye – to show ownership and personnel director Duke Tobin that there is hope for competitive football in the second half before a decision is made on whether to clear Joe Burrow for a return to the field.

“I’m just really excited about those guys and what they’re committed to trying to do for our team,” Taylor said. “Even a guy like Flacco. I mean this guy’s — he’s got a right shoulder injury. He’s 40 years old. He’s been with this team for three weeks. His willingness to even attempt to practice during the week coming off an injury tells you everything you need to know about his personal and football character. He doesn’t know — he probably can’t even name three-fourths of these guys in the locker room, so for him to try to do that speaks volumes for him.”

Joe Flacco practiced only once this week but felt the same vibe.

“It’s tough. I honestly feel like in spite of that, we’ve had a good week mentally and physically,” Flacco said. “I think guys have been champing at the bit to get back out there. And I think it’s shown in a positive way. I think there’s been a lot of energy, and practices have had some good tempo to them, and I think that’s a good sign.”

In just three weeks with the Bengals, Flacco has filled a void of quarterback leadership that was left when Burrow was injured. Jake Browning did his best but when you have a Super Bowl ring and 18 years of NFL experience in your back pocket, the presence on the field is just stronger.

“When you see leaders and guys you’re counting on doing that, how can you not give your all for those guys? I know our record is what it is,” Taylor admitted. “I know some of the performances are what they are but the character in our locker room has been awesome to watch. These guys step up in practice these last three days, now we just got to transfer it to Sunday and go put a great performance together and find a win and just keep building momentum off of this.”

Trey Hendrickson could not practice this week with his right hip injury, re-aggravated in the first half against the Jets. He is doubtful to play Sunday. As for Flacco and his sprained AC joint in the right shoulder, he will give it a go and barring any last-minute setbacks – like sleeping on the shoulder the wrong way – will start for the Bengals against the Bears.

“Good, everything went well,” Taylor said of Flacco’s only practice this week on Thursday. “We’ll just see how it goes. I thought he did a nice job out there. I saw what we would hope to see for a guy to be able to play on Sunday. Now we’ll just work through the next few days to see where it ends up.”

“I’ve never really talked about injuries before so I dont know what to say. I feel good,” Flacco added. “It went well (Thursday). I was happy with how it went. I’ve never dealt with it before. There’s a point where it’s not up to you, it’s how it’s reacting and how you feel. I wanted to make sure I’d be able to test it out a bit.”

Browning got the full reps on Wednesday and Friday and will be ready if Flacco can’t go or has to leave the game prematurely.

“He’s ready. He’s mentally ready to go,” Taylor said. “So, both of those guys have done a great job. It’s tricky how you balance it and when I’m talking in the QB room I’m starring down the middle of both of them. They know that, total transparency, everyone is ready to roll.”

Full commitment:

One thing is for sure: Joe Flacco is totally committed to playing football, always has been. He gave a great example of that commitment Friday when he spoke about a personal sacrifice he made to be available for his teammates in 2013.

“When you’re the guy, there’s always a sense of obligation to be there for your team,” Flacco told me. “I missed my second son’s birth because I thought it was important for the quarterback to be out there. I didn’t know I was going to miss it. It happened he came on that day. I do feel a sense of obligation being out there for the guys you play with. It’s natural when you play this game to way to be out there with anyone.”

Then there’s playing through discomfort, like he will likely have to do on Sunday to some degree. In Jan. 2010, after a qualifying for the playoffs as a wild card behind the Bengals, he entered the playoffs as a heavy road underdog against New England. He was nursing a bad hip that had been bothering him all season. Ray Rice took the first snap of the game and raced 83 yards for a score and Flacco only had to throw 10 passes, completing 4-of-10 for 34 yards.

“We ended up playing New England in the playoffs and we won,” Flacco said. “I only threw like (10) passes that game but it was something that I was dealing with all year. I make sure I pad my hips up these days ever since then because I had something on my hip that just kept blowing up. By the end of the year, my whole left leg was just destroyed. I was not moving well at all. That was an issue. It was something that you felt like was getting better. And then all of a sudden you land on it again, playing on turf or whatever, it was just the length that I had to deal with that, the length of the year that I had to deal with that. And the fact that it was annoying because you felt like it was getting better and then it would get worse again.”

No one has to remind Flacco what’s at stake for the 3-5 Bengals.

“I’ve talked about it before. They’re all so crucial,” Flacco added. “Every single one. We only play 17 of them. Yeah, it’s more than we used to, but they’re still all so important. I’ve also talked about the fact that you can’t really think about those things because that’s just putting more pressure on you and it’ll make you make decisions that are bad. They’re now how you should be playing the game. That’s always the case. That’s always there looming, how important the game is. But we’ve got to keep our blinders on and go and do what we do.”

Time will tell if that defensive-players only meeting on Monday pays dividends, but Flacco appreciates the attitude.

“Hopefully those guys got something out of it,” Flacco said. “I feel like sometimes as players you feel like you have to do those things when you’re not maybe playing the way you want to. I don’t know if they ended up being positive or not, but just as I said a couple of minutes ago, talking about the energy we had at practice and the tempo that we were playing with, it feels as though those guys came together a little bit. And you could tell by the way they practiced this week.”