Bengals Beat: With Chaos Abound, Joe Flacco Provides Ultimate Leadership, Inspiration ‘What Joe Flacco Did, You’ll Never Forget’

CINCINNATI — If anyone can appreciate what Joe Flacco did in the last week, it’s Zac Taylor.

The 40-year-old treated his very sore AC joint sprain in his right shoulder all week, practiced only on Thursday, got treatment before Sunday’s game and then went out and put forth a truly historic and heroic game, only to lose 47-42 when his defense failed him miserably in the final 50 seconds of the game.

What Flacco did should serve as a beacon in an otherwise chaotic and turbulent season, filled with dashed hopes and failed expectations. It was an effort that showed the Bengals head coach and all 66,264 on hand Sunday at Paycor what can be accomplished when a professional athlete commits everything he has to playing the game he still loves.

The results were as astounding as they were outstanding.

On a sore shoulder, Flacco completed 31-of-47 passes for a career-high 470 yards and four touchdowns. He suffered his first two interceptions but the second pick was on a Hail Mary that didn’t reach the end zone and ended the game.

If Flacco thought he was tested physically for the first 57 minutes, the last three were the ultimate mental and emotional test of his determination. Trailing 41-27, Flacco threw what looked to be a game-ending interception returned to the Cincinnati 9, only to have a reprieve when the Bears were called for pass interference on Ja’Marr Chase. Flacco, given the second chance, thought he had a touchdown to Andrei Iosivas, only to discover Iosivas stepped out of the end zone and came back in prematurely to catch the ball. On the next snap from the Chicago 5, Flacco was intercepted for the first time as a Bengal, as Tremaine Edmunds returned the pass 95 yards for an apparent pick-6, with Joe Flacco the only Bengal giving chase the entire way.

But alas, another reprieve. Edmunds had been touched before he landed on the ground with the ball. No pick-6. The Bengals and Flacco still alive. Ironically, the Bengals defense forced a three-and-out and Flacco drove the Bengals to a touchdown in 32 seconds and converted the two-point conversion. 41-35. The Bengals’ Oren Burks miraculously recovered the onside kick and Flacco did his magic again. Just 49 seconds later and a 9-yard touchdown to Iosivas and the Bengals led, 42-41.

But 50 seconds remained and Joe Flacco could only watch as Jordan Battle and the Bengals defense allowed Caleb Williams to direct the game winning march in 37 seconds as Jordan Battle went for a kill shot on Colston Loveland instead of tackling him. Then came one more Flacco completion to Ja’Marr Chase for 13 yards before the Hail Mary that fell 20 yards short.

“I think when you go down and you think what you have is a touchdown and no, it’s incomplete, and then you throw an interception — obviously at the time you thought they scored a touchdown,” Flacco said. “At that point, you probably weren’t thinking too much about it. But then when you go down score and make it a one-score game, I mean anything can happen. Onside kicks aren’t very likely, but who knows? I think we were down by 14, we were going out there and I said, ‘Hey, listen. Crazier things have happened,’ to somebody and a coach that was standing right there. But I think maybe there’s a little bit of hope after you score that first one. At that point, I think fans are going through the same thing as players are at that point. So, whatever you were feeling, and the fans are feeling, we were probably feeling the same thing.”

Flacco, since he’s arrived on the scene in Cincinnati, has thrown 11 touchdowns and had just two interceptions, one on the desperation heave to end Sunday’s game. The offense has responded and the 40-year-old is showing his character on and off the field.

“There’s a lot of great performances, (but) what Joe Flacco did for us this week, you’ll never forget,” Taylor gushed. “Just knowing what our quarterback room is working through right now, with Joe Burrow and Jake (Browning) and Joe (Flacco), it’s a really mentally tough room that leads by example. Joe Flacco got the opportunity to show that this week, that’s him. Joe Burrow (is) working behind the scenes to do everything he can to help our team.”

It’s almost as if Taylor was reminding his players and fans, alike, that this is a fleeting moment and appreciate the greatness of the player. Joe Flacco is obviously not the future of the Bengals. But he’s a helluva present. Taylor noted the pain that Flacco had to work through just to get on the field.

“Flacco, he could barely lift his arm this week, and he’s willing to go put himself out there for a bunch of teammates he’s known for three weeks,” Taylor added. “He’s a football player — that’s what he got up here and said: ‘I play football for a living. That’s what I do’ — and oftentimes, you need that throughout the locker room: Guys who are just football players and they remember that and they’ll go out there and do whatever it takes to help their team to win a game, no matter what, no matter the circumstances. We’ve got a bye week next week and (he’ll) get a chance to get rested up. That’s how Joe Flacco looks at it, so he went out there and put himself on the line. I’m sure he’s going to be in a ton of pain tomorrow, and we’ll give him 10 days off and see if he can come back and do it again.”

It wasn’t just Taylor who was awestruck by the veteran quarterback.

“Flacco fought like a warrior today with the way his shoulder was,” Chase Brown said. “Things weren’t perfect, but we made things work on our end. We made mistakes, but learned from them and kept fighting. At the end of the day, you’ve got to go to the very end.”

Then there was Taylor doing his best to keep a stiff upper lip and let everyone know he intends to keep fighting to right this 3-6 sinking ship.

“I’m going to keep fighting,” Taylor told me. “The coaches are going to keep fighting and these coaches have shown that they’re going to keep fighting. It’s frustrating for everybody to put in the work that’s being put into it and this is the result we’ve had. It’s frustrating. Sometimes, you’ve got to take a deep breath and then come back to work and try to uplift others.”

Taylor, who is suffering through his worst season since 2020, is feeling the heat from an angry fan base that wonders why his defense still can’t tackle and get into the right spots on the field when they’ve had all training camp and eight weeks to work on it.

“I’ve faced a lot of adversity here, and the only thing I know how to do is lift people up,” Taylor said. “That doesn’t mean we run from corrections. That doesn’t means we don’t give criticism, but at the same time, the easy thing to do is question everything, and point fingers and be negative, and be an energy vampire in a lot of ways. I think we’ve got enough guys that just want to continue to lift people up and fight and find solutions, help where they can, make myself better, make the person next to me better and that’s all I know how to do. That’s how we built the coaching staff that does that, too. We’ve (got) a locker room full of leaders and great men that are following suit there, and that’s what I’ve seen from them, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. I don’t have something I can say where, ‘We’re just going to fix this and things are going to be better.’ It’s not that simple. I wish it was, but I can promise you we’re going to fight like hell to keep finding wins here and get this turned around.”

“We have played nine games now. We have eight left. If you don’t keep your head down and go to work, then it’s going to be a long, miserable season for you. You can’t get distracted,” Flacco added. “You’re going to be emotional after a game, but at some point you’ve got to let that go. This is our profession. We do this for a living and we take pride in doing it. I hope that you would continue to take pride in doing what you do for a living, no matter what the outcome is. And yeah, maybe that’s easier said than done, but that’s what you’ve got to do because this league will eat you up and it will not be good. I’m sure Baltimore isn’t sitting there tucking their tail between their legs with the record they have. They’re probably motivated and excited about the opportunity that they have going forward. I don’t think we can look at it any different.”