The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers just over a week ago to shrink their AFC North deficit to just over a game. The Steelers had a chance to all but cement their status as division favorites early in the season, but blew it. Pittsburgh's offense showed up, but their defense – which is the highest-priced unit in the league – was nowhere to be found. There's plenty of blame to go around for the Steelers' defensive ineptitude. TJ Watt and Pittsburgh's linebacking corps disappeared. The secondary, which got an upgrade after the Jalen Ramsey trade, barely made an impact.
Yet, the overwhelming narrative out of that Thursday night game was a simple one. Mike Tomlin lost again on a short week when he didn't have enough time or practice sessions to prepare his team for ... Joe Flacco? Against Flacco, Pittsburgh is 12-11, while the veteran quarterback has read this defense like a book. The now-40-year-old quarterback has thrown 30 touchdowns to 12 interceptions against this Steelers defense. The player may change, but the scheme hasn't, which Josh Yourish and I discussed in detail on the Still Curtain podcast postgame.
What went wrong for the Bengals against the Jets
Sunday's game against the lowly New York Jets, however, did not go according to plan for Cincinnati. Flacco performed admirably, especially considering he is still just a couple weeks into his Bengals tenure. 223 yards and two touchdowns to no intcerceptions is a fine stat line. Cincinnati's defense failed to meet the challenge, as it has so many times before.
Just like it did against Aaron Rodgers on Thursday, the Bengals let the floodgates open. Justin Fields and the Jets moved the ball at will against the Bengals, and this is all after they got rid of defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo this offseason.
The Bengals traded for Flacco in early October. Their hand was forced, as Joe Burrow is expected to miss the majority of this season and Jake Browning wasn't cutting it. Flacco barely cost the Bengals a dime, and while he struggled mightily against the Green Bay Packers with just a couple days to prepare, he was ready for Pittsburgh. Taylor explained why Cincinnati felt the need to trade for Flacco in the first place.
“Joe is an experienced quarterback with a history of winning,” Taylor said. “He is a leader with a skill set that will fit our personnel well. He is a gifted passer with a strong arm, and we are excited to have him on our team.”
There's a big difference between Joe Flacco and Aaron Rodgers
Through three weeks, we've seen just that. Flacco has looked far better than he did in Cleveland now that Taylor is calling the plays and he has better targets to throw to. He's also running into similar roadblocks as Burrow. Flacco can only do so much when the defense is giving up over 30 points per game.
In many ways, Flacco is the discount Rodgers. Mike Tomlin recruited the future Hall of Famer to the Steelers this offseason with the hope he'd help the organization secure its first postseason victory since 2016. That goal is still a long way off, but Rodgers has been every bit as productive as expected through seven-plus weeks. On Sunday night, he will face his former team in the Green Bay Packers.
When speaking with reporters following Sunday's loss to the Jets, Taylor gave credit to the Jets for taking advantage of his time management mistakes, which included using timeouts long before he needed to and missing opportunities to stop the clock late in the game. This is a familiar story with Taylor, and it's why an impressive outing like Flacco's won't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
What Rodgers offers that Flacco doesn't is the ability to override his coach. Tomlin is clearly in charge of the Steelers, but in the rare conversations where they two conflict, the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback can get a word in. The same cannot be said of Flacco, who through no fault of his own is just a couple weeks in to learning the Bengals playbook.