GREEN BAY, Wisc. – There was one play in Sunday’s 27-18 loss at Green Bay that epitomizes the optimism and confidence the Cincinnati Bengals will carry into their next, rapidly approaching game despite the insistence they would not be carrying any moral victories or silver linings out of Lambeau Field.
With the Bengals trailing 24-10 with 4:17 remaining, they were facing a fourth and 5 at the Packers 19-yard line.
Quarterback Joe Flacco, who had been a member of the team for fewer than five full days, and Ja’Marr Chase, who barely practiced with his new teammates this week due to illness, hooked up for a moment of magic.
Despite Chase enveloped in tight coverage with cornerback Keisean Nixon and safety Xavier McKinney closing fast, Flacco threw a dart toward the front pylon and Chase snared it with his left arm while his right arm was pinned.
Forget that it was a touchdown and that meaningful ones have been a vanishing commodity the last month.
And forget the play itself, despite how insanely good both the throw and the catch were.
It’s what happened a few seconds before that should spark some belief that this Flacco-led offense can shake off the recent funk and put the team back in position to win games.
Asked to describe the play, Chase bought some time with a couple of long, drawn-out ummms, seemingly trying to decide whether he should spill the truth of what really happened.
Why?
Because he changed head coach Zac Taylor’s play call.
“It was actually called another play, but I was telling (Flacco) to change it because they were jumping a lot of routes,” Chase said. “But they ended up clouding me instead of running three buzz to my side. It just ended up working. He just threw it up to me, and I just make the catch.”
The point here isn’t that Chase overruled Taylor’s play call.
It wasn’t a first.
He said he’s done that, “every here and there.”
It’s that Flacco trusted Chase to go with his suggestion and the two players who barely know each other showed flashes of the chemistry the receiver has built over years with injured quarterback Joe Burrow to create one of the most impressive scores of the season.
“I can’t even tell you the description of the route we ran there,” Taylor said when asked about the touchdown in his news conference. “It was one of those, ‘Here’s what they’re going to do, let’s do this” situations.”
And during the frenetic final few minutes when the Bengals were trying to claw back into the game, there were more instances were things were being made up on the fly.
“It is not all stuff that is on the call sheet,” Taylor said. “We were having to adlib a little bit as you explore how they are playing our guys. You have to adjust as the game goes, and I thought he did an unbelievable job of handling that, just a description of a play at times.
“He just made it work and found ways to get balls to our guys,” Taylor added. “He knows where to find Ja’Marr and Tee. Whether they were single covered or double covered, he gave them a chance.”
Chase finished with 10 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown. Higgins had five catches for 62 yards, both of which were season highs.
Flacco overcame one of the worst offensive first halves of the Taylor era to breathe some real life and hope into the team with strong throws and smart decisions, dirting balls or sailing them out of bounds when things broke down to fight another play.
The Bengals had one first down in the first four drives.
After that, 19 first downs and 18 points.
“I thought as an offense we settled in, you know probably sometime in the second quarter,” Flacco said. “And I thought that we were able to get over the hump in that quarter but we came out and played a good second half. But usually against a good football team, playing one good half isn’t going to be good enough.
“But we gave ourselves a chance there at the end and did some good things but just not enough early on,” he added.
No one wanted to point to Flacco’s unfamiliarity with everything about the offense, from personnel to play calls, as a reason for the slow start.
But it was a real wall to scale.
Even when Chase wasn’t changing plays, what came in from the sideline wasn’t always what Flacco ran.
“I remember one play, I think we ended up kind of getting what we wanted. I think they got the pass interference on Ja’Marr or the holding or whatever they called,” Flacco said. “But I definitely didn’t call the right play. And I said, that’s kind of why I signaled out toe Ja’Marr. ‘Hey, you just run this route. I know we can get that done.’ But overall, I think it went pretty well.”
Flacco’s teammates agreed with that assessment.
“I thought it was pretty smooth,” center Ted Karras said. “I don’t think we had an operation miscues. The communication was really good.”
“It didn’t feel like he had just got here,” running back Chase Brown said. “Day 1, I was really impressed with, just with his ability to recite plays. And then today, he did a really good job of being clear with the calls and making sure everybody was lined up properly. I commend him for that.”
Going from arriving on Tuesday and playing Sunday made for a short, hectic week.
Another short, hectic week awaits as the Bengals have the closest thing to a must-win in October as you’ll ever see Thursday night with the 4-1, division-leading Steelers coming to Paycor looking to extend Cincinnati’s four-game losing streak.
“This is a long season, and I know it’s easy to be down on yourself in hard times, but you know, playing with confidence shows,” Flacco said. “So we’ve got to find a way to kind of get some of that back. I think we do have the ability to do that.
“Listen, we’ve got a big week coming up, and these division games are always good matchups and going in and playing a good game this upcoming week could help a lot with that.”