Flacco finds vintage form as Bengals win battle of 40-something QBs

CINCINNATI — Thursday night proved that anything can happen in the AFC North.

And that means the Cincinnati Bengals might still be in the mix for a potential playoff berth. Cincinnati took down the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers in a 33-31 victory Thursday night at Paycor Stadium.

Coming into the prime-time showdown, Cincinnati had lost four straight games, and the Steelers, who lost just once this season, were threatening to open a commanding lead in the division.

Instead, the Bengals closed the gap. Behind a monstrous effort from wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who finished with 16 catches for 161 yards and a touchdown, Cincinnati’s offense had its best showing of the season. The win also showed why the Bengals traded for quarterback Joe Flacco, who threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns in the win, with starter Joe Burrow on injured reserve because of turf toe.

The trade — and Thursday night’s win — did just enough to give something Cincinnati hasn’t felt in weeks — hope.

Cincinnati Bengals

Most surprising performance: Aside from Flacco’s huge night, Cincinnati’s running game had been woefully ineffective for the bulk of the first six weeks, with Chase Brown not living up to the preseason expectations. Against Pittsburgh, Brown had a game that could jump-start his year and really help the offense. He had 11 carries for 108 yards. But most importantly, he reeled off a couple of big runs, which helped open Cincinnati’s passing attack.

Stat to know: Chase crossed 6,000 receiving yards in his career in his 69th game. He is the fifth-fastest player to hit that threshold, with Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, his former LSU teammate, also in that group.

Troubling trend: For the second straight week, the Bengals struggled with tackling. After the team’s loss to the Detroit Lions, the coaching staff said that aspect of the defense wasn’t good enough. Cincinnati had issues with that against the Steelers. Rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. was subbed out after a missed tackle in the fourth quarter and replaced by veteran Oren Burks.

Next game: vs. New York Jets (1 p.m. ET, Oct. 26)

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers spent their offseason assembling a secondary specifically for matchups against teams like the Cincinnati Bengals. With a trio of Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Joey Porter Jr., the Steelers’ secondary was supposed to match up with anyone — including Bengals receiving tandem Chase and Tee Higgins.

But catching dimes from Flacco on Thursday night, Chase and Higgins beat the Steelers in man-to-man and zone, besting the Steelers and their revamped defense to propel the Bengals to an improbable upset. The Steelers’ defense, which appeared to be on the rise four days earlier in a win against the Browns, not only couldn’t shut down the pair of receivers, but it also let Brown run wild for a season high — in the first half.

The deflating defensive performance overshadowed a near-vintage performance from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who threw four touchdown passes, all to his tight ends, including a 68-yard catch-and-run score to Pat Freiermuth with 2:31 to go to take a one-point lead.

QB analysis: Rodgers was outdueled by Flacco in a battle of the 40-something quarterbacks, in part because of Rodgers’ poor decision to force the ball deep to DK Metcalf, who was double-covered, in the first half. Jordan Battle picked off Rodgers’ pass, the first of the Steelers’ third series, and the Bengals marched to the end zone in three plays for their second touchdown and first lead of the evening. Before that interception, Rodgers’ first of two in the first half, the quarterback was moving like a vintage version of himself. He held on to the ball for 8.6 seconds before finding tight end Jonnu Smith for a scramble drill touchdown to cap the first drive of the game. It marked Rodgers’ longest time he had to throw a touchdown pass since at least 2016, according to Next Gen Stats. Rodgers finished with three TDs on passes outside the pocket, tied for the most in his career (he had done it two other times, most recently in this season’s opener at the Jets).

Surprising performance: The Steelers’ pass rush. The Steelers had six sacks in each of the past two games and 17 in the past three, yet they struggled to generate much pressure on Flacco, who was playing behind a much-maligned Bengals offensive line. The Steelers recorded two sacks, but went three quarters between them. T.J. Watt, who had three quarterback hits and half a sack last week, didn’t record a sack or tackle through three quarters. Watt didn’t show up on the stat sheet until his sack late in the fourth with Pittsburgh down by six. Flacco, meanwhile, looked calm and collected throughout much of the night and frequently found his receivers in rhythm, in large part because he wasn’t under duress.

Stat to know: The Steelers have allowed 30-plus points in a game for the third time this season, marking the first time since 2003 that the Steelers have allowed at least 30 points three times within their first six games of the season, according to ESPN Research. Allowing 30 points against the Bengals is especially egregious because, unlike the first two times the Steelers gave up at least 30 points in the first two weeks of the season, all of the team’s defensive starters were healthy, and the defense had been trending in the right direction the previous three weeks.

Next game: vs. Green Bay Packers (8:20 p.m. ET, Oct. 26)