CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Here are five storylines of note in Thursday’s Bengals game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which will kick off at 8:15 p.m. at Paycor Stadium:
5. A likely changing of the guard … again
The Skinny: The revolving door at guard will likely continue in this game.
The Bengals will likely add Lucas Patrick to the active roster as he works his way back from the injured reserve list, and it’s likely he will start at one of the guard spots. With the way rookie Jalen Rivers is improving at right guard, Patrick will probably get the starting nod on the left side. Rookie Dylan Fairchild started each of the first five games at the position and has been a full participant in practice this week after missing the most recent game against the Green Bay Packers due to a knee injury, but he’s struggled. Veteran Dalton Risner started at left guard against the Packers and started the second and third games of the season at right after Patrick got hurt in the opener, but Risner was replaced by Rivers as the starter in the fourth game of the season.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said last week that Patrick was close to returning and said on Monday that he has “looked good,” but wouldn’t declare him a starter.
“We’ll continue to make a decision on that,” said Taylor. “From a physical standpoint, he looks good.”
While the Bengals once again struggled to run the ball against the Packers the offensive line did pretty well in pass protection, allowing only one sack and five quarterback hits.
“It gave us a chance to win a game, and if you’d watched all the third-down tape (of the Packers defense) before our game, it was just a disaster tape,” said Taylor. “They’re hitting quarterbacks on seemingly every play. The conversions had all been on underneath throws where guys just catch and ran for the first downs, and so we factored that into our plan, a little bit. Then it got to a point where we just had to drop back and throw the ball down the field, and I thought our guys held up really well. Joe did a great job hanging in there as long as he could and giving guys a chance.”
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said Rivers was very noticeable in getting some push on some run plays.
“There are some things, definitely, with Jalen that he needs to improve on. You’re never gonna question his effort, his preparation, his maturity,” said Pitcher. “Those are all qualities that will, I think, will ultimately lead to him becoming an elite-level guard in this league. You absolutely point out plays like that. There were two on a drive that’s him finishing. That was big.”
4. Bengals may have the answer for matching up with Metcalf
The Skinny: Steelers wide receiver D.K. Metcalf is a matchup nightmare due to his speed and size at 6-foot-4, 229 pounds.
This is his first season with the Steelers after five seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and he leads the Steelers in receptions (19), receiving yards (356) and touchdown catches (4).
“D.K. Metcalf is, you know, super talented, strong, powerful off the line of scrimmage. He’s a tough match,” said Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden. “(He) can beat you with his long speed, can box you out and catch the back shoulder really well. I mean, he’s everything that you know before he was in our division, you would see him on crossover (tape), now you know when you see him up close. Now you know how talented he is.”
The Bengals may have an answer for him in third year cornerback DJ Turner, who continues to improve and is coming off a game in which he had five passes defensed. According to ProFootballReference.com, quarterbacks are completing only 51.6 percent of their passes against him and have a 70.4 passer rating against him this season.
“(Earlier in the season) we were saying he needs to lock in and improve and adhere to a process. He has done that,” said Golden. “This last month for him has been really good. He has responded. He has kept it small. His eyes are really good. His eyes are good in the walkthrough. His eyes are good in practice. He’s finishing at the top of routes really well. His technique off the line is good. He’s not guessing, he’s trusting. He has makeup speed at the top. It takes a lot of work. Everybody collectively. (Cornerbacks coach) Chuck (Burks), DJ, his teammates, the scheme, everything collectively to work to come to fruition, but none of it is achievable without his adherence to his process. He has been masterful over the last month – quiet, head down, practicing with energy. We’re not surprised by his growth as a player. He has drawn the best player a lot of times. He has drawn the go-to guy, and he has responded. I’m really proud of him.”
3. Can Bengals find the end zone in the first half?
The Skinny: The Bengals haven’t scored a first half touchdown since there were seven seconds left in the first quarter of the season game of the season against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and have just nine first half points over the last four games combined, all of which they lost.
Thus, getting off to a fast start this week is a point of emphasis, and the Bengals carry some major momentum over from the second half of this past Sunday’s loss at Green Bay when they rolled up 203 yards of total offense, picked up 16 first downs and scored all 18 points.
Quarterback Joe Flacco was making his first start since being acquired in a trade just five days before and after a slow start, he completed 21 of 30 yards for 179 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.
“I thought he settled in,” said Taylor. “Especially being on the road and just having to hear from me in the huddle. It’s hard to hear from me sometimes. With the nonverbal stuff at the line of scrimmage, I thought he operated really well. It’s surprising how quickly he was able to do that, nut gave us a lot of confidence in seeing how he did it. So now we get a chance to carry it over to home and use the verbal cadence and all that kind of stuff. Now that we’ve seen him operate in our offense with our players and how he takes to that, I think he really enjoys throwing to these guys, so we’ll continue to press the envelope. We don’t want to overwhelm him; we don’t want to get the point of diminishing returns, where now we got too much and we’re forgetting what this means and that means, but I think he’s shown he is capable of taking on a little bit more.”
Pitcher said it was important for players and coaches to see that second half performance.
“We’re all human,” said Pitcher. “You feel the burden of when you’re in a rut. Everybody feels that frustration. We know that we have players that can move the football and score. We know, as a coaching staff, we can put plans together that can score points and win football games. Again, at the end of the day, we didn’t win, we didn’t do enough. Nobody is going around happy today, but you do have to build off positive things you have during the football game. The second half, it was good to see that.”
Flacco said the second half performance should be a confidence boost.
“I think confidence is always important, and when guys feel like we can do something, that is important, but you can’t look too much into that,” said Flacco. “You still gotta prepare, first of all, and then just go out there and do the job that you have at hand. I know it’s a team sport, nut the best teams are the ones where each individual takes care of their job. That’s how you come together as a group. It’s hard to focus on all the other stuff besides just going and doing your job. I think that’s where the confidence will ultimately end up coming from.”
Flacco found some easy completions in the second and then began to gain a rapport with wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who combined for 12 of their 15 receptions in the second half. Flacco was 21 of 25 when he got passes out of his hand in 2.5 seconds or less.
“Take what the defense gives you. We talk about that all the time. Obviously there is a balance between knowing when the time is right to take a bigger shot or try and extend a play, but you’re never going to be wrong if there is an open receiver and you get him the football. I thought he did a good job of that (Sunday).”
Pitcher said finding things that Flacco does well and likes should help give the team a chance at a faster start.
“We have to make it look better from the start,” said Pitcher. “When you think back of this offense and when it’s been at its best, we have started fast. We’ve been really good in the middle 8 (minutes). We’ve been one of the best 2-minute teams, then come out of the second half on the first drive. That’s been part of our identity. We haven’t done that nearly enough outside the first game of the season. It has to be a focus of ours to move the ball early and establish a rhythm early and getting to that flow we found ourselves in. We just can’t wait until the second half.”
2. Second oldest quarterback battle in NFL history
The Skinny: This game will feature the second-oldest combined age of the starting quarterbacks in NFL history.
Flacco is 40 years, 237 days old as of Thursday, while Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is 41 years, 318 days old. The oldest matchup came in 2020 when Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady at age 43 played against New Orleans’ Drew Brees at age 42.
“It’s one thing you guys can’t talk about this week in terms of me being older, at least, but it’s pretty neat,” said Flacco. “Aaron’s been in the league a few years longer than me, but we both started playing in 2008, so doing it for a long time. It’s pretty cool.”
Taylor said it’s impressive for players to last that long in the NFL, but said there are reasons both have done so.
“Those guys are really high-end processers, number one,” said Taylor. “Physically very talented. You’d put their arm talent up there with anybody I’ve ever seen play. Those are two things. They’ve taken care of themselves the right way. They’re both my age. I can’t fathom that knowing how I feel right now. Credit for those guys doing it at a high level and making the impact on their teams they’ve both made.
There were many who believed Rodgers should have retired after last season with the New York Jets, but he’s off to a good start with the Steelers. He has a passer rating of 105.4 and has thrown 10 touchdowns and only three interceptions in 138 pass attempts.
“I watched the tape late in the year last year, I remember, and I didn’t see the struggles,” said Taylor. “I thought that was a narrative that just got thrown out there, and people ran with it for awhile, but I still saw a very similar player. Especially, (when he) went into free agency this offseason, who could acquire him. You can see that there’s still a really good player there and this year you’re seeing him play at a high level as well and done a great job managing that team and finding a way to win four games for them so far in five, and he’s been a big part of that.”
1. Even though this is just the seventh game it really is a must-win
The Skinny: Even though there are 10 games left after this one and the Bengals aren’t even close to being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, this is about as close to a must-win game as there gets.
The Bengals are trying to avoid a five-game losing streak and are coming off an encouraging offensive performance in the second half against the Packers.
A loss would drop them to 2-5 and put them four games in the loss column behind the Steelers in the AFC North, but a win would move them within two games in the loss column with two more winnable games before the bye week.
“I think there’s a lot of emphasis on this game,” said Taylor. “We’re coming off the stretch we’ve come off of. We want to win. We’re hungry for it. Our guys have worked for it. We got to do a better job from start to finish getting that done, but there’s a lot here. You got a home divisional game. Division is where it is right now, as it stands, it’s the top two teams at the top and you get a chance to knock them down a peg and put yourself up one, so our guys understand what’s at stake, and it’s big for us. We’ll treat it as such and we’ve got to have a great performance by everybody.”
Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase scoffed at the “must win,” label, but admitted it’s definitely a big game.
“Been hearing it the five years I’ve been here,” said Chase. “I’ve been hearing every week. Something y’all say a lot out here. I mean, at the end of the day, we know we’ve got to win certain games. We know we’ve got to beat division teams for us to put ourselves in position to be No. 1 in the division, but you know, at the end of the day, we’ve got to actually put the work in to do it when it’s game time. I’ll say we need to win bad, just because it’s four straight (losses), and we know we’re close to winning, not just winning, just getting a lot of wins. We’re close to it, and it’s right there. It’s in our reach. We’ve got to finish it and build off the right way.”
Flacco said he doesn’t feel the pressure of -must-win games.
“It’s tough to put that type of pressure on yourself and your team, you just have to go out there and take it each play at a time and each one of you has to do your own job and focus on that,” said Flacco. “The more you can focus on being in the present and doing your job, the results take care of themselves.”
Thursday games are tough on both teams, but it’s a little tougher on the road team.
“The travel always factors into it when you’re potentially traveling from a game the week before and you’re back whatever time you’re back,” said Taylor. “You get limited time on a practice field and you’re back on an airplane again. I know the statistics. It’s hard to win on the road in this division period, so that factors into it as much as anything. I know statistically it’s probably you’re less likely to win a Thursday night game, but we know how hard it is to win in this division period on the road. You combine it all, and I’m planning on having a great atmosphere to help our guys and give us an edge.”
PREDICTION: Bengals 27, Steelers 23
The Skinny: The second half offensive performance in Green Bay was encouraging, and even though it’s a short week Flacco will have some more time working in the offense, and factor in Mike Tomlin’s record on Thursday night road games (2-8) — especially in the division (0-6) — and the Bengals should snap their losing streak.