In the fourth quarter of the Bengals’ Week 5, 37-24 loss to the Detroit Lions, Jake Browning threw for three touchdowns. Ja’Marr Chase caught two of those touchdowns, one that was nearly an impossible catch along the sideline in the end zone and the other that was a rainbow deep-ball down the sideline.
Those three touchdown passes made things interesting in an otherwise third straight double-digit point loss for the Bengals. Browning deserves some credit for his three touchdown passes and making the game interesting, and, at the time, there was a feeling he had maybe bought himself time to remain the Bengals’ starting quarterback with Joe Burrow out until mid-December.
It would have been typical of the Bengals to keep Browning as the starter after that fourth quarter, but they didn’t. Instead of staying the status quo or hoping Browning had put his interception woes behind him, they made a desperate move by trading for Joe Flacco. That’s not something they would have done before the Joe Burrow era began in 2020. It’s un-Bengal like, but it’s a good thing.
Sitting at 2-3 but still with a pulse, they made a desperate move to save their season. Even without Joe Burrow, they still maximized their chances of winning.
Trading for Joe Flacco was because Browning simply wasn’t it at quarterback. But there’s so much more to it than that.
Look at what Chase did in the fourth quarter against Detroit. That showed he was still the best wide receiver in the NFL, and that he wasn’t at all quitting. The Bengals couldn’t waste Chase in his prime, even as Burrow misses most of this season. That’s why they went out and got a competent quarterback who knows how to throw him the ball.
The same goes for Tee Higgins. There’s a reason the Bengals re-signed him. He’s a great wide receiver, and a season of his prime can’t be wasted either.
Even after losing three straight games, the Bengals were not that far out of the thick of the AFC at 2-3. There was still hope, and there was too much talent and too high stakes to stick with Browning at quarterback even after his fourth quarter against the Lions.
That’s why they traded for a guy like Joe Flacco, someone who has won a Super Bowl, a Super Bowl MVP, and a lot of games. Flacco has seen a lot since his rookie season in 2008, and he’s a huge asset to this Bengals team. The Bengals’ front office made this trade. They saw that Zac Taylor was struggling to put together effective game plans and call plays at a consistently high level. Trading for Flacco was a message to him that the front office was helping him out by giving him a better quarterback to work with. It was also a message that with the talent the Bengals have on offense, if Taylor couldn’t get it going with Flacco at quarterback, then maybe his time in Cincinnati would be over.
In the past two weeks, the Bengals are 1-1. Through their last six quarters, they have looked like one of the best offenses in the NFL. This is with Flacco coming to Cincinnati on Tuesday before playing in Green Bay and playing the Steelers on a short week. Before 2020, the Bengals would never have done something like this. Then again, they have never had this high level of talent or the national spotlight on them more than they have this season.
The last two weeks haven’t felt what it normally feels like surrounding the Bengals. That’s a good thing. This organization is making moves to try to win games, including an unconventional trade for a 40-year-old quarterback. As a fan, this is fun. The best part is, it appears to be working.
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