GREEN BAY, Wis. \_ Now that we know the NFL's best player not only makes some of the game's most spectacular plays, but he also calls some of them, we can turn around quickly and see the big, bad, and first-place Steelers advancing on Paycor Stadium Thursday night.
"The next game is always the most important game because it's a divisional game, but also because of the standings and where we are right now," said Bengals All-Pro wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase after another mesmerizing ten catches from a Joe he hardly knows.
"The Steelers are going to try and come in … and kill us. But we'll be ready for that challenge, and we'll be waiting for it."
The 4-1 Steelers are threatening to run away from the AFC North, and the 2-4 Bengals are the last folks at the station. Chase and his new Joe who has had some big days against Pittsburgh gave the Steelers something to think about with Sunday's second half of improv and intrigue that wasn't good enough to beat the Packers but good enough to ride a wave into a North matchup where norms don't matter.
The first half understandably amounted to the first team drill of training camp for quarterback Joe Flacco after he arrived at Paycor Stadium Tuesday via trade. His first four series netted one first down, and three went three-and-out.
But Flacco got into a rhythm with Chase in the last minute of the half in a hurry-up set that carried into the second half, where he engineered three straight scoring drives and topped it off dancing away from the looming Micah Parsons for a two-point conversion throw to running back Chase Brown.
"I thought as an offense we settled in. Probably sometime in the second quarter," said Flacco, who did exactly what they envisioned Tuesday in the second half Sunday when he hit 21 of 30 passes for 179 yards.
"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."
Chase, who wriggled for 110 yards last week from Jake Browning, came within six yards of another 100-yarder with the new guy. He had almost as many catches (10) as he had reps during the week with Flacco (12).