Joe Flacco and Mike Tomlin go back a long way. Dating back to when Flacco was a Baltimore Raven, he and Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers have had plenty of battles.
Now, Flacco is with the Cincinnati Bengals, trying to keep them alive before Joe Burrow returns from injury late in the year. He managed to do so Thursday, defeating Pittsburgh in a thriller. Speaking after the game, Flacco spoke about his respect for Tomlin and the way he’s starting to enjoy playing the Steelers more.
“I have so much respect for Mike and the battles that we’ve had,” Flacco said via Bengals.com. “In Pittsburgh, in Baltimore, last year in Indianapolis. I always find a way to play them. And I love playing them. I didn’t really feel that way to begin with. I didn’t love going into Heinz Field, and my rookie year they beat us three times. But those games against those guys, in my career, have been different than others… I love going against him [Tomlin].”
Flacco talks his respect for Tomlin, and it’s certainly mutual. Earlier this year, Tomlin made a remark that he’d rather have played Anthony Richardson instead of Flacco in the Colts game last year. And just this week he was highly critical of the Browns for trading Flacco to the Bengals, knowing he’d have to play him Thursday.
In each of those two matchups the last two years, Joe Flacco has gotten the job done. He threw for 168 yards and two scores last year and was also really impressive Thursday. Just over a week after joining the Bengals, Flacco completed 31 of 47 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns. Given his situation, that’s extremely impressive, and Tomlin must be kicking himself after imagining he’d be playing Jake Browning not that long ago.
Now, the Steelers may have a divisional race on their hands. The Bengals are just one back in the win column, and we’ve seen Flacco will teams to the postseason before. He did with the Browns just a couple of years ago. With Burrow coming back late in the season, Flacco doesn’t have to go quite as far this year. But he certainly looks good enough to keep Cincinnati afloat.
It’s another chapter in the Joe Flacco-Mike Tomlin story, and this is one of the most unique matchups yet. This time, Flacco gets the last laugh against a team he now enjoys playing.
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