It was a battle of the veteran quarterbacks during “Thursday Night Football,” as 41-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and 40-year-old Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Flacco proved age really is just a number.
Thursday’s Week 7 contest turned into a shootout with the Bengals pulling out a 33-31 upset in the final seconds.
Flacco threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns, and helped Cincinnati snag the game-winning drive in the final seconds of what turned into a storybook home debut for the new Bengal.
Rodgers threw for four touchdowns in the Steelers loss. According to NFL research, he surpassed former Steelers signal-caller Ben Roethlisberger (64,088) for the fifth-most career passing yards in NFL history (64,222) during the evening, too.
After the game, Rodgers and Flacco shared a moment together that’s getting attention - in a good way.
The Bengals’ social media team shared a video on X of Rodgers and Flacco exchanging a handshake and niceties after the game. The exchange seemed to be a in good spirits, and fans on X commented about the positive moment.
“Big game for the true Joe Cool,” one said.
“The new senior Quarterback division of the NFL. I think these two have more years in the NFL combined than all the other quarterbacks combined in the NFL. lol,” another said.
“That was an awesome showing by the both of them,” another commenter chimed in.
“WE WON THE ICY HOT BOWL,” one user joked.
“As a fellow 40 year old. These are dudes,” another user remarked.
After the win, Flacco is being praised as a blessing for the Bengals this season. In a feature published right after the game, Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports said that it’s not an overreaction to say that Flacco saved the Bengals’ season.
“The Bengals looked like an offense that was finally able to go downfield with Flacco, using Ja’Marr Chase to the best of his ability (Chase got 23 targets) and Tee Higgins had premium usage as well (10 targets),” Kerr said in the early Friday morning story. “The AFC North is certainly up for grabs with Flacco and the Bengals offense clicking like this. The sky is the limit if Flacco can get protected and the Bengals can get the ball downfield.”
Flacco was honest with the media after the game and said he wasn’t sure that he would experience the kind of joy that he was having Thursday night in the NFL again when he joined the Bengals.
“It felt like I might not, to be honest with you,” Flacco said, according to ESPN. “It’s pretty special.”
2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.