Joe Flacco may have taken his last snap for the Cincinnati Bengals in Sunday’s loss to the New England Patriots.
The graying quarterback has only won one game since the Bengals acquired the former Super Bowl MVP from Cleveland in a trade after Joe Burrow got hurt. But Flacco is a winner who deserves a moment of appreciation.
Thank you, Joe Flacco.
You are what’s awesome about sports. You are the kind of guy I want to tell my kids to be like. A team player. A model of professionalism. A guy who plays hurt. Someone who takes responsibility for his mistakes and doesn’t get agitated with coaches, teammates, fans and reporters. Your body language and demeanor remain the same regardless of the circumstances. You don’t throw your helmet or yell at coaches and teammates on the sideline.
You absolutely love playing the game. And you have fun doing it.
Flacco was this guy yet again during a 26-20 loss, the Bengals’ eighth defeat in their last nine games. There’s a chance Burrow will return for the Thanksgiving night game in Baltimore, and Flacco will ride out the rest of his Bengals tenure as the backup.
If so, Flacco deserves to be remembered for offering Bengals fans a glimmer of hope amid an otherwise miserable season. He’s played some of the best ball of his 18-year career during his six games in a Bengals uniform. He should’ve been the talk of the NFL, especially after throwing for 1,035 yards, nine touchdowns and helping the Bengals to score 33, 38 and 42 points over a three-game stretch.
But the Bengals only won one of those games, the 33-31 thriller against Pittsburgh on Thursday Night Football in October. Everything else Flacco did was overshadowed by the Bengals’ historically awful defense.
Flacco threw a pick-six in the second quarter, when New England cornerback Marcus Jones stepped in front of a short, dump-off pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. Flacco owned it, calling it a “shame” that he messed up on the “simplest play in the world.”
Flacco entered the Patriots game nursing a sore shoulder, an injury that’s limited him in practice the last few weeks. He then dislocated the index finger on his right, throwing hand late in the game. It was the first time Flacco had ever dislocated a finger and he wasn’t sure how it would impact his throwing. He came out for one play, had the trainer pop his finger back into place and then went back in.
Two plays later, Flacco threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell Tinsley. It was a beautifully thrown, tight spiral that hit the receiver in stride.
“He played through a lot of pain,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said of Flacco.
Taylor and Flacco hugged in a hallway as they passed each other between press conferences. Taylor has great respect for how Flacco has conducted himself on and off the field and helped keep the team from splintering.
“He just keeps giving us a chance to win,” Taylor said. “We just haven’t been able to do it as a team yet.”
Flacco has never criticized anyone during this stretch of agonizing losses – even as some of his teammates have. And as Flacco faces the reality of stepping aside to make way for Cincinnati’s franchise quarterback to return, the veteran offered a perspective of which every athlete and aspiring athlete should take note.
“This is what I live to do, is go out on that field and play football,” Flacco said. “But at the same time, I feel really fortunate to have found myself in this situation. As much as I would’ve loved to see us win games, I still have had a lot of fun here with these guys in the locker room.”
Flacco continued: “I’ve felt right at home. I’ve had a blast doing it. And I don’t think I’m really looking at anything past that. I get how certain feelings could be involved with this. But in this case, it’s easy for me to put those aside and just look at the positives of the whole thing and be excited for another teammate trying to work his way back.”
If Burrow returns, it’ll be the second time Flacco will be sent to the bench this season through no fault of his own. In Cleveland, he was benched in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel. But the Browns’ offense is a mess, including have a bunch of receivers who have butter fingers. Flacco didn’t run to the TV cameras and gripe, though most would’ve been sympathetic to a guy of his stature playing on that circus act of a team.
No surprise how Flacco has handled everything this season, said Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. Flacco and Brown were teammates in Baltimore in 2018. Flacco is still the same guy now as he was then.
“He’s come in and done everything, as a teammate, that I could ask him to do,” Brown said. “It’s been awesome having him here.”
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Williams: Joe Flacco is a winner amid Cincinnati Bengals’ lost season
Reporting by Jason Williams, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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