Bengals coach Zac Taylor discusses the week of practice with Joe Flacco and what he expects come Sunday
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor hasn’t gotten much sleep this week following the trade for veteran quarterback Joe Flacco. It’s been an unlimited amount of coffee type of week for Taylor.
NFL head coaches work long hours during game weeks, but this week on another level for Taylor, Flacco and all of the offensive coaches on Cincinnati’s staff.
Not only did the Bengals trade for Flacco, but they did so with the intention to start him against the Packers.
In his 18-year NFL career, Flacco says he’s never been through a situation like this. He’s bounced around in recent years to different teams, but never the week of a game with the expectation that he is the starting quarterback.
The Bengals got him to Cincinnati in time so that Flacco could participate in all three practices before the team leaves for Green Bay on Oct. 11. Taylor is pleased with what he saw from his new starting quarterback this week.
“Very intelligent … it’s not overwhelming for him,” Taylor said on Oct. 10. “Maybe it is, but he does a great job of not showing that and steadying on his own and coming back and being ready to roll. So I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve seen. You feel like you can go win a game with the information that he has about our offense and how to operate. It’s not going to be perfect. There will be some challenges, I’m sure. But he’s done a great job getting himself up to speed and other coaches helping him, players helping him.”
Taylor and Flacco have 48 hours together left to put the final touches on the game plan. The Bengals are riding a three-game losing streak and the idea behind trading for Flacco was to jump-start the offense and give the Bengals a spark in the locker room and on the field.
Flacco will be wearing a wristband that he can use to help him know what each play call is. Taylor will call in a number and on the wrist band next to that number, Flacco will see the play call and share it in the huddle. Most quarterbacks wear wristbands on the road because of crowd noise and the issues play-callers and quarterbacks deal with trying to make sure the call is heard and executed.
That should help Flacco's and Taylor’s communication.
“We’ll wristband it all,” Taylor said. “I’ll try to give him a heads up on the play I’m about to call so at least he knows what’s coming at him before he reads the wristband. So he can picture the concept and then read it so he’s not reading it and visualizing it for the first time. We’ll do that. I have a couple of hand signals. So far, he hasn’t really needed any of that.”Few quarterbacks would be able to come in the week of a game and be able to learn the offense and execute it well enough that the head coach feels comfortable starting him.
In addition to his strong arm and what the Bengals feel they can get from him on the field, one of the main reasons Cincinnati felt comfortable trading for Flacco was the experience he comes with and knowledge of many different NFL offensive schemes.
Next up for Taylor and Flacco is the “honest feedback portion of things” as the game plan gets finalized.
“Which plays do you not want? Is there something we’re missing that you think you’d be good at? That’s where this next 48 hours goes,” Taylor said.
Flacco said he believes that despite his age and getting benched by the Browns a week ago, he can still play well enough to win games for the Bengals. It’s the main reason he keeps playing.
The Bengals are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with Flacco and start scoring more points on offense. Cincinnati has a critical two-game stretch in 10 days with an AFC North battle against the Pittsburgh Steelers coming up on Thursday Night Football, four days after the Week 6 game in Green Bay.
If the Bengals can win at least one of the next two games, they would be right in the thick of the AFC playoff standings. But all that matters right now is getting Flacco comfortable enough to be able to execute the offense at Lambeau Field.
“The biggest challenge is probably still just the Green Bay Packers and the team that they have. They're a confident team that plays good football,” Flacco said. “You know, I think all the other stuff, you can use that as an excuse, but we still have to go play a football game on Sunday and they're the ones that stand in front of us.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Zac Taylor ‘very pleased’ with Joe Flacco ahead of trip to Green Bay
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