A win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Paycor Stadium Oct. 16 could change the outlook of the Cincinnati Bengals season.
Short weeks in the NFL come with obvious disadvantages, but for a team that hasn't won in over a month, the sight of the "Thursday Night Football" production trucks at Paycor Stadium Oct. 13 offered a chance for a fresh start after a fourth consecutive loss.
The Cincinnati Bengals (2-4) have lost four straight after falling to the Green Bay Packers in Week 6, but a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in primetime Oct. 16 could change the outlook of the season.
"We need this one," defensive back D.J. Turner said. "We are locked into it."
Steelers in control of AFC North
The AFC North has the fewest combined wins (8) of any division in the NFL (six divisions have at least 11 victories). The Steelers own half of those wins at 4-1 after pummeling the Cleveland Browns in Week 6.
"I think there's a lot of emphasis on this game. We're coming off the stretch we've come off of. We want to win. We're hungry for it," head coach Zac Taylor said Oct. 13. "You've got a home divisional game. The division is where it is right now. As it stands, it's the top two teams and you get get a chance to knock them down a peg and put yourself up one, so our guys understand what's at stake, and it's big for us."
The Bengals are coming off a five-game stretch against a team with a winning record (combined 18-9-1) and Pittsburgh will be the sixth.
A victory puts the Bengals within striking distance with 10 games remaining and a softer part of the schedule on the horizon. A fifth straight loss puts the Bengals 3.5 games out of first place.
"(A win) would be huge. That's the one thing we just need. I feel like everyone's got that attitude now. Ever since that Minnesota game, I feel like we all got that attitude that we want to win," said safety Geno Stone, who made his first NFL start against Aaron Rodgers in 2021. "Once we get this win, we'll get the momentum going from there.
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher added: "If you zoom out and try to project the outcome of this game on ultimate opportunity to get where we want to go, certainly it's an important game. I am personally not feeling the burden of that as much as we're getting ready to play a really good defense on Thursday night."
The Bengals are 0-3 under Taylor on the road on "Thursday Night Football" and 2-0 at home. This will be the Bengals' first divisional "Thursday Night Football" matchup at home since a win over Baltimore in 2018.
"I know statistically it's probably you're less likely to win a Thursday night game, but we know how hard it is to win in this division on the road," Taylor said.
Bengals hope to add to Joe Flacco's plate against Steelers: 'We saw what it could look like.'
Pitcher outlined how taxing a Thursday game can be on a coaching staff compared to a normal week.
"Sometimes it feels like, 'how are we going to get all of this done?'" Pitcher said.
Easing the burden of what can feel like a fire drill preparation is a veteran quarterback. After a slow start and a first-half shutout, veteran Joe Flacco led the Bengals on three consecutive scoring drives to threaten the first-place Packers. He finished 29-of-45 with 219 yards, two touchdowns and a 90.9 passer rating just five days after joining the club.
"Overall, really impressed with him (Flacco) yesterday. We saw what it could look like," Pitcher said.
Flacco's experience was one of the main reasons the Bengals pulled off the trade with Cleveland. That will be a key factor in game planning this week with Flacco having 21 career starts against Mike Tomlin's Steelers.
"Even being around the guy for six days now, there's a calming element that goes with him because of his professionalism and his experience," Pitcher said. "It puts a coach at ease that there's nothing that's going to jump out at him that's going to rattle him."
Flacco's grasping of the gameplan for Green Bay started mid-drive from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Taylor said he scratched some of the non-essentials in the playbook to speed up the process. Despite another short week on deck, the Bengals won't hesitate to add more to his plate.
"We'll continue to press the envelope," Taylor said. "We don't want to overwhelm, we don't want to get the point of diminishing returns, where now we got too much and we're forgetting what this means and that means, but I think he's shown he is capable of taking on a little bit more."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Bengals quickly turn page to Steelers in Week 7
Category: Football
