Ja’Marr Chase shines as Bengals notch much-needed win

The Cincinnati Bengals, led by quarterback Joe Flacco, defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 33-31.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase had a career-high 16 receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown.
The Steelers’ defense struggled, allowing 33 points and failing to contain Chase.

Mike Tomlin was perplexed as to why the Cleveland Browns traded Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals. We found out why Thursday night.

With Flacco at quarterback, the Bengals upset the Pittsburgh Steelers 33-31 in primetime.

The Steelers got off to a quick 10-0 lead, but the Bengals scored 20 unanswered points and were able to hold off their division rival.

Flacco targeted star wideout Ja’Marr Chase throughout the game. The Bengals wideout was uncoverable as he finished with a career-high 16 receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown.

Flacco passed for 342 yards and three touchdowns.

USA TODAY Sports breaks down the winners and losers from the AFC North battle:

Winners

Ja’Marr Chase shines

When in doubt, throw the football to Chase.

Chase was the undisputed best player on the field. The Steelers secondary had all kinds of trouble covering the star wideout. The Steelers inexplicably rarely doubled Chase.

Chase had a career-high 16 catches on a career-most 23 targets. He finished with 161 yards and one touchdown. His 23 targets were tied for the third most ever since 1978.

Chase joined Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Randy Moss as the only three players in NFL history with 6,000-plus receiving yards and 50-plus touchdown receptions in their first five career seasons.

Chase is the best wide receiver in football right now.

Joe Flacco impresses

Flacco was comfortable conducting Cincinnati’s offense despite being traded less than two weeks ago.

Flacco targeted Chase throughout the game, and rightfully so because the Steelers couldn’t contain the wideout.

The 40-year-old QB completed 31-of-47 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns in the win.

The Bengals scored points on seven of their final eight drives, including the game-winning field goal drive.

Flacco even kept the football on a zone read in the fourth quarter for good measure.

Bengals offensive line

The much-maligned Bengals O-line played perhaps their most complete game.

The Bengals came into the game averaging a league-low 56.7 rushing yards per game. Cincinnati produced 142 rushing yards, in large part because of the offensive line’s performance.

Joe Flacco was only sacked twice.

‘Old’ quarterbacks

Aaron Rodgers, 41, and Joe Flacco, 40, took center stage Thursday night. It marked the fourth matchup all-time between starting quarterback both over the age of 40.

Tom Brady and Drew Brees met twice during the 2020 season and once in the playoffs.

The “old” quarterbacks combined for 591 passing yards and seven touchdowns. Rodgers did toss two picks.

Flacco had the better performance but both quarterbacks played well.

Losers

Steelers defense

Joe Flacco was traded to the Bengals on Oct. 7. Flacco doesn’t even know his way around Cincinnati yet, but he had an easy time carving up the Steelers defense.

Pittsburgh gave up 328 passing yards, 142 rushing yards and 33 points. The Bengals had seven scoring drives. At one point Cincy scored points on six straight possessions.

Jalen Ramsey, Steelers secondary

Ramsey had a difficult time covering Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. He couldn’t stop either of them in man coverage.

Ramsey gave up a touchdown to Chase, and then Higgins had a 28-yard reception on the corner in the fourth quarter that set up a game-winning field goal.

Ramsey wasn’t the only corner who had a difficult night. The entire secondary got torched by Chase. And Higgins did his part with six catches, 96 yards and a touchdown.