CINCINNATI — New Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco managed to do something Sunday evening that Bengals fans have been losing sleep over for weeks now: He revived the offense by getting the ball to the team’s star receivers.

Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins combined for 20 targets, 15 receptions, 156 yards, and one touchdown, which is the biggest reason that the offense finally seemed to find some footing after a rough past three weeks.

Finding Higgins though should be one of the biggest takeaways of the day for fans and media alike, as the Bengals quarterbacks were not doing it, leading to Higgins having the worst start to a season in his career. Through the first five weeks of this season, Higgins had 13 receptions on 24 targets, leading to only 158 yards and two touchdowns.

No matter which way you look at it, it is unacceptable that it was the case. Thankfully Flacco connected with Higgins five times in his Bengals debut. He’s built solid chemistry with his receivers.

Entering this week the Bengals are in a position where they absolutely must win on Thursday night against the Steelers in order to stay firmly within not only the AFC North race, but the playoff race as a whole. You can bet that Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have a plan of how to potentially slow down Ja’Marr Chase.

That is where Zac Taylor and the offense have to have a plan in place to attack whoever is guarding Higgins. The Steelers starting corners are Joey Porter Jr., who is coming off a hamstring injury and only played in two games this season, 34 year old Darius Slay, and Jalen Ramsey playing more in the nickel this season so far.

Both are matchups that both receivers should win, though expect to see safety help or even help from Ramsey in an effort to slow down Chase.

Because of this, things should in turn open things up exponentially for Higgins and allow him to feast against whoever lines up across him, and Flacco being the veteran he is should already know that this could be a game where he is forced to look Higgins’s way early and often with deep jump balls in 1-on-1 situations.

The Bengals have to win this game, no matter what anybody tells you, and in order to do that they will need to get the ball into Higgins hands as quick and efficient as possible.

That’s something before a week ago we thought would not happen at all with Jake Browning at quarterback. Now with Joe Flacco in at the helm, Higgins has a chance to truly have his breakout game of the 2025 season and give new life to a Bengals season hanging by a thread.