The Cincinnati Bengals could really use a win in Week 7. Cincinnati is preparing for a huge Thursday Night Football game against Pittsburgh. Thursday's game could be extra chippy because of comments one Steelers coach made about the recent Joe Flacco trade.
Flacco gave an honest response to Mike Tomlin's comments about the trade that sent him to Cincinnati.
“Not specifically,” Flacco said on Tuesday per Cincinnati Enquirer's Dave Clark. “I heard he was talking about it a little bit, the fact that I'm on the Bengals. … I don't know. I didn't see it. I didn't get to see how upset he was. But I think he's probably just playing the game a little bit, and doing whatever he has to do.”
Tomlin seemed to call out the Browns for making a puzzling move by trading Flacco to a division rival.
“Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a QB you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area,” Tomlin said on Monday. “But that’s just my personal feeling.”
Tomlin is very familiar with Flacco after the quarterback's long tenure with the Baltimore Ravens.
Hopefully Flacco can ignore the noise and lead Cincinnati to victory in Week 7.
Is Bengals matchup against Steelers a must-win game?
Flacco cautioned against calling Week 7's matchup a “must-win game” because of the pressure that creates.
“It's tough to put that kind of pressure on yourself and your team,” Flacco said. “You've just got to go out there and you've gotta take it each play at a time and each one of you has to do your own job and focus on that. And I think the more you can focus on being in the present and just doing your job, then the results take care of themselves the best way.”
Flacco may not call it a must-win game, but Bengals fans may disagree.
If the Bengals lose in Week 7, they will fall to 2-5 after starting the season 2-0.
Cincinnati needs to create some hope that they can win without Joe Burrow. If the team or the fanbase loses that hope, it would spell disaster for the rest of the season.
Bengals vs. Steelers kicks off at 8:15PM ET on Thursday.
