Flacco suffered an AC joint sprain in his right shoulder on his lone sack of the 39-38 loss to the New York Jets and only practiced in limited fashion Thursday, which he said was his plan to “test it out.” He took advantage of added recovery time otherwise and said he felt “good” Friday.
Neither Flacco nor Bengals coach Zac Taylor could say definitively that Flacco will play, but Cincinnati made him available in a press conference Friday and his responses seemed to lean toward him being out there Sunday.
“I think when you are the guy out there playing, there’s always a sense of obligation to go out there and be there for your team,” Flacco said. “In terms of that, showing up for your team, I missed my second son’s birth because I thought it was important for the quarterback to be out there. I didn’t know I was going to miss it, but it just so happened he came on that day. But I do feel a sense of obligation being out there for the guys you play with.”
Flacco was there for the Ravens on Sept. 15, 2013, and helped them to a 14-6 win over Cleveland, as his wife ended up in the delivery room. Cincinnati needs Flacco like the Ravens benefited from his presence that day.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The 18th-year quarterback had been brought in via trade from Cleveland in Week 6 to provide a spark to Bengals’ offense full of talented weapons after Jake Browning struggled with turnovers in four games as Joe Burrow’s initial replacement.
The Bengals averaged 217.3 yards of offense and 12.3 points in Browning’s three starts, but they racked up 378.7 yards of offense and 29.7 points per game in the last three games with Flacco. Browning threw six touchdowns and eight interceptions over his four appearances, while Flacco has thrown seven touchdowns with no interceptions in almost the same amount of time.
Flacco wants to do everything he can to be ready Sunday.
“I didn’t really give it much thought,” Flacco said. “It’s just like, you try to play. You’re the quarterback, and then you take it from there. I think my initial instinct is whatever we can do to get there and then adjust.”
Bengals coach Zac Taylor gave “kudos” to Flacco for wanting to play.
“He wasn’t here in the offseason; he wasn’t invested in our training camp,” Taylor said. “For him to come in, it would be easy to make the decision that, ‘There’s no way I’m playing. I’ve got an AC joint, we’ve got a bye week next week, so let’s just let this thing heal up.’ That has not been the communication he’s given to me at all. Ultimately, he may not be able to play, he may make that decision. For him just to want to put it out there for a team, himself, like he said before, he’s just a football player, that’s what he does, that certainly goes a long way with me.”
Taylor said it’s also good for young players to see a leader and guy they are counting on willing to sacrifice to help the team.
Flacco said he’s never suffered a shoulder injury like this one before, so he didn’t know what to expect this week but he wanted to test it out Thursday and that was enough to know he could handle playing. Taylor felt comfortable with what he saw, as well.
Now, it’s a matter of how the shoulder reacts in the time leading up to the game, but Flacco said if he plays, he will treat it like any other game with no limitations. The biggest injury he played through was a hip issue during the 2009 season when he helped the Ravens to a playoff win over New England.
“I only threw like (10) passes that game (completing four for 32 yards) but it was something that I was dealing with all year,” Flacco said. “… By the end of the year, my whole left leg was just destroyed. I was not moving well at all. That was an issue.”
Flacco said he’s not worried about what happens if he plays Sunday and the shoulder gets worse. He will deal with that when the time comes.
Cincinnati needs a win Sunday. That would put them at 4-5 going into the bye week.
“They’re all so crucial,” Flacco said. “Every single one. We only play 17 of them. Yeah, it’s more than we used to, but they’re still all so important. I’ve also talked about the fact that you can’t really think about those things because that’s just putting more pressure on you and it’ll make you make decisions that are bad. They’re now how you should be playing the game. That’s always the case. That’s always there looming, how important the game is. But we’ve got to keep our blinders on and go and do what we do.”
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