With quarterback Joe Flacco poised to make NFL history on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, he may have to do it without his top offensive weapon.
Flacco is trying to become the first quarterback in the NFL to defeat a team twice in the same season while playing for different teams. The Cincinnati Bengals are traveling to Green Bay this weekend and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase might not be available.
Head coach Zac Taylor said Friday that Chase came down with an illness and they are just going to have to see how he does.
“Zac Taylor says Ja’Marr Chase got sick last night and is questionable to play vs the Packers,” Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer posted on X.
Ja’Marr Chase sitting out would mean a lot of pressure on Tee Higgins
As it is, the Bengals offense is pretty poor. Quarterback play with Jake Browning has been nothing short of terrible, the running game is non existent and the offensive line can’t really block anyone.
That means that the team really needs a lot out of Chase and his Robin Tee Higgins on a regular basis. Without Chase? The team’s options to win games for any reason significantly decreases.
“If Chase were to miss the game, the Bengals would be relying heavily on Tee Higgins and Andrei Iosivas to carry the load at wide receiver,” writes Jason Marcum of Cincy Jungle. “It also could mean we finally see Jermaine Burton active for the first time this season, though it’s more likely that Mitchell Tinsley would be the biggest benefactor to Chase potentially being out.”
Can Flacco set the NFL record without Ja’Marr Chase?
In 1962, Jack Kemp beat the New York Titans twice in one season with the San Diego Chargers and then the Buffalo Bills. But, that was with the AFL and even though that league eventually merged with the NFL, that doesn’t count. It was still the AFL so the record is still there for the taking for Flacco.
Packers’ head coach Matt LaFleur said this week that he’s never faced a quarterback twice in one season.
“Outside of a division game, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the same quarterback on a different team, so it will be interesting,” LaFleur said Wednesday. “I certainly was a little surprised.”
That’s surely a record LaFleur doesn’t want any parts of, but if Chase doesn’t play then the odds of it happening are significantly lower.
“I’d say that Joe Flacco has been playing this game for a really long time and he’s been in a lot of different systems, so I’d bet that he’d have no problem picking it up in a short period of time,” LaFleur said. “I think the hardest thing for them is going to be the nuances of your cadence, your snap count, the rapport you have with the other players. Now, he’s pretty fortunate, he has some good guys to certainly throw to.”
The game kicks off on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. at Lambeau Field.
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