Joe Flacco hopes to shake off disappointing loss and injured shoulder as Bengals host Bears

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First came a disappointing loss for Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals. Now the 40-year-old quarterback is dealing with a shoulder injury.

On Sunday, the Bengals will host a Chicago Bears team that also felt it should have won last weekend.

The Bears (4-3) had a four-game winning streak snapped with a 30-16 loss at the Baltimore Ravens, who were missing quarterback Lamar Jackson for a third straight game.

The Bengals (3-5) blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 39-38 to the previously winless New York Jets.

Cincinnati needs a win to stay in the AFC North race and has concerns about the health of Flacco, who injured the AC joint in his throwing shoulder during the second half against the Jets. The 18-year veteran did not practice on Wednesday and was limited on Thursday.

Even if Flacco gets limited practice snaps, coach Zac Taylor is confident in his quarterback, as long as he's healthy enough to play. The 40-year old Flacco made his first Bengals start at Green Bay five days after being traded from Cleveland and then led Cincinnati to victory in his second game on a Thursday night against Pittsburgh after another short week.

The Bengals are counting on Flacco to keep them afloat while star quarterback Joe Burrow recovers from toe surgery, and Taylor expects Flacco to do everything he can to play.

“I think if anybody in this league can get by on minimal reps right now, it’s him,” Taylor said.

“I’ve seen him show up three days with no knowledge of our offense whatsoever, Ja’Marr (Chase) got minimal work that week and the next week we got no physical reps whatsoever. I think that proof is out there that we could do it if we needed to,” the coach continued.

In his three starts with the Bengals, Flacco has a 100.1 passer rating, a 64.3% completion rate, and has thrown for seven touchdowns with no interceptions.

For Chicago, Caleb Williams will make his 25th NFL start on Sunday. The second-year QB has completed 18 passes of 25-plus yards this season, second-most in the league. Wide receivers Rome Odunze and Olamide Zaccheaus each had seven receptions last week.

Williams and the Bears are looking for better production in the red zone. Chicago has had 19 trips inside opponents' 20 over the past five games and has seven touchdowns and nine field goals. The Bengals’ defense has allowed a TD 70.3% of the time in the red zone, the third-highest rate.

“It just comes down to execution. As a run game, as a pass game, it comes down to details," Williams said. “Run game: stand on landmarks, hitting the holes, finding those — even if it’s not a gaping hole, getting those dirty four yards, three yards, because that goes a long way. Then pass game, it’s just being on the same page.”

Chase has three straight games with at least 10 catches, a first in franchise history.

The fifth-year All-Pro leads the league with 70 receptions, including 38 in the past three games. If he gets double-digit receptions against the Bears, he would join Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson as the only players to do it in four straight games.

“When you watch the tape, especially over the last few weeks, they’re feeding some targets to him. There’s times I look on the tape, I’m like, ‘There’s two dudes draped all over him and they’re still throwing the ball to him’, so they have a lot of confidence in what he can do,” Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said.

Turnovers have been a key to the Bears' four victories. Chicago has an NFL-best 16 takeaways and defensive back Kevin Byard III is tied for the league lead with four interceptions.

The Bears have three or more takeaways in each of their wins but have totaled just one in their three losses.

The Bengals haven't committed a turnover in their past three games.

“I think that shows as a defense right now when we get takeaways, we win the ballgame,” Byard said. We have to play cleaner football. But, we know the recipe for, at least on the back end, we take the ball away. So just doing everything we can to try to get the ball. That’s always on our mind, so that’s been a discussion.”

The Bengals have allowed four 100-yard games to running backs, their most in the first eight weeks of a season since five opposing backs did it in 2007.

Pittsburgh's Jaylen Warren had 127 yards on Oct. 16 and the Jets' Breece Hall ran for 133 last Sunday. The Bengals are last in the league in run defense, allowing 151.9 yards per game.

Chicago's D'Andre Swift has 464 rushing yards and has scored a touchdown from scrimmage in four straight games.

“Honestly, it’s a collective effort. You can’t point one thing out. Everyone is on the field and has to do his job," Bengals safety Geno Stone said. “The only thing I can say for the back end is (that), I think whenever we have the opportunity to have an open-field tackle, we just have to get them down. That’s really all it is — no matter if the run breaks — we just have to get them down and we can’t let them score.”

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