Dan Pitcher salutes Joe Flacco for rapidly elevating Bengals' offense

The Cincinnati Bengals went from a four-game losing streak to a sudden rush of hope thanks to Joe Flacco's incredible Week 7 performance in a 33-31 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Flacco assimilated himself into the Cincinnati locker room pretty much seamlessly. He could command the huddle and spit out complex plays almost right away. Most important, Flacco played well enough to keep the team competitive in Green Bay and save the season versus Pittsburgh.

Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher has taken notice of how much ownership Flacco took of the new system since arriving in a trade from Cleveland.

Bengals OC Dan Pitcher describes once-in-a-lifetime experience of coaching Joe Flacco

Pitcher was an offensive assistant on the Bengals staff dating all the way back to 2016. He stuck around for the Zac Taylor era, working his way up to quarterbacks coach once Joe Burrow entered the NFL, and was promoted to OC last year.

Needless to say, Coach Pitch has been instrumental in Cincinnati's offensive architecture, Burrow's development, and was a big part of Jake Browning playing so well during the 2023 campaign. He's seen a lot of high-level football during his time with the Bengals at his position of expertise.

So it's quite noteworthy what Pitcher had to say to the media on Monday regarding Flacco's capacity to learn on the fly and execute at a supreme level.

One of the best moments was when Pitcher acknowledged the fact that Flacco is actually two years his junior, via CLNSCincy.com's Mike Petraglia:

"This is an experience I probably will never have again, right? I mean, this is [a guy who's] two years older than I am. I'm never going to really get to do this again. And so to see somebody as mature as he is, to have his perspective and how he's approaches preparation at the position, and then just goes out and executes and maintains a level-headedness."

No denying how much chaos there had to be for Flacco. He went from being benched for a Browns rookie amid a seemingly lost season in Cleveland to, all of a sudden, changing his stripes and getting to throw to Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Co.

Part of the luxury of having Flacco supplant Browning as Cincinnati's starting quarterback is the opportunity to freshen up what had become a stale scheme. Flacco has far greater arm strength than Browning, which is already showing up on downfield throws.

During his remarks about that aspect of Flacco's arrival in the Queen City, Pitcher expounded on how his new QB opened up the playbook, implying Joe Cool's presence pushed the offense to evolve.

"Obviously, we have a new player that we’re just having our chance to now work our third game with. So we'd be foolish not to see if there are things that his skill set affords us the opportunity to do that maybe we hadn't planned on doing. So yeah, for sure. I think that's part of the fun that comes with coaching, is having the openness to reinvent yourself, or maybe not reinvent, but at least see if there's areas that you can explore."

For all the good Browning did two seasons ago, he doesn't have anywhere near the live/high-stakes game reps Flacco does. As transcribed by Bengals Brasil on X, Pitcher said that Flacco changed the TD pass to Ja'Marr Chase (seen below) from a called run, and stated that, "Overall, we had a better offense" under the veteran's command.

We'll see if Flacco can keep this thing rolling in Week 8 against the winless New York Jets. They've played sound defense of late, but likely don't have the offensive firepower to keep up at Paycor Stadium this coming Sunday.

Shout out to Pitcher, Taylor, and the offensive staff for adapting to Flacco's skill set. Y'all have given Who Dey Nation something to be excited about until No. 9 is back under center.

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