Why Joe Flacco is excited about what Bengals could accomplish despite loss to Packers

Less than a week after veteran quarterback Joe Flacco joined the Cincinnati Bengals via a trade from the Cleveland Browns, Flacco tossed a pair of touchdown passes in the second half of Sunday's 27-18 loss at the Green Bay Packers. 

Despite the fact that the Bengals dropped a fourth straight game to fall to 2-4 on the season, Flacco indicated following Sunday's result that he's confident he can keep Cincinnati in postseason conversations through the fall. 

Joe Flacco "excited" to build upon first start with Bengals

"You're always looking for ways to play with confidence," Flacco said about growing more comfortable with his new club in the second half of Sunday's contest, per the Bengals' website. "I think, you know, they talk about learning how to win, and good football teams know how to do that. That's because they always believe they can win. And listen, I've only been here for a week, but I think these guys in the locker room have a good head on their shoulders, and I'm excited to get to work with them."

The Browns benched Flacco in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel after the 40-year-old signal-caller lost three of four starts to begin the season. On Sunday, Flacco and the Cincinnati offense accomplished little of note as they were held scoreless for over two quarters of action. 

In the end, Flacco completed 29-of-45 passes for 219 yards and two scores versus Green Bay. 

"This is a long season, and I know it’s easy to be down on yourself in hard times, but playing with confidence shows," Flacco added, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. "So, we’ve got to find a way to kind of get some of that back, but I think we do have the ability to do that. Listen, we’ve got a big week coming up, and these division games are always good matchups, and going in and playing a good game this upcoming week could help a lot with that. And [Sunday] probably helped a little bit, but you still want to win the game."

Those running the Bengals clearly felt the club needed to make a drastic move after Jake Browning played poorly in three straight losses with Joe Burrow sidelined due to a serious toe injury. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor suggested after Sunday's result that Flacco will look better when Cincinnati hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1) this coming Thursday night. 

Will Bengals have more "confidence" for "TNF" game vs. Steelers? 

"You have confidence, but (we’re) careful because we didn’t do enough to win there, but there is confidence on offense with Joe just showing up that we can continue to play off that," Taylor explained. "It will be an entirely different defense, a different structure, and again, we just have to come together as a team to figure it out and find a way to win."

As of Monday morning, ESPN BET had the Bengals as 5.5-point underdogs against the Steelers. While it's not yet Halloween, that could prove to be a must-win game for a Bengals team that was 2-0 on the morning of Sept. 21.