'TNF' takeaways: Unstoppable Joe Flacco stuns Steelers, saves Bengals season

The Cincinnati Bengals needed a win on Thursday night, and they got in the most unlikely of ways against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, having been with the team for less than two weeks, lit up the Steelers defense in a 33-31 win, keeping his new team in the AFC North race just when it looked like their season was going to be over.

Here are some key takeaways from their win. 

Joe Flacco delivered for Bengals 

Flacco may not have a lot left in the tank, and he may not be the quarterback he was in his prime when he won a Super Bowl MVP with the Baltimore Ravens, but he can still sling the ball around the field. He still has that veteran poise. He still has the knowledge to know what to do with the ball and when to do it. 

The Bengals mostly just needed somebody to come in, protect the football in a way Jake Browning could not and deliver some passes to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. 

Flacco did all of that on Thursday and more. 

After a tough opening drive, Flacco was able to settle in and absolutely carved up a Steelers defense that had come in off back-to-back strong efforts. 

Flacco and Chase were borderline unstoppable, with Flacco throwing for 342 yards and three touchdowns on 31-of-47 passing.

Chase was his go-to target, catching 16 of 23 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. The Steelers had no answer for any of it. 

A lot of the Bengals' biggest flaws were fixed for one night

Entering Thursday night, the Bengals were the NFL's worst rushing offense, averaging a dismal 56.7 yards per game.

They rushed for 142 yards and 6.2 per carry. 

They forced two important takeaways on defense that turned into scores. 

Their offensive line had been allowing sacks and pressure at a staggering rate, and it did not allow the Steelers pass rush to disrupt the game. 

Everything just came together. 

Is this a sign of things to come or just a desperate team that put it all together for a game? That remains to be seen, but they needed at least one game to give themselves a chance. Now they have the chance, and with an upcoming game against the New York Jets in 10 days, they could very easily be back to .500 with back-to-back games against the Chicago Bears and Steelers to follow. 

Steelers waste massive opportunity

While the Bengals have new life in the AFC North, the Steelers missed an absolutely massive opportunity to take complete control of the division — days after Mike Tomlin set a poor tone for Pittsburgh.

They entered the game with a 4-1 record, the Ravens and Bengals have major injuries to their quarterbacks, and the Browns are still the Browns. Every team in the division kept losing except for them. A win would have given the Steelers a four-game lead over the Ravens and a three-and-a-half game lead over the Bengals with the head-to-head tiebreaker for the moment.

They would have been in control.

If somebody had told them they would score 31 points in the game, it probably would have been easy to assume that they would win easily against a team without its best defensive player (Trey Hendrickson) and an old quarterback that had only been in the building for 10 days.

Instead of taking control of the division, they let the Bengals (and Ravens) right back in it.