The Bengals' season is at its crossroads this week

GREEN BAY — Four days from now, if the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football, it’ll feel like the Bengals are starting their charge, making the most of their trade for quarterback Joe Flacco and setting themselves up for a hopeful second half of the season.

If the Bengals lose to the Steelers on Thursday night, the Bengals’ season will feel over.

On Sunday at Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers beat the Bengals, 27-18. The greater meaning of this game won’t be clear until Friday morning.

Either the bounce back second half against the Packers’ was the start of Flacco’s season-saving effort for a Bengals team that currently has a 2-4 record, or it was a footnote in a season where the Bengals’ offense still just might not be good enough to do much of anything without Joe Burrow.

“We’re in a good position right now,” Ja’Marr Chase said. “We answered the bell today. Getting ourselves back the momentum, how we want to attack on offense and be a prolific offense. The second half showed it, but in the first half we’ve got to do better.”

In the first half on Sunday as Flacco made his Bengals’ debut, the offense was as bad as you’ll ever see. The Bengals totaled one first down on their first four series, and then the best they could do in their two-minute drill before halftime was set up a potential 67-yard field goal from Evan McPherson that missed.

There was a new quarterback under center for the Bengals, but it was just as ugly. It looked like, well, the Bengals traded for a 40-year-old quarterback who had just been benched by the Browns and started him five days later.

The trench play was poor, and Flacco isn’t a threat to make impact off-schedule plays on the move. Zac Taylor called a very conservative game. Flacco admittedly missed two chances for open check downs, but at other times he’d just lock in on one receiver before throwing the ball away.

“The first game with Joe (Flacco), honestly, it really wasn’t that bad,” Chase said. “In the second half, we started getting into our groove with him and figuring out what he likes best. I don’t think it was that bad overall. We’ve just got to come out faster. We’re all trying to figure out what we can get to and how we can get the playmakers the ball. How much time Joe has to get the ball out of his hands. We were trying to figure that out the first (few) possessions.”

Meanwhile, the Bengals’ first-half defense was impressive. The unit fought fatigue after the Bengals’ offense handed the defense one short field after another. DJ Turner was playing the best football of his career. A perfectly designed third-down blitz set up a pick for Geno Stone. Joseph Ossai killed a drive. The Packers took a 10-0 lead into halftime.

Facing a Packers team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, the Bengals then opened the second half with a 17-play touchdown drive that really made this a game.

“We were able to get some runs going and at least be efficient,” Chase Brown said. “When you’re able to get into a rhythm offensively, it opens up the play calling. When you go three and out and can’t stay on the field, it’s limited opportunities. When we’re efficient and turn the chains over, it opens up so much more. It allows (Dan Pitcher) and Zac (Taylor) the confidence to keep calling these runs, keep calling these passes and get the ball to Ja’Marr and Tee more.”

Even though Taylor and Flacco had to ad-lib a few plays because the quarterback is brand new in this offense, the offense found away after halftime to threaten a strong Packers defense. Ja’Marr Chase said that Flacco’s biggest strength was his ability to decisively get rid of the ball quickly. Flacco picked apart the Packers over the middle, finding Chase and Higgins on curls and deep crossing routes.

Flacco marveled at their hands after Chase and Higgins snatched iffy passes and turned them into big completions. Chase caught a one-handed touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game as the Bengals mounted an earnest comeback. The only element that was missing was explosiveness as the deep passing game never felt close to clicking, but second half was full of things to build on for the Bengals’ offense.

“I thought as an offense we settled in,” said Flacco, who threw for 179 yards in the second half. “We played a good second half. But usually against a good football team, playing one good half isn’t going to be good enough. But we gave ourselves a chance there at the end and did some good things, but just not enough early on.”

While the Bengals scored 18 points after halftime, the defense collapsed.

In reality, if at the start of the year you’d have said that there would be no Trey Hendrickson, Shemar Stewart or Logan Wilson and that Cam Taylor-Britt would be fighting for playing time, this was about what you’d expect.

Hendrickson missed the second half with a back injury, Stewart has been out with an ankle injury, Wilson was benched for rookie Barrett Carter in a surprising development and Taylor-Britt has settled in as the Bengals’ No. 3 cornerback and had a benchable drive on Sunday.

Add in the fact that Jordan Battle played a poor game and Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. had their share of rookie moments. Benching Wilson was the official sign that this defense is in a complete rebuild and youth movement. There will be growing pains.

“The offense came out in the second half and did their part,” BJ Hill said. “I put it on the defense. We’ve got to play a full game. We haven’t done that in a while. We came out in the first half well and then laid an egg in the second half. We’ve got to keep that same focus and do the little things right.”

Wilson was supposed to be the heartbeat of this defense. He was the guy that Al Golden knew best, and the linebackers are the engine in Golden’s system.

Wilson really hasn’t been playing poorly, and his comfort dropping back in zone coverage and reading quarterbacks’ eyes has been a drive-changing difference maker for the Bengals recently.

There were a few moments last week against the Lions where Wilson’s speed and limitations in space showed up, including a play in man coverage where he stumbled off the line of scrimmage.

Taylor said that benching Wilson was more about what they were seeing from Carter, a fourth-round pick out of Clemson.

“Barrett has been an ascending player,” Taylor said. “It was time to see what he can do in a full-time role. We’ve given him bits and pieces over time. It was time to throw him into the fire and go.”

Carter has intriguing traits, and he’s one of the stronger coverage linebackers that you’ll see. His speed is an asset. But Carter and Knight were all over some of the defense’s negative plays after halftime, including a touchdown run where no linebacker plugged a wide open gap right up the middle.

Tackling at the second level was a defining part of the Bengals’ struggles on Sunday.

That also includes strong safety Jordan Battle, who missed a tackle on the Packers’ final touchdown and also lost a receiver on a scramble drill for the 31-yard completion that essentially ended the game.

(The game) was about controlling the line of scrimmage, stopping the run and having good eyes into the backfield,” Battle said. “I’ve got to be more aware sometimes.”

With Carter in Wilson’s place, the Bengals now have two rookie linebackers, a slot corner who’s new to the position, two outside corners who are still finding their footing, a strong safety in his first full year as a starter and defensive linemen like Stewart, Myles Murphy, Kris Jenkins and Joseph Ossai who have a lot of room to grow.

Flacco has a shot to be able to keep the Bengals in games. But even the way that Taylor called Sunday’s game in Green Bay reinforced that from a game script perspective, the Bengals only have a chance this year if the defense pulls plenty of weight.

“(I’m) just frustrated right now because we weren’t able to pull it out,” Taylor said. “These guys deserve that. This is a team, I know we have lost several games in a row now. You don’t feel that. I mean this as a positive thing. These guys expect to win. They believe in each other. We are going to break through and we are going to be in the thick of this thing. We are going to find some wins.”

If the Bengals win next week, they’ll be 3-4 with a win over the Steelers team that they’re chasing in the AFC North.

“Look at where our division is at,” Taylor said.

The Ravens and Browns are both 1-5. The Steelers currently sit at 4-1, but their old roster, concerning depth, the Aaron Rodgers of it all and Pittsburgh’s recent trend of second half slides create plenty of uncertainty there.

“What a tremendous opportunity to go to get the team that is leading it right now,” Taylor said of this Thursday’s game. After the Steelers game, the Bengals schedule really lightens up with games against the Jets, Bears, a rematch against the Steelers (following a Bengals’ bye), Patriots and Ravens on the docket.

But if the Bengals lose on Thursday and the offense still has no identity or consistency, then the Bengals will be a daunting 2-5.

The Bengals’ season is at its crossroads this week.