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The “Icy Hot Bowl” may have delivered the NFL’s most thrilling game of the year.
In a clash of seasoned quarterbacks, the 40-year-old Joe Flacco outperformed 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, guiding the Bengals to a nail-biting 33-31 victory on “Thursday Night Football” in Cincinnati.
Flacco achieved a season peak with 342 passing yards and three touchdowns, marking his first triumph since being traded to Cincinnati from the Browns.
On the other side, Rodgers managed 249 passing yards and four touchdowns, though he also recorded two interceptions.
Flacco excelled under pressure, amassing 163 passing yards and two touchdowns when the Bengals were trailing, as reported by Pro Football Focus. His overall passer rating of 108.6 was his best since October 6 of the previous season, when he recorded a 121.3 rating against the Jaguars.
Things got wild in a fourth quarter that saw the teams combine for 27 points, and it appeared the Steelers were in prime position to win when Rodgers connected with tight end Pat Freiermuth on a 68-yard touchdown, helping Pittsburgh leapfrog into the lead by a point.
But 2:21 remained on the clock, which proved to be plenty of time for the Bengals, especially when Flacco hooked up with Tee Higgins on a 28-yard completion that went down to the Pittsburgh 7-yard line with under two minutes left and the Steelers out of timeouts.
Higgins alertly decided to slide down to the turf and not continue on toward the end zone, allowing the Bengals to kill more time off the board.
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They did just that with three straight kneel downs before kicker Evan McPherson knocked in the go-ahead field goal with seven seconds left.
Rodgers had one more chance, completing one pass and then heaving up a Hail Mary with no time on the clock, though it was batted down in the end zone to conclude the thriller.
According to Next Gen Stats, the 69.8 air yards the ball traveled marked the longest pass attempt by Rodgers since 2017.
All told, the two quarterbacks combined for 591 passing yards and six touchdowns.
