You'd think the calendar would have enough fun with Sunday's opener in Cleveland (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's FOX 19) set for Sept. 7.

After all, the game kicking off the season pits both of the teams Paul Brown founded on his 117^th birthday at Huntington Bank Field, about an hour from his birthplace of Norwalk, Ohio.

But the Football Gods just can't stop there.

The game comes 17 years to the day of another opener, when Browns quarterback Joe Flacco made his NFL debut for the Ravens in Mike Zimmer's debut as Bengals defensive coordinator.

At age 40, Flacco makes his 192^nd NFL start on a day he's closer in age to 56-year-old Al Golden, making his debut as the Bengals defensive coordinator, than Flacco is to the youngest Bengal, 21-year-old rookie defensive end Shemar Stewart in his own NFL debut.

"He's still got it. Even at his age, he can throw it," Stewart said this week. "You have to be good at 40 and still starting. I don't remember who he was playing for. But my first year in college, I went to a game in Miami, and he was the quarterback. Still doing it, Joe Flacco."

That was the 2022 finale, when Flacco was playing for the Jets. The next year in Cleveland, he came off the bench and won four straight on 11 touchdown passes to put the Browns in the playoffs.

That's the tape Bengals defenders like safety Geno Stone are watching. That's the stretch where Browns tight end David Njoku had two 100-yards games and a 91-yarder working with Flacco in head coach Kevin Stefanski's scheme.

"Just the way he was able to control a game. He's a veteran," said Stone after Thursday's practice of what the '23 tape shows. "Control the clock. Control the running game the way they were doing it. Play-action. Things like that.

"I think that's when Njoku is at his best, too. That's probably his main target. We have to keep them out of third-and-short. Stop the run. He'll take his deep shots. He can still throw the deep ball. Make him move around. If we've got good sync up between our rush and coverage, I think we'll have a really good game."

Stone notes in Flacco's 18 games over the past three seasons, he's got 18 interceptions. He feels like that's why the Bengals have to get in Flacco's face in order to have a shot at getting a couple of more. The last time they played Flacco, Sept. 25, 2022, in New York, they did exactly that, and the ringleaders of the Bengals' win over the Jets are still here.

Linebacker Logan Wilson had one of two Cincy picks, and All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson had 2.5 sacks while hitting Flacco four times and forcing two fumbles. Defensive tackle B.J. Hill, the only player on the Bengals' injury report Thursday with a limited rest day after going full Wednesday, had a half-sack while recovering both of Hendrickson's sack strips.

"Can't let them get the run going," Stone said. "Or let a guy like Njoku catch it and get a head of steam on you. He can get out fast."

Hendrickson (contract) and Hill (foot) didn't start practicing until last week. Although Stewart had a terrific camp, he missed the spring, and Golden is hopeful they can make it work in time to stop Flacco

"(Stewart) has made a lot of progress. We're going to work right through the kickoff with him, just because we've missed so much time. Although they have more experience, B.J. and Trey would be in that same vein," Golden said this week. "I think this is B.J.'s third practice today or fourth maybe. And Trey is a couple behind him. Just get all those guys up to speed here. Work right through the finish line in terms of the kick."

In a Jersey Boys' showdown, Red Bank Catholic's Golden is matching wits with Audubon's Flacco.

"They're a play-action shot team. We're going to have to defend those," Golden said of Flacco's feared deep ball. "We're going to have to tackle well in space. I think Flacco makes great decisions with the ball. Obviously, that's probably why he's running it for them. Protect the ball. Conduct the game for them. Heavy scheme run attack … it's not just inside zone, outside zone team. If you're in a certain front, you're going to get X, Y, and Z run. You better be ready for it. I think from that standpoint, that's going to challenge all of our tenants.

Golden said Cleveland's final preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams is a snapshot of how Flacco conducts a game.

"He'll make good decisions with the ball. He's not going to force it," said Golden of Flacco's nine of 10 effort against the Rams with a sparkling 129 passer rating. "If he has to go to his check down, he will and take positive yards and put them in the right run play and get them in the right protection. Those are all the things that he can do, and Joe still throws a great deep ball, and we're aware of that. Obviously, that's part of our game planning."

The Football Gods keep it going. When Flacco made his debut on Sept. 7, 2008, in Baltimore, it was Paul Brown's 100^th birthday. If you ask Paul's son, Bengals president Mike Brown, those Ravens are the true Browns because they moved from Cleveland.

On the Baltimore sideline that day was the 12-year-old son of one of those guys who played for both the Browns and Ravens: current Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.

And, as it turns out, the 6-8, 340-pound Brown has become a mentor to Stewart while supplying a daily lesson on just how big and good NFL tackles are. One of Stewart's first assignments is massive Browns left tackle Dawand Jones, a 6-8, 374-pounder. Stewart has been dealing with size all summer because when he flips sides, the mammoth 6-8, 345-pound Amarius Mims waits.

"Orlando, Mims. Not that it's been a struggle for me. But it's been a battle," Stewart said. "And that's the NFL. A battle. There aren't a lot of Div. II tackles in the NFL."

Flacco's debut is a classic case of the mystery of NFL openers. You just never know.

John Thornton, starting his sixth and last season that day as the Bengals' linch-pin defensive tackle, never thought the game would go like it did. A 17-10 Ravens win. Not with a rookie quarterback from Delaware. Not with John Harbaugh making his debut as Ravens head coach. Not with the Bengals coming off an '07 sweep of Baltimore, where quarterback Carson Palmer had a combined passer rating of 192.

"You just didn't think it's a game we could lose with all we had going for us," Thornton says now. "But in those first games, it's the first time guys are playing 60 snaps and it's the first time coaches are showing what they're using. I know we probably didn't blitz much at all in the preseason with Zim, but I'm sure that changed when the season started, and you're getting used to it as you go. And we didn't know Flacco or Harbaugh."

Palmer hit only nine of his 24 passes ("I don't remember that at all," Thornton says), and the only touchdown came on defense. Meanwhile, Harbaugh protected the kid Flacco with a franchise-high 46 carries. Flacco's passer rating was double Palmer's but the two combined didn't add up to 100, a number Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow cracked 11 times last season.

The game is probably best known for what is still the longest run of Flacco's career, a 38-yard touchdown ramble around right end late in the third quarter that gave Baltimore a 17-3 lead.

A broken play. Flacco apparently turned the wrong way on a handoff and just took off. Who could call that? "Broke our back," Thornton says. The other touchdown had come on a 42-yard gadget run by a wide receiver.

But Thornton doesn't see these Bengals being taken by surprise with these Browns. Everyone knows Flacco. Stefanski is in his sixth year. The Bengals have been talking about this opener since the finale.

"It's going to be a tough game. Openers always are, and their defense always competes," says Thornton, who played for Browns DC Jim Schwartz. "The Bengals have the edge. I don't see the Browns being able to keep up with points unless they get turnovers."

Head coach Zac Taylor said it best earlier this week about an opener.

"There's no known commodity as you walk out there on an opening day," Taylor said. "There's always going to be questions that you're sorting out as the season progresses, so early on you've got to do the little things really well. I know last year on opening day, we did not do the little things really well. So that's certainly a focus for us right now. "

Different defenses and different players, but no team has picked off Flacco more than the Bengals with 27. Despite his 11 years in the AFC North, the three other teams in the division have combined for one fewer.

So what happens 17 years later in this opener? There's only one sure thing, and it took the kid making his debut to say it.

"I've got to play like a big boy now," Stewart said. "Bring that dog out."