GREEN BAY, Wis. _ Bengals head coach Zac Taylor could immediately point to the culprits of Sunday's 27-18 loss to the Packers here at Lambeau Field.

The first half stats in which the Bengals offense had 65 yards and the ball for 8:12. And a second half where the Bengals defense allowed 17 points.

"It was too little in each half by both (offense and defense,)" Taylor said. "We did a lot of things what you have to do to come in here and win in Lambeau. No turnovers. Three penalties. But it wasn't enough."

As Joe Flacco said after Bengals debut: "Playing against a good team, playing one good half isn't good enough. But we gave ourselves a chance."

Player Of the Day: WR Ja'Marr Chase

Ja'Marr Chase showed why he's the Bengals All-Pro wide receiver. He says he had all of a dozen reps with Flacco during the week (he was sick Friday) and still came up with 94 yards on 10 catches and an unbelievable touchdown on a 19-yarder from Flacco with 4:11 left that cut it to 24-16.

Chase had an arm pinned and still fought through it to grab it with two hands.

After he changed the play.

"He started calling the play and then I called it," Chase said. "I thought they were going to jump the route. But they didn't …. It was a cloud (coverage). He threw it where I could either catch it or there was a penalty."

Player of the Day II: CB DJ Turner II

Bengals cornerback DJ Turner had a day. And a night. He may very well end up leading the NFL in passes defensed this week after he constantly stymied Packers quarterback Jordan Love with five passes defensed. He already came in with six, and the league lead was eight last week.

One of them led to the game's only turnover and gave the Bengals a huge lift at the end of the Packers' 11-play drive that both opened and seized the game. But the Bengals seized it right back on a massive third-and-four from their 19 when safety Geno Stone grabbed Turner's tip for his first interception of the season.

It's a big reason the Packers had the ball nearly 22 minutes in the first half and only led, 10-0.

"I thought the defense in the first half gave us a chance to take a tie, take a lead into halftime," Taylor said.

Money Mac Magic

The Bengals' Evan McPherson came within a "T," of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur's hands from making NFL history Sunday. On the last play of the first half, even though LaFleur called a timeout just before the snap, McPherson sailed a 67-yarder that bounced through the uprights good. A yard longer than Justin Tucker's NFL record.

His re-kick went only as far as the middle of the end zone, but he admitted the make proved what he always knew: He can make them that long.

But he also knew LaFleur had called the timeout even as he kicked it.

"That's what we always do. Follow through on it. I didn't think he'd call a timeout because we were going fast," McPherson said. "The second one, we actually have time to get it set up longer."

Carter Gets Call

Fourth-round pick Barrett Carter drew his first NFL start at linebacker when he teamed up with second-rounder Demetrius Knight Jr. and Logan Wilson as the Bengals started three backers. Carter's playing time has gradually increased since the opener, when he took 14. He took a career-high 33 snaps last week against the Lions and had a career-high six tackles. On Sunday, he upped it to a game-high 10 tackles.

He forced a field goal for the game's first score on the second play of the second quarter when he made an open-field tackle on Packers quarterback Jordan Love after Love sprinted away from a near sack by edge Trey Hendrickson.

Logan Wilson, their longest-tenured defender, played every snap last week and didn't appear to play as much Carter and Knight as defensive coordinator Al Golden works through his rotation of the three.

Joe's Take

Flacco clearly got better as the game went. After hitting eight of 15 passes in the first half for 40 yards, he ripped eight of 10 passes on the first drive of the second half as the Bengals cut the lead to 10-7 on a 17-play touchdown march that supplied the answer to the trivia question who caught Joe Flacco's first Bengals TD pass: Tanner Hudson.

"It's tough to take 20 plays to score, but it was good to keep their defense on the field," said Flacco, who finished 29 of 45 for 219 yards. "It's not like we ran for a ton of yards. But we had some pretty good runs for first-down conversions and, you could feel the physicality of us as the game went along. Yeah, I got settled. There were one or two times I could have taken the quicker."

What's Next

Quick turnaround. The Steelers come to Paycor Stadium for a Thursday night game against the Steelers, another Amazon Prime special at 8:15 featuring popular ex-Bengals Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth on the broadcast team.

Bengals-Steelers is always huge, critical and Armaggedonish, and this one is even a little more. The Steelers come in trying to run away with the AFC North at 4-1.

Flacco, the former Raven and Brown, obviously knows the Steelers well. His 22 appearances each against the Bengals and the Steelers are his most against anyone, and Thursday breaks the tie.

He's 11-11 against Pittsburgh and has played every one of them against Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. He's thrown 27 touchdowns against them with just 12 interceptions, compared to his 31-13 against Cleveland.

Thursday night will be the annual White Bengal game, as Cincinnati will don their alternate white helmets. Fans are encouraged to wear white to the game.