IS LIVE CHATTING EAGLES-BEARS
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, with his big frame and big arm, gets that. Yesterday, against the Eagles, he did that.
But that's all right. Against Jim Johnson's confusing, voracious defense, in front of a legion of adoring family and friends of dual allegiances, Flacco threw no interceptions, lost no fumbles and, at the end, was on the right end of a 36-7 win and a 7-4 team.
"He was fine," first-year coach John Harbaugh said of his first first-round pick. "He really settled in as the game progressed."
With fullback Le'Ron McClain pounding the Eagles for 4.9 yards per carry, it seemed logical that, after the Ravens got the ball on the Eagles' 6 thanks to an interception late in the first half with a 3-0 lead, they would run and run and run again.
Not so. They ran, then ran, then, from the 1, put it in Flacco's hands. He rolled right and floated a pillow-soft pass toward the right sideline to Daniel Wilcox, who made a lovely, one-handed catch, stayed in bounds and gave the Ravens a 10-point lead.
"That's a play where I roll out, and I'm really thinking run first, and if it pops open, I'll hit him with a pass," Flacco said. "I couldn't see him that great, so I waited and waited. I knew it was going to be a tight window."
"Great job by Joe there, holding it, giving him a chance to get open," Harbaugh said.
Not as good as recognizing the blitz in the fourth quarter.
Just shy of midfield, Flacco saw heat coming on third-and-3. Correctly, he anticipated tight end Todd Heap being targeted by the defense.
"Everybody converged on Todd," Flacco said.
So he hit Mark Clayton on a quick slant that Clayton took 53 yards for a 22-7 lead. Considering the Eagles had switched quarterbacks at halftime and that the Ravens' defense was on its way to shutting out the Eagles' offense (the seven came from a kick return), Flacco's second TD pass effectively sealed things.
"That play was huge," Harbaugh said.
Others, well, weren't.
With the Eagles poised to blitz early in the second quarter, Flacco took a delay-of-game penalty; later in the second, he burned a timeout to avoid another.
He took a 13-yard sack on third-and-24 to end one series and ended another with a bullet that Stewart Bradley just couldn't hold on to . . . but then, Bradley plays for the Eagles, so that was a good thing for Flacco.
It wasn't the last of Flacco's good fortune.
At the Eagles' 44 in the last minute of the first half, Flacco got sandwiched, first by Joselio Hanson from behind, then by Sean Considine from the front. Hanson's blindside hit forced Flacco's un-cocked arm forward, where it rammed into Considine, jarring loose the football.
The ruling on the field: fumble, recovered by the Eagles.
The ruling after replay review: incompletion. Flacco's arm technically was moving forward (though not of its own impetus) with the ball under control when he lost it.
Sometimes he was lucky.
Overall, he was good enough. *
