The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered their first loss of the season to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4, and a big reason why was the play of Joe Flacco coming in off the bench. A familiar face to the Steelers, Flacco spent his first 12 NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, and after replacing the injured Anthony Richardson yesterday, Flacco threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns against Pittsburgh. Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, Flacco said the only thing that would’ve made the win “cooler” was if it was in Pittsburgh.
“It’s always a lot of fun to go against those guys. It was awesome to be at home, obviously, but the one thing that probably could have made it a little bit cooler is being back in Pittsburgh, in front of all those fans, that would’ve been pretty wild,” he said.
Steelers fans always travel well, and when the team started to make a comeback in the second half, the Terrible Towels started waving at Lucas Oil Stadium, which Flacco said made him feel “right at home.”
“There’s so many times when I’ve been in that stadium and it’s been the fourth quarter, it’s been a TV timeout, the whole place goes black, they turn the music on. Early in my career I think I hit my quota for sack/fumbles where they returned it for a touchdown and ended up changing the game and winning. So I think at this point I’ve kind of gotten used to all that, so I definitely felt right at home when you see all those towels waving,” he said.
One of those in town to see the game was the Steelers quarterback Flacco faced off against during his time in Baltimore. Ben Roethlisberger was in attendance in Indianapolis, and Flacco said the two of them met up in the tunnel after the game and talked about the connection they share.
“You’ve shared that field with him and so many special games against that team, obviously when I was in Baltimore, and there’s really a connection there that you really can’t explain strictly because we’ve played each other so many times,” Flacco said.
Flacco’s played the Steelers 22 times, with 21 of them coming during his time with the Ravens. It’s a team and fan base he’s ultra-familiar, so it’s no surprise that he felt at home when the Terrible Towels were waving and wanted to play them in Acrisure Stadium, although Flacco only played in it when it was known as Heinz Field.
There’s a certain level of mutual respect in the Steelers-Ravens rivalry, but at the end of the day, players on both sides want to send the other team and their fans home with a loss. That carries over even as colors change, and Flacco would’ve liked to get it done in Pittsburgh where he knows what it’s like to get a win against the Steelers. Flacco said it was “crazy” to play against the Steelers again after the game yesterday.
While Anthony Richardson got off to a good start against Pittsburgh before leaving the game, Flacco came in and was a steady presence. Even when Pittsburgh started to come back, he converted four third-down conversions on a scoring drive late in the game to extend the Indianapolis lead and picked apart a Steelers’ zone defense he’s seen often in his career.
He admitted that Pittsburgh’s defense has been “pretty similar” over the years in its style of play, and behind an offensive line that did its job and gave him time to throw, he was able to make plays and send the Steelers to 3-1.
It’s cool that his former rival in Roethlisberger was there to see the game too, even though I’m sure Roethlisberger wasn’t as happy with the outcome as Flacco was. Even though the game was in Indianapolis, Flacco still sent plenty of Steelers fans and the Steelers themselves home a little less happy than when they came in and was able to kill some of their momentum from their 3-0 start while getting the Colts back to 2-2. I’m sure beating the Steelers does make things just a little bit sweeter than had it been another opponent for Flacco.
