Colts QB Joe Flacco carved the Pittsburgh Steelers up a bit on Sunday, even if his numbers weren’t eye-popping. That is just what former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger feared when his old nemesis checked into the game. Indeed, he would have preferred to see Colts starter Anthony Richardson play the whole game.
“Having Joe Flacco in the game makes me more nervous than having Anthony Richardson in the game”, Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast yesterday while reviewing the Steelers’ loss to the Colts. “Joe’s not gonna beat you with his legs. But you have a guy that can sling the ball. Made me nervous, and sure enough, Joe did it”.
Richardson left the game in the first half due to injury, with Flacco playing most of the way. He went 16-of-26 passing for 168 yards, throwing two touchdowns. On the whole he played efficient football, even with occasional clunkers. He now has the third-most touchdown passes against the Steelers in NFL history, by the way.
Ben Roethlisberger spent most of his career battling Joe Flacco in the AFC North as Steelers and Ravens’ quarterbacks, respectively. Flacco won the Super Bowl with Baltimore in 2012, but his career started going downhill after that.
For the past six years, Flacco has been primarily a backup, but he found new life with the Steelers and Ravens’ rivals last year, the Cleveland Browns. While he is not knocking on the door of the Hall of Fame, he has had a very good career.
And Flacco gave the Steelers problems on Sunday, as the scoreboard tells us. “Joe picked up some huge third downs”, Roethlisberger noted, including four on one drive. “Every time that there was a third down, I was nervous. I’m like, ‘Joe’s gonna get this’”.
Though he is retired, Roethlisberger attended the Steelers’ game on Sunday and greeted Flacco after the game. “I said, ‘Joe, when you came in the game, I just had a bad feeling’. And he goes, ‘Can you believe it? Pittsburgh, the one team that I’ve played so many years?’”.
Flacco’s teams are 11-11 all-time when he plays the Steelers, including Sunday. That marked his first time playing Pittsburgh since departing from the Ravens a number of years ago, surprisingly. He did not start the game, so he did not record a win, but he put in a winning performance.
Flacco is obviously a more experienced and intelligent passer at this point in his career than is Richardson, but there’s a reason one is backing up the other. He has proven that he still has the arm talent, but at nearly 40, his starting days are over. Barring injury, anyway.
