Joe Flacco says knee ‘feels better’
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) pressured by the New England Patriots defense at M
Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Joe Flacco suffered a “minor” MCL sprain in the team’s Week 15 Monday Night Football victory over the Detroit Lions, but even “minor” MCL sprains are usually one-week injuries. Flacco, of course, wasn’t about to miss a crucial tilt against the New England Patriots due to the injury, so the tough QB put on a knee brace and slogged it out.
The results weren’t pretty, as the Patriots clobbered the Ravens 41-7, and Flacco threw two interceptions with no touchdowns (well, he did have a rushing TD) in an awful game. He was clearly impacted by the knee injury, as he couldn’t plant or step into his throws. This led to chronic underthrows and frustrating missed opportunities. Flacco left plays on the field that he could have easily made if he were healthy, and the play in which he tripped epitomized the effect that the injury had on him. He was clearly much less than 100%, and he wasn’t healthy enough to play.
But now, Flacco is trying to sell that his knee is doing better, even though a mere three days have passed since that outing. The Baltimore Sun’s Aaron Wilson reports that Flacco stated his knee “feels a lot better” and that “it felt really good on gameday”. The first statement seems far-fetched enough, but the second statement really sets the “BS alarms” on full blast. Flacco is trying to re-assure everyone by downplaying his knee injury, but it’s still clearly hurting and is a problem that probably won’t go away this week.
He’ll feel better this week, but will he be healthy enough to get back on track? Flacco hasn’t completed 60% of his passes since Thanksgiving, so the Ravens desperately need him to feel better in this week’s decisive rivalry game against the tough, division-leading Cincinnati Bengals.