Joe Flacco gears up for a final hurdle
Playing Saturday night can affirm QB’s full recovery from knee injury, surgery
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco initially tried to spin Saturday night’s preseason matchup with the Detroit Lions as “the same as any other game.” But after not playing in a game for more than nine months, and after spending many nights wondering whether his surgically repaired left knee was going to allow him to be ready for the start of the 2016 season, Flacco surely knows Saturday carries far more importance than that.
The Ravens want affirmation that the quarterback they’ve seen in practice over the past month — the strong-armed version who hasn’t missed a repetition and has moved around fluidly and played with confidence — will show up on gamedays. For Flacco, Saturday will represent not only the final hurdle in 3rd preseason game Saturday, 7 p.m. TV: Chs. 11, 7, Comcast SportsNet Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM
“It would be great not to get hit. I don’t need to get hit, no. But if I do, it’s not a bad thing either.”
his road back after tearing his ACL and MCL in November, but also a nice reward for all the work he put in.
“It’s been a while, obviously,” Flacco said after practice Thursday. “I had to go through a little bit to get here to this point where I can go back out there and play with my guys. That’s really what I’m looking forward [to], just getting back out there in live action and being in a real huddle and just seeing everybody’s eyes and how excited they are to be out there.”
Flacco said he expects to play about a half, which is roughly how much he’s traditionally played in third preseason games. He expects to have some nerves, but he normally does on gamedays, anyway. He said he has little anxiety about taking his first hit, even if it’s by former teammate and current Lions defensive tackle Haloti Ngata.
“I don’t usually know they’re coming anyway. You’re usually picking yourself off the ground and everything has happened so quickly. Hopefully, it’s the same as it’s always been,” Flacco said. “It would be great not to get hit. I don’t need to get hit, no. But if I do, it’s not a bad thing either.”
Flacco tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee when reserve offensive tackle James Hurst was pushed back into his leg Nov. 22 against the St. Louis Rams. How everything has played out since then has represented the best-case scenario for player and team.
Flacco, 31, had knee surgery Dec. 8. He spent pretty much every allowable day at the team facility this offseason rehabilitating. Thegoal all along was to be ready in late July for the first practice of training camp, and Flacco hit that benchmark. In discussions with the quarterback, coaches and team doctors, the Ravens had earmarked the third preseason game for Flacco’s debut, believing that would be the final test he needed before the Sept. 11regular-season opener against the Buffalo Bills. And here we are. “We’ve seen it in practice every day, so Joe Flacco said he expects to play for about a half in Saturday’s game. there’s really no doubt that he’s ready to play,” coach John Harbaugh said. “But football is always risky for everybody. That’s just the way it works. You have to weigh the benefits with the risk and put him out there. But Joe’s the quarterback. He’s not going to break. He’s going to play and we’re planning on him playing really well, just like he has in practice. But it will be his first game action in a long time. I’m sure that’s going to be a factor, but I’d rather have it in this game than two weeks from now against the Bills.”
Flacco said he doesn’t feel he needs to play in the preseason to perform well against Buffalo. However, he predicted he’d be better for the experience, and the starting offense certainly could use the opportunity to start developing rhythm.
Backup quarterback Ryan Mallett has played reasonably well in the first two preseason games, but free-agent pass catchers Benjamin Watson and Mike Wallace haven’t had much of an opportunity to get involved in the offense. The Ravens have also gotten wide receivers Steve Smith Sr. and Breshad Perriman off the physically-unable-to-perform list and onto the practice field, although both are expected to be held out Saturday.
Flacco, of course, is the guy who is paid to bring everything together.
“We haven’t had a ton of work, but I was
Joe Flacco
telling [offensive coordinator Marc Trestman] yesterday, we walked off the practice field feeling like we accomplished a lot, pretty much every day at camp,” Flacco said. “There was one day in there where we probably looked back at practice and said we weren’t where we wanted to be. But all the other days I felt like we got a lot of good work in and feel good about what we were doing. So I’m confident about it, very optimistic.”
Some rust has to be expected from Flacco in game situations. However, the Ravens haven’t seen anything over the past month in practices that portends future concerns.
Flacco has stepped into throws, he’s moved around the pocket, and he’s not been afraid to tuck the ball in and run if he can’t spot an open receiver down the field. Now he’s going to get an opportunity to do all those things in a game.
“We just want to keep him safe out there, give him an opportunity to throw the football, lead the team, move the ball, mix the run and the pass, and do what we want to do during the season,” Trestman said Wednesday. “We are not going in there with any parameters, other than just to get some good work and move the ball and get in the red zone [and] score. If we don’t get to the red zone, we can score without getting to the red zone; that is good, too.
“The objective is to play a clean game, to play, as John would say, ‘winning football’ in the time that we are in there.”