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Joe Flacco's unbelievably bad day might cost Ravens a playoff spot

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

Joe Flacco was outplayed by Case Keenum. Heck, Houston Texans running back Arian Foster was a more effective passer than Flacco on Sunday.

As a result, the Baltimore Ravens have lost control of whether they make the playoffs.

Flacco started off an impossibly terrible 4-of-22 with three interceptions on Sunday in a 25-13 loss against the Houston Texans, against a team that probably has just one Pro Bowl player on defense (yeah, but J.J. Watt isn’t the NFL MVP, gotcha). Flacco was absolutely, positively miserable.

The Ravens trailed 16-0 at the half and the way the offense was playing, there was little hope at a comeback. Had the Ravens won, they could have clinched a playoff spot with another win next week. That control is gone.

Baltimore needs help in Week 17 to get in. If the San Diego Chargers win next week against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chargers are in. Ravens coach John Harbaugh can thank his brother Jim, whose San Francisco 49ers blew a 21-point lead to lose to the Chargers on Saturday night, for that one.

The Ravens’ AFC north rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, clinched a playoff spot with their win against the Chiefs.

Flacco rallied a bit to make his numbers look a little better, but the game was long gone by then. He finished 21-of-50 for 195 yards. Keenum, signed off the Rams’ practice squad this past week because the Texans’ top three quarterbacks are hurt, wasn’t great but at least he didn’t blow the game. Foster threw a touchdown pass on a trick play, which is more than Flacco did before the game was out of hand. There's a regular debate about if Flacco belongs in that hard-to-define “elite” class of quarterbacks, but it’s hard to argue you’re elite if you throw 18 incompletions in 22 tries while blowing a game to wreck your team’s clear path to the playoffs.

The good news for the Ravens is they finish the season against the Cleveland Browns, as they’ll be favored in that one. But they need help to get into the postseason. They also need Flacco to play better than he did Sunday, when he couldn’t have been much worse.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!