Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
This has essentially been the label assigned to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who in his brief four year career, has never been able to get over the hump that is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Prior to this season, Flacco was just 2-6 vs the Steelers, including two losses in the playoffs.
In Pittsburgh, Flacco was just 1-4, winning his only game at Heinz Field last year against a Ben Roethlisberger-less Steelers squad.
In the first week of the season, the Ravens blitzed, bruised and destroyed the Steelers, 34-7 at home. It was the most lopsided win to date in their rivalry, which dates back to 2008 when Flacco entered the league.
On Sunday night, before a nationally televised audience, it looked to be deja-vu all over again. The Ravens, leading most the game, fell behind with just under five minutes left to play.
A quick three and out followed by the Ravens defense forcing the Steelers to punt gave Flacco one last chance to engineer an almost improbable comeback.
2:24 left to play and starting at their own 8-yard line against a raucous Heniz Field crowd, the odds were indeed stacked against the Ravens and Flacco, who now was just two and a half minutes away from dropping to 1-5 at Pittsburgh.
Instead, Flacco lead the Ravens downfield and engineered a beautiful game winning touchdown drive that ended with a Tory Smith 26-yard touchdown down the right sidelines.
A couple of plays earlier, Smith dropped the potential game winning touchdown in the left corner of the end zone.
With the win, the Ravens swept the season series from the Steelers and improved to 6-2, tied with the Cincinnati Bengals for first place.
More importantly, Flacco finally did what he has failed to do since he entered theNFL, beat Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh and sweep the season series.
Has Flacco finally gotten over hump that is the Pittsburgh Steelers, only time will tell. In the meantime however, Flacco at least exercised some demons on Sunday night.
At least until the playoffs, Raven fans won’t have to hear any more stories about Flacco not being able to beat Pittsburgh.