News

Nothing was stopping Joe Flacco for about two-and-half quarters Sunday.

The Ravens quarterback caught fire during the matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and reeled off a franchise-record 21-straight completions on the way to a 19-17 victory. 

"You don't really realize it when you're in the game,” Flacco said. “You're just taking what they give you and going along methodically, which is kind of what we were doing."

Flacco was just one completion away from tying the NFL record for consecutive passes in a game, which was most recently accomplished in 2006 by the Houston Texans’ David Carr. Flacco broke his own Ravens record of 14-straight completions, which he had set in 2009.

Flacco had a good shot to hit 22-straight completions, but wide receiver Mike Wallace dropped a pass in the end zone that his quarterback put right on the money.

“I know I dropped his 22nd pass in a row. I know that much,” Wallace said after the game. “I could have made a play for him on that one in the end zone. I kind of messed up his streak.”

Wallace joked that he’ll have to take Flacco out for a nice meal after costing him a chance at the NFL record. 

“I owe him a dinner,” Wallace said. “It’s cool though. I’ll come back and make up for it.”

Flacco joked that he won’t make Wallace pay for a steak dinner because he’s done “well enough” this year, but the quarterback will “get on him” for dropping the pass. Coming into the game, Wallace had scored all three of the Ravens touchdowns this season.

The streak started midway through the first quarter and extended until early in the third. Most of the passes were short routes or checkdowns to the running backs, but the Ravens were able to move the ball for four scoring drives during Flacco’s streak.

"This is a [Jaguars] defense where you have to check the ball down a little bit, so they were easy completions to find,” Flacco said. “We weren't getting a ton of yardage on them."

Flacco finished the game completing 29-of-40 passes for 214 yards and two interceptions. He also had three carries for 12 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown scamper.

After Flacco’s streak ended on the opening drive of the third quarter, the offense went into a funk. The unit continued to have trouble running the ball, which has been a theme through the first two games, and suddenly the passing game got out of rhythm.

The Ravens went from scoring on four out of five drives, to getting shutout for nearly 25 minutes in the second half. The Jaguars also started to get pressure on Flacco in the pocket, and he threw two interceptions on back-to-back drives late in the fourth quarter.

“We would have liked to be a little more efficient offensively in the second half, and extended our lead a little bit,” tight end Dennis Pitta said. “But we didn’t, and we had a lot of penalties that backed us up to start drives, and made it difficult for ourselves.”

While the offense struggled for much of the second half, the defense came up with three interceptions, and the special teams unit was critical in the final four minutes. The Ravens blocked a field goal and then kicker Justin Tucker booted a 54-yarder to give the Ravens a 19-17 lead they would hold for the victory.

“It’s huge,” Flacco said. “All that matters is being 3-0, getting the win, and I know that.”