HE MARRIED a South Jersey girl, still owns a house there, still has far too many relatives from the two sides of his extremely extended family to possibly get tickets for. There was even a big bus that took some of them from his hometown of Audubon to the game Sunday - uncles, aunts, cousins and in-laws - but Joe Flacco shook his head when someone asked after the excruciating, 24-23 loss to the team he grew up cheering for if the day had any special significance.
Not a happy homecoming for Ravens' Flacco
"That's all a sideshow," said the Baltimore Ravens quarterback. "That's for those guys to enjoy . . . I'm not too concerned about who we're playing. Just trying to go in there and get a win.''
For a half, anyway, Flacco looked like he would accomplish that goal. He completed 14 of his first 17 passes, including a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones that gave the Ravens their first lead of the topsy-turvy day. Flacco connected with eight different receivers in a half that ended 17-7, and with the 78 yards of rushing accumulated by Ray Rice, Baltimore seemed to have the answer to the Eagles' downhill defense.
Adjustments were made, however, pressure brought. On the very first play of the third quarter, Flacco was hit in the ribs and rolled on them and, well, he wasn't so accurate after that.
He was 8-for-25 in the second half, balls sailing wide and high. Some of that was likely due to the rib, some due to increased pressure along the defensive front, and some even because of slightly illegal grabbing by the aggressive Eagles secondary.
"They started to come up and put some more pressure on us," Flacco said. "And they were all over our guys in not a legal way sometimes.
"They've got two good corners [Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie]. It's tough to consistently do damage against those two guys, especially with what they've got up front. So we had to get the ball out of my hands quickly."
Flacco was intercepted only once, but finished with a passer rating of 66.8.
After the first half, it was 108.8.
"In the second half they did a good job of not allowing us to get in a rhythm," he said. "Forcing us to pump the ball. They do a great job of rotating guys in and keeping them fresh. And they get off the ball like no other. They're so wide and you have to set kind of wide . . . and if you go too wide they leave that inside gap for them to come and get you.''
They got him a lot. Officially, he was sacked twice and hurried three times, but at least some of Flacco's inaccuracy could be traced to the second-half resurgence by the Eagles' defense.
"They're definitely a pretty good group," he said.
At one point in his life, he might have even loved that group. Not now.
"Coming back here is like any other week, like any other road game," he said. "We're trying to get a win."
Contact Sam Donnellon at donnels@phillynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @samdonnellon. For recent columns, go to philly.com/SamDonnellon.
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