ST. LOUIS - On a night when its top two quarterbacks were sidelined before the game with medical issues, the Ravens' offense looked just as unhealthy.
Outside of an impressive drive to open the second half, highly touted rookie Joe Flacco received an unforgiving crash course as a starting quarterback in last night's 24-10 loss to the St. Louis Rams, overthrowing open receivers and getting passes batted back at him.
With Troy Smith out with a stomach virus and Kyle Boller nursing a shoulder injury, Flacco appeared as if he was just notified that he would make the unexpected start, completing 18 of 37 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown. The 18th overall pick in this year's draft settled down in the second half, but he still led the Ravens to only 209 yards of total offense and 10 first downs.
"It felt good," Flacco said. "It was a really good chance for me to get in there and get my feet wet. There are things that I would like to do better. But it's a great learning experience."
This was supposed to be the game in which the Ravens would learn whether Smith would take control of the quarterback race. But he couldn't suit up after battling flulike symptoms for two days and remained at the team hotel last night until the fourth quarter.
The Ravens (1-2) would have wanted to go with Boller, but he couldn't throw in warm-ups because of a shoulder injury. Boller didn't practice all week because of the injury, which occurred on a hard hit in the second preseason game.
That meant the Ravens had to hand the ball to Flacco, who had played two quarters in the preseason and didn't practice at all with the starting offense last week.
"I was a little jacked up at the beginning of the game, not that you guys could tell," Flacco said with a smile. "It was exciting for me. As the game went on, I felt like I calmed down."
After stumbling in the first half, Flacco put together his best drive after halftime.
He connected on all four of his passes for 61 yards, throwing each time to Derrick Mason. Two plays after a 30-yard throw to Mason, Flacco found him for a 15-yard touchdown.
Flacco's first touchdown pass of the preseason - which came with the Rams' starting defense on the field - helped the Ravens close to 17-10 early in the third quarter.
"[The touchdown] felt good, and really that drive felt good," said Flacco, who believes the ball was saved by running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery.
