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Surprising Flacco spurring Ravens playoff push

Dec 3, 2008 - 1:16 AM Washington (7-5) at Baltimore (8-4) 8:15 pm. EST

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- The Baltimore Ravens finally have a quarterback to go with their vaunted defense. The surprise is that it is a rookie who wasn't expected to be in the mix to start this season.

Joe Flacco looks to keep up his torrid pace and help the Ravens stay in contention for a division title on Sunday against the Washington Redskins, who are fading out of the NFC playoff picture.

The 18th overall pick in April's draft, Flacco was buried behind Kyle Boller and Troy Smith in the preseason. The 6-5, 230-pound former Delaware standout seized the starting job after injuries to both and has never looked back.

Baltimore has won six of seven thanks to the surprising emergence of Flacco, who has thrown 11 touchdowns and two interceptions in that span.

On Sunday, Flacco completed 19-of-29 for 280 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-3 win over Cincinnati, keeping the Ravens just one game behind the Pittsburgh Steelers (9-3) for the AFC Central lead.

The always-stout defense was spectacular as well, forcing Cincinnati to punt on 11 of its first 12 possessions. The Ravens limited Cincinnati to just six first downs and 155 total yards.

"It was a totally dominating performance by the defense," Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh said. "They took some things away offensively but we found ways. I'm proud of our football team on a very methodical win."

The Ravens have rebounded from a 5-11 season because they finally have a serviceable quarterback. Baltimore's offense has scored at 27 points in six of the last seven games.

"I just think it's exciting the way we're playing football right now," linebacker Ray Lewis said.

Meanwhile, Washington has begun to slip out of the NFC playoff picture in part because of the lack of production from quarterback Jason Campbell. Campbell had thrown 271 passes without an interception prior to a loss to Pittsburgh on November 3.

Since then, he has thrown four picks in his last 148 attempts. Campbell completed 23-of-38 passes for 232 yards with an interception in a 23-7 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday.

It was the third loss in four games for the Redskins, who have scored just four touchdowns in that stretch. Clinton Portis entered the game as the league's leading rusher, but was held to a season-low 22 yards.

Washington trails Dallas (8-4) and Atlanta (8-4) in the wild card race, but Portis is not ready to concede anything.

"There's still a long road ahead of us," Portis said. "We're not out of the playoffs. Back two weeks ago, everybody was crucifying the Cowboys. Now they're back to America's greatest team. Now we're in the same situation."