Joe Flacco Starts for Colts vs. Undefeated Vikings

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00:00Let's go to Sunday Night Football. The Minnesota Vikings, the Indianapolis Colts. The Vikes

00:07a five and a half point home favorite in the Twin Cities. You'll notice that Anthony Richardson

00:13is not the quarterback used in this graphic. In fact, it will not be the quarterback that's

00:18Shane Steichen and the Colts use on Sunday. They are now riding pine. It is Joe Flacco

00:24making his third start of this year for Indianapolis. The Vikings, Joe, started as a 5-0 football

00:32team. One of the two remaining undefeated at that time alongside KC. They have lost

00:38two games in a row. So Joe, let's start with Indianapolis because of course that has been

00:43the attention this week. Anthony Richardson on the bench. He has struggled to develop

00:47in the National Football League. His de facto rookie season is this year. He has looked

00:52like a rookie. Joe Flacco the last two years has elevated teams that have a lot of talent

00:58around the quarterback position to make them a winning football team. In the games that

01:03Flacco has played the majority of, the Colts are 2-1 and he gave them a thrill in Duval

01:09County down by two touchdowns in a divisional game against Jacksonville a few weekends ago

01:15to come back and tie that one before the Jags did win on a closing field goal. Joe Flacco

01:22as Shane Steichen has said, Joe, they believe that he is the quarterback to make this Indianapolis

01:28team a playoff contender. They believe they are a playoff contender with Joe Flacco as

01:33their starting quarterback. Does that start on Sunday in Minneapolis?

01:37Well, they better be because otherwise, I don't know what you wasted a, you know, number

01:44four pick here on a quarterback if you're not going to play them and allow this second

01:50year quarterback who, by the way, has only started 23 games since high school. So he,

01:56you know, there is going to be a learning curve here. I don't know what everyone was

01:59expecting, but all right, if you're in a win now mode here instead of trying to develop

02:06your second year quarterback, okay, well then you better win this game. The problem is you're

02:11getting five and a half points here. Why? Well, because the Minnesota defense at home

02:16is coming after Joe Flacco. Let's make no mistake about it. And the way you get to Joe

02:20Flacco is you get into his face. He is not mobile at all. They are not going to be able

02:27to run the ball all that well with Jonathan Taylor. Why? Because Minnesota's defense is

02:32a top five defense against the rush. So that's going to limit Jonathan Taylor, which means

02:39your entire handicap here has to be on whether or not you think the Colts and Joe Flacco

02:43can handle what is about to be coming at them as far as a pass rush goes. Now, I will

02:49say this. They got issues on the Minnesota offensive line as well. I mean, down, I mean,

02:56Darisaw out right now. They ended up getting, I believe, what was it, Cam Robinson for Jacksonville,

03:04but that is not the same. I mean, Darisaw is one of the best offensive linemen. Quisenberry

03:08also not good, not healthy, not going to play in this game. So they've got some issues

03:14protecting Sam Donald here. And you also have a Colts defense that has been getting better

03:21as the season progresses. Kenny Moore up against Jefferson should be an interesting matchup.

03:27But this is all to me about whether or not you think Joe Flacco can handle the Blitz.

03:32I have my concerns. I do, however, think we're probably getting some points in this game,

03:37Ben. So I wouldn't mind looking at it over at all in this one.