Joe Cool

PITTSBURGH -- Joe Flacco doesn't get happy, doesn't get mad, doesn't seem to register emotion like a human being registers emotion. He plays football with bland detachment, like a librarian stacking books instead of a quarterback trying to avoid James Harrison.

And that ticks some people off. They don't get it. They can't relate to it. It's spooky to watch, but when it works -- and it worked Sunday night -- it's beautiful to watch. Beautiful and still spooky, because normal people don't handle stress like Joe Flacco handles it.

But a normal person, even a normal NFL quarterback -- even a very good NFL quarterback -- wouldn't have been able to handle the stress Flacco handled Sunday night. There might be only two other quarterbacks in the NFL who could have led the game-winning drive engineered by Flacco on Sunday night, a 92-yard lesson in perseverance that gave the Ravens a last-second, 24-20 victory against the Steelers in a pivotal AFC North game.

Those two other quarterbacks are named Brady and Rodgers, by the way.

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