Suggs Confesses To Fibbing

This whole Terrell Suggs vs. Tom Brady Pro Bowl voting has taken on a life of its own.

A week ago, Suggs told Yahoo! Sports’ Michael Silver that he didn’t vote for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the Pro Bowl. Suggs said he voted for San Diego’s Philip Rivers, Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning and Buffalo’s Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Turns out, Suggs was fibbing a little bit. On Wednesday, he fessed up and admitted to voting for Brady.

"Let’s go ahead and let the cat out of the bag: We did vote for him," Suggs said. "We’ve got quarrels and our beefs but you got to respect play. It was kind of decided as a [linebacker] unit who we vote for. We did vote for him."

Brady didn’t vote because he was ill, says ESPN. However, he said he would have voted for Suggs. But do I sense some sarcasm?

"He’s a great player," Brady said, before lining up a zinger of sorts. "He gets my vote; such a nice guy."

Suggs has been delivering playful jabs on Brady ever since they got into a shouting match during their Week 6 meeting.

Let’s all just get Bieber haircuts, hold hands and sing kumbaya – that is until the Ravens and Pats potentially meet in the playoffs.

Flacco Still Under The Radar

How is it still possible that a quarterback who has led his team to three playoff appearances in his first three years (only the third signal-caller since 1970 to accomplish that feat) can still be under the radar?
ESPN’s John Clayton seems just as confused.

"In Baltimore, they continue to have internal praise for Joe Flacco although the external praise may not be there," Clayton said. "For some reason, Flacco doesn’t draw a lot of attention as being one of the league’s better young quarterbacks and a quarterback who’s won three playoff games on the road."

Flacco was named as a third Pro Bowl alternate this season despite having the second-best quarterback rating in the NFL since Week 3 (behind New England’s Tom Brady) and seventh-best overall.

He’s on pace to set personal-bests this season in passing yardage, touchdowns, interceptions and quarterback rating.

"Still, everybody has to rally on this team around Flacco because they’ll probably be a wild-card team, which means they’ll have to go back on the road," Clayton said. "Flacco has great play-action passing ability and great leadership ability and he’s getting more vocal as time goes on."

There’s a little something in it for Joe too.

According to ESPN blogger James Walker, Flacco will earn $200,000 for each postseason win this season. That means Flacco can make a maximum of $800,000 for winning the Super Bowl as a wild card, or $600,000 if Baltimore wins the AFC North and gets a first-round bye.

Colts Looking More Likely

If the Ravens don’t win the AFC North, they’ll likely face the AFC South division champ. It’s looking more and more likely that it’s going to be the Indianapolis Colts.

As MASN’s Dan Kolko put it, the odds of the Ravens seeing the Jaguars in the first round are "shrinking by the second."

The Jags will be without starting quarterback David Gerrard, who is having finger surgery, this week versus Houston. He’s already been ruled out and replaced by former Bills quarterback Trent Edwards. Star running back Maurice Jones-Drew is also likely to miss Sunday’s game with a lingering knee injury that kept him out last week.

If Jacksonville were to beat the Houston Texans and Indianapolis lost to the Tennessee Titans, Baltimore would likely travel to Florida.

But don’t count on it.

Reed, Kindle On AFC North Stock Watch

ESPN’s Walker put Ed Reed on his stock rising. He said Reed, this week’s AFC Defensive Player of the Week, "easily won the mental chess game" against Browns rookie quarterback Colt McCoy, notching two picks.

Walker also wondered why teams don’t stop throwing in his direction. To me, all directions are Reed’s direction because his instincts can put him anywhere on the field. That’s what’s so challenging to the opposition.

Linebacker Sergio Kindle made the dubious stock falling category. Walker said "Kindle took another step backward" after his recent DUI arrest.

Quick Hits

• The Steelers have a tough question on their hands. Play or save safety Troy Polamalu for the playoffs? Polamalu hasn’t played or practiced the past two weeks due to an injured right Achilles tendon, but there’s an AFC North title at stake this weekend. [ESPN]
• Head Coach John Harbaugh said he’d like to get backup quarterback Marc Bulger some game reps Sunday if possible. "I’ve kind of wanted to do that all year," Harbaugh said. "We’ve just never been in a situation where we’ve been able to do that." [The Sun]
• The Bengals have returned approximately 400 tickets to the Ravens for Sunday’s game. They can be purchased through Ticketmaster. [Ravens]
• Some scoreboard watching is OK by Harbaugh. "When the [Pittsburgh-Cleveland] score comes up, I’m sure all of us are going to take a look," Harbaugh said. "We’re going to know by the crowd’s reaction. I don’t have a problem with that." [The Sun]
• Cory Redding is no longer losing now that he’s with the Ravens. Redding was part of the 2008 Detroit Lions, the first team to ever go 0-16. [Associated Press]