That’ll About Do It For The Joe Fagnano Experience

Plenty of teams have lost their starting quarterbacks, to things like knee surgery (Giants), blood clots (Eagles), or an ancient Hittite curse (Chargers). But it’s unlikely that anyone’s had a rougher go of it under center this year than the Baltimore Ravens. Already sliding out of the ranks of the contenders, Baltimore was without Lamar Jackson for three punchless games due to an ankle sprain, and then, last weekend, he tore up his thumb on his very first snap in his return. His replacement Snoop Huntley is presentable as far as QB2s go, having been here on and off since 2020; Huntley was then promptly injured in the second quarter, and is out for the season with turf toe.

Just about any NFL team is dead meat after the loss of two quarterbacks, but the Ravens are extra-pungent carrion. Joe Fagnano, an undrafted rookie out of Maine and UConn who walked on and played seven years in college, was the sacrificial lamb for Thursday night’s game against the Jaguars. And while I have plenty of sympathy for Fagnano and the Ravens offense for only having a short week to prepare, this was indeed Thursday-ass football.