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.

The Ravens did all they could to limit Fagnano's exposure in a game with on-and-off rainshowers, and the result was unwatchable—not a charming, leather-helmet throwback game like last weekend's Wet Bowl in Tampa, but a gameplan in which they ran and ran and ran some more, and the Jags knew it was coming and stopped it. Baltimore picked up just 10 first downs (three in the second half), turned the ball over three times, and Fagnano finished his first start 10 of 18 for 60 ugly yards, with two picks and no scores. They tried to get a little creative with Derrick Henry in the wildcat formation, but it amounted to naught. Tablets were thrown in disgust.

The Jaguars' offense was no great shakes either, but 33-10 is 33-10—and only a late, long touchdown scamper from Justice Hill for the Ravens saved it from feeling even worse.

The Baltimore offense has been flailing without a healthy Lamar, reaching all sorts of franchise low-water marks. The Ravens have now been held under 14 points for a fourth straight game, and have lost by 20 or more in three straight, both team records. They're refusing to blame it on their QB situation, but: C'mon. "I just told them there's no excuses," head coach Jesse Minter said. "There's no whatever, 'We don't have this guy; we don't have that guy.' The results are not acceptable for us and what we're after."

Sadly for us connoisseurs of anonymous, break-glass-in-case-of-emergency quarterbacks, that'll probably be it for Fagnano. Nor will we see the likes of Austin Reed (no prior NFL action) or Kedon Slovis (one career NFL completion, for negative yards), both signed off the Ravens' practice squad this week. There will be no Peterman-tier meltdowns in Baltimore in the near future.

That's because the Ravens are reportedly close to finalizing a trade for Jacoby Brissett, benched by the Cardinals earlier this week in favor of Gardner Minshew. Brissett is a perfectly competent veteran; he'll have 11 days before the Ravens' next game, a Monday night hosting the woeful Chargers. The move had to be made. Despite being last in the division Baltimore is only 4-5, by no means out of the playoff picture. Brissett can win some games, or at least not lose them. Fagnano, Reed, and Slovis probably can't say the same.

Still, I can't help but feel like neutral fans will be missing out. Start a quarterback you need to hide! Run the wishbone offense! Hand it off to Derrick Henry 40 times a game! Let Kedon Slovis get back to zero net career yards! I'd rather watch a future trivia answer than a bog-standard-mediocre AFC North offense.