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Before that game kicked off, I thought to myself if the Ravens really are convinced he is their guy for the long run, they needed to show it after the season and sign him to the long-term contract he wants.
A show of support like that would at least chill the conversation, which certainly needed chilling.
As it happened, Flacco chilled it himself with his strong performance against the Patriots that Sunday. After a slow start, he wound up throwing for 306 yards, outplaying Tom Brady and putting the winning touchdown pass in the hands of a receiver who bungled the catch.
Any fair-minded, rational observer could see he was capable of taking a team to the Super Bowl because he basically did … until that fateful, perfectly-thrown pass hit the ground.
But of course, the chorus about Flacco is bound to resume because, well, so many people are shouting these days between cable, Internet and radio that such choruses never stop. Welcome to the world you live in.
So the Ravens need to keep going.
Even after Flacco's strong final game, and even after its love-fest earlier this month, the team needs to provide the ultimate show of support for its quarterback and pay the man.
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti has said he intends to do so and seems to have no doubt a deal will get done, and Bisciotti has always backed up what he says in such situations. But it isn't at the top of the team's immediate to-do list because other players, including Ray Rice, are pending free agents, while Flacco has a year left on his original contract.
But negotiations with any other player, including Rice, aren't as vital to the team's long-range prospects as a prospective deal with Flacco.
He is going to be here a long time, after most if not all of the current players are gone. He is going to lead the Ravens into the future. His relationship with the franchise needs to be airtight, with everyone having everyone's back.
Flacco might never be an elite signal-caller, whatever that is, but he is a winner, certainly good enough to take them all the way, and just 27 years old. The Ravens struggled for an answer at his position long enough to know stability beats the alternative.
The negotiations between them won't be easy. Flacco is going to want a lot of money, probably more than the Ravens want to give. Bisciotti says he never steps in, just let's his people handle it, but he might have to get involved this time.
You can't just talk the talk when it's time to pay your quarterback. You have to walk the walk.
