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Flacco Eager For Challenge

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2009

OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Put a rookie quarterback in the NFL playoffs, and it would be reasonable to suggest he might be nervous, tentative and prone to making mistakes.

Then there's Joe Flacco, who treated Sunday's wild-card game in Miami no differently than the first matchup between the teams in October.

"We were just playing the Miami Dolphins all over again. It's not like their guys grew a foot taller and got a half-second faster. It's still a football game," Flacco said this week. "What would we be saying about ourselves if we didn't go out there and play all 16 regular-season games as hard as we could? We'd be putting ourselves down pretty badly. So, we went out and played this game just like any other game, and we played it pretty good."

Flacco went 9-for-23 for 135 yards in a 27-9 victory. His statistics weren't pretty, but he didn't throw an interception. Dolphins QB Chad Pennington was picked off four times, and that's why Baltimore advanced to the second round against the Tennessee Titans.

Flacco isn't being asked to beat the Titans by himself Saturday. He's merely required to operate within the system, and that explains to a degree why the former University of Delaware star isn't overwhelmed by the prospect of being two wins away from a trip to the Super Bowl.

"It's not about me as much as it's about our team. It's about how confident we're playing as a team right now," he said.

STANDING O FOR SCIFRES: Chargers P Mike Scifres stuck six punts inside the 20-yard line in San Diego's 23-17 overtime win against the Colts on Saturday, the first time in playoff history a punter dropped that many kicks that deep. His 52.7-yard average was third-highest in playoff history.

Darren Bennett, who punted for the Chargers for nine years and helped break in Scifres as a rookie, was doing a postgame radio show at Junior Seau's restaurant in Mission Valley when Scifres walked in.

"It was the first time I've ever seen a punter get a standing ovation in a restaurant," said Bennett. "That was pretty cool."

The Associated Press

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