Joe Flacco suffered a concussion after taking a brutal hit from Miami Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso late in the second quarter of the Ravens' 40-0 win Thursday night.
Flacco had clearly given himself up by sliding at the end of a 9-yard scramble when Alonso lowered his shoulder and delivered a vicious blow that immediately knocked the helmet off of the Baltimore Ravens quarterback. Alonso was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play, and Flacco didn't return to the game after leaving for the locker room to undergo testing.
In addition to the concussion, Flacco suffered a cut to his ear, which required stitches, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the game.
"It was bang, bang," Alonso said. "It got to a point where I thought maybe if he slid a second sooner, I was anticipating him sliding and I was going to not hit him, but I think it was like, you know, a second late, which is why I hit him."
Alonso added there wasn't anything he could have done to avoid hitting Flacco like he did.
"No. No way," Alonso said when asked if he could have avoided contact or not put a shoulder on Flacco. "That's the target, you know, when a guy slides, his target is very small. I just think it was a second late, which is why I hit him, to be honest with you."
Harbaugh wouldn't discuss whether he believed Alonso should have been ejected.
"I'm not commenting on that," Harbaugh said. "It was penalized correctly, I would say."
Coming on in relief of Flacco, backup quarterback Ryan Mallett found tight end Ben Watson for a 2-yard touchdown, giving Baltimore a 20-0 lead at halftime.
Although Alonso was penalized 15 yards, he was not ejected for the infraction. After having his own helmet knocked off by Ravens center Ryan Jensen in retaliation, Alonso found himself face-to-face in a verbal confrontation with an irate Harbaugh.
