Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco: "I'd love to have Ben playing"

The ultimate competitor, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco wants to see the Steelers at their best. In comments, Flacco never shied away from the challenge that a Ben Roethlisberger led team would present to the Ravens' chances of turning their season around and challenging for a playoff spot.

As a competitor, it’s always nice to face guys that you’ve been going against for a while. You never like to see somebody injured either, and have to sit out. Hopefully everything is going well with [Roethlisberger], and he’ll be out there as quickly as possible.

Flacco even mentioned the rivalry and how having both teams healthy is important for what it means to both the Steelers and Ravens in their constant quest to one up each other.

I just think [both teams being at full strength] is good for the game. It’s good for football. It’s good for the rivalry. You’ve got everybody’s team the way they really want it, and I think the fans feed into it more. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. It’s going out there [and] playing the game at full strength and putting on a show for the fans and trying to battle your tail off to win the football game.

Thinking about the fans!? That's Flacco for you and he's right. If you want to watch top notch football, having two healthy teams in this division is about as classic a football game as any football fan could ask for. Now for Ravens fans, you never want to see a guy injured, but I doubt too many fans are itching to see the Steelers healthy this week as they try and go to 1-3 and turn around their season.

Roethlisberger will be out roughly 4-6 weeks from what we are hearing, but timetables for ligament injuries and bone bruises can stretch far longer (just ask Breshad Perriman). That means veteran quarterback Michael Vick will be starting in Ben's place on Thursday night.