When the Steelers and Ravens faced off in Week 4, Joe Flacco completed 11 of his first 12 passes, and when it was over he was 28 of 42 for 363 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers. He was sacked twice but his comments after Baltimore's 26-14 victory suggest he felt little in the way of pressure.
"It's not like today was the toughest Pittsburgh Steeler games I've ever played," Flacco said at the time.
And it's those 13 words, now more than four weeks old, that have some Steelers players fired up before Sunday's rematch in Baltimore.
"I don't like that comment," safety Sean Davis said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "because I feel like Baltimore week, I'm already preparing my body as if there's going to be a bruising. We'll see if he has the same response after this game."
Guard Ramon Foster added: "[Flacco's comment] was kind of shocking. He didn't feel like he was hit hard enough. We'll see how it goes. You don't really see a quarterback saying anything like that."
Here's the thing: Flacco wasn't wrong. The Ravens were 0-3 in the previous matchups against the Steelers, and in the three games before that -- all Baltimore wins -- the average margin of victory was 4.3 points. And in the 20 regular season games Flacco has played against Pittsburgh (he's 10-10, by the way), the 363 passing yards he had in late September was a career best.
Back in the present, the Ravens seem uninterested in providing bulletin-board material.
"They've won three in a row," said Ravens Coach John Harbaugh. "They're playing really well. They're not giving up the big plays like they did a little more earlier in the year. They've tightened up that part of it. They've talked about that. I've seen that. To me, they're playing Steeler football in that sense. They're playing hard defensively. They've made big plays on offense. They're running the ball very well. That's probably the biggest thing that sticks out. They have James Conner really rolling."
Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale took it a step further, praising Conner, the second-year running back, at the expense of the man he replaced, Le'Veon Bell.
"There are a lot of stats [since 2015] that the Steelers are actually better without [Bell]," he said. "That might be why he's riding a jet ski down in Miami right now."
Even longtime Steelers nemesis Terrell Suggs is over all the pregame gum-flapping.
"Maturity, man," the 36-year-old defensive end explained, via ESPN.com's Jamison Hensley. "You don't want to give them any extra locker-room material."
The line opened with the Ravens as three-point favorites but six of eight CBSSports.com experts expect the Steelers to win on the road.
If that happens, Pittsburgh will move to 5-2-1 and remain atop the AFC North while Baltimore would head into its bye week with a 4-5 mark, good for third in the division.