LOOK: Joe Flacco isn't injured, his knee brace just exploded on awkward slide

The Ravens quarterback isn't hurt, even if it sure looked like it

Facing a third-and-long on the Ravens' first drive of the second half, quarterback Joe Flacco dropped back to pass and, seeing nothing, he scrambled for the first down. And like quarterbacks do in this day and age, he slid feet first to avoid getting blasted by would-be Steelers tacklers.

This happens every week, in just about every game -- except in Flacco's case, it looked like his surgically repaired knee exploded upon contacting the MT&T Bank turf:

That's not a bone sticking out of Joe Flacco's knee. CBS

That looks to be extremely painful. Good news, though: That wasn't Flacco's knee, but his knee brace. It apparently broke into pieces upon hitting the turf, and looked like his leg was going in about four different directions. Flacco hobbled off the field and into the locker room, was replaced briefly by backup Ryan Mallett, and returned that very same series.

Midway through the third quarter, the Ravens lead a punchless Steelers outfit 10-0. You can follow all the action with CBSSports.com's GameTracker.