The Baltimore Ravens cruised to a 40-0 home victory over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night, but the win came at a cost.

Joe Flacco Injury News

Joe Flacco took a brutal hit to the head from linebacker Kiko Alonso after sliding at the end of a scramble in the second quarter.

Flacco — whose helmet flew off after the hit — was ruled out of the contest with a concussion, and also required stitches for a cut on his ear.

Miami was called for a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness. Several NFL pundits claimed harsher punishment should have been dealt:

A brawl soon broke out as players, including center Ryan Jensen and tackle Ndamukong Suh, some of whom argued with the officials and/or attempted to defend Flacco.

“I felt it was a dirty hit,” said Jensen, who is known as the team’s biggest fighter. “He’s our franchise [and] he’s our franchise quarterback. Him getting cheap-shotted like that, I fell like I had to do something to protect him and show him that we got his back.”

Three plays later, the Ravens exacted their revenge on Alonso. Ben Watson capitalized on Alonso’s misread and got open for a two-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Mallett. 

“If you mess with one of us, you got to mess with all of us. We went out there and gave everything we had for Joe, the team, the coaches and Baltimore,” Ravens defensive tackle Brandon Williams said. “We had to let everybody know that you can’t just mess with one of us and expect not to get hit 53 more times.”

Ravens coach John Harbaugh was fuming after Alonso’s hit, and he even yelled at the linebacker from the sideline.

Baltimore entered Thursday night averaging 18.5 points per game. After Flacco was injured, Baltimore scored 27 points in 33 minutes.

The Dolphins next host the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 5, when the Ravens (4-4) visit the Tennessee Titans.

BALTIMORE, MD – OCTOBER 26: Quarterback Joe Flacco #5 of the Baltimore Ravens is tackled by middle linebacker Kiko Alonso #47 of the Miami Dolphins during the second quarter at M&T Bank Stadium on October 26, 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland. Flacco left the game after the hit. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Wide receiver Kamar Aiken, who spent his past three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, signed a one-year contract with the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday, his agent David Canter announced.

NFL Free-Agency Roundup: Kamar Aiken Signs With Colts, Kiko Alonso Re-Signs with Dolphins

Aiken, 27, led the Ravens with 944 yards on 75 receptions, and also scored five touchdowns in 2015. He struggled last season, however, recording just 29 catches for 328 yards and a scored. In his breakout 2015 season, Aiken lined up 78 percent of his snaps out wide and 18 percent in the slot, according to Next Gen Stats.

The wideout visited Indianapolis last week and spent Monday with the Seattle Seahawks before settling on his new team.

Aiken joins a Colts receiver corps led by T.J. Hilton, Donte Moncrief and former first-round pick Phillip Dorsett. The 6-foot-2 Aiken adds size to a small unit.

Indy has also recently added Sean Spence, Jabaal Sheard, Barkevious Mingo, John Simon, Margus Hunt and Al Woods. 

After going undrafted out of Central Florida, Aiken had stints with the Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears and New England Patriots. Baltimore signed him to its practice squad in 2013.

In other NFL news, the Miami Dolphins have re-signed linebacker Kiko Alonso to a three-year contract extension worth $25 million, including $18.5 million guaranteed, which is added to the $3.9 million restricted tender he received this season, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday.

Alonso, 26, recorded 115 tackles, two interceptions and four passes defended in 2016, his first year with the Dolphins.

Miami acquired him in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles after one disappointing season, when the linebacker was till recovering from a knee injury that erased his entire 2014 season.

The other major news this week was that free agent quarterback Josh McCown, who last played for the Cleveland Browns, signed a one-year with the New York Jets that includes $6 million guaranteed. McCown, who will be 38 in July, went 1-10 with the Browns over the last two seasons, during which he only played 13 games due to injuries. The Jets are the QB’s eighth NFL team in 15 years.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, meanwhile, will undergo surgery on his throwing shoulder to repair a partially-torn rotator cuff on March 30. The Panthers announced the news Tuesday.

San Diego (now-Los Angeles) Chargers inside linebacker Manti Te’o agreed to a two-year deal with the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the New York Giants have added former San Francisco 49ers running back Shaun Draughn and re-signed linebacker Keenan Robinson.

Finally, the Atlanta Falcons have added two fullbacks: Derrick Coleman and Soma Vainuku, as well as guard Hugh Thornton.

CLEVELAND, OH – NOVEMBER 30: Kamar Aiken #11 of the Baltimore Ravens celebrates his touchdown during the third quarter against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on November 30, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

In probably the single craziest offseason trade thus far — lets be honest, nothing is going to be as shocking as this — LeSean McCoy is being traded to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso. While many claim the deal is done, it will not become official until March 10. Still no one saw this coming with even the NFL guru Adam Schefter being stumped by these events.

So what exactly happened: why was Chip Kelly willing to get rid of one of the best backs in the league? Some would say McCoy’s 2014 stats dipped, yet he still averaged 4.2 YPC, garnered 1,319 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns. For all intents and purposes, his 2014 campaign started off slow, but he is only 26 years old — his best days are still in front of him — it is still very possible he could top his 1,607-yard season.

Chip Kelly, who has a more active role in creating his team, clearly has a vision and McCoy is not a part of that: but while many look at how seemingly lopsided the trade looked in the Bills favor, McCoy is one of three guys the Eagles wanted to get rid of due to cap reasons. They saved $11.95 million by trading LeSean, another $11.625 million by cutting DE Trent Cole and $8.17 million by cutting CB Cary Williams — these players were three of the four biggest cap hits on the Eagles’ 2015 campaign.

On top of this, Kiko Alonso returns to a system he is familiar with, as he previously played for Kelly in Oregon: though he just came off an ACL tear, the 2013 second round draft pick provides some young talent to the ailing Philadelphia linebacking core. At the same time, this would also be the ninth player to currently play for Kelly who previously played for him at the college level. In other words, Kelly has a distinct vision and is willing to live or die by that.

So let’s review all of this information. The Bills willingness to eat McCoy’s salary did two things for the former Oregon coach. It gave him plenty of cap room to play around with — furthering his intended vision — and finally provided some talent to the Eagles’ LB core and overall defense — ACL tear or not, Kiko is the best linebacker on the team.

As for the Buffalo Bills, Rex Ryan and offensive coordinator Greg Roman are going to use a run first offense. However, they obviously did not see this happening under Fred Jackson and the injury prone free agent C.J. Spiller. Still, Spiller was a bit surprised from the trade: up until a few days ago, they were still actively attempting to re-sign him — showing the last minute nature of this Alonso-McCoy deal.

C.J. told ESPN, “Management called me and told me that they were [trading for McCoy] and pretty much giving me a ‘thank you for your service.’ I feel still the same. Nothing’s changed. The game plan is still the same. The only thing is that I won’t be returning to Buffalo.” And they obviously will not miss Kiko Alonso: despite him being sidelined last year, the Bills ranked fourth in overall defense.

As for McCoy, he is not pleased with the move. An ESPN source said, “He’s a Pennsylvania kid. He’s never played football outside of Pennsylvania — high school, college, pro. So of course he’s not happy… [LeSean is] not going to make it easy, that’s for sure.”