Ravens to start Jimmy Clausen vs. Seahawks

BALTIMORE -- Jimmy Clausen will start in place of injured quarterbackMatt Schaubwhen the Baltimore Ravens play the Seattle Seahawks, the team announced Sunday.

Clausen will become only the sixth quarterback in NFL history to start against the same team for two different clubs in one season. His only other start this year came against the Seahawks on Sept. 27 -- a forgettable 26-0 loss -- while he was with the Chicago Bears. Ten weeks later and on a new team, Clausen will face the NFL's No. 2 defense for a second time.

The last quarterback to do it was Kyle Orton in 2011. He played the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders twice as quarterback for the Broncos and Chiefs.

Schaub was put on the team's inactive list for Sunday's game.

Clausen, 28, practiced with the Ravens' first-team offense all week, as Schaub was sidelined with a chest injury. Bryn Renner, who was out of football this season before joining the Ravens on Tuesday, was promoted from the practice squad Saturday and will serve as the backup.

"Jimmy is smart," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "He has been in this basic system before. He knows how to handle himself. He has played a lot of football, so he's fine."

This marks the third different starting quarterback in four weeks for the Ravens after Joe Flacco had started the previous 122 consecutive regular-season games, the fifth-longest streak in NFL history. Flacco tore two knee ligaments on Nov. 22, ending his season.

Clausen is 1-11 as an NFL starter. His only victory came in December 2010, when he was a rookie with the Carolina Panthers.

"He has really humbled himself over the years in terms of the things that he has had to go through in his NFL journey," said offensive coordinator Marc Trestman, who coached Clausen last season in Chicago. "He had a very difficult first year. The word out of Carolina was he handled himself in an exemplary fashion -- showed great leadership -- in a very, very difficult season. That showed up last year being around him, that the guys will rally around him. He's mentally tough and physically tough, and he has come in here under unusual circumstances and at an unusual time."