Joe Flacco is the man

[flynismo]

Stats never tell the whole story. But hey, if they mean that much to you, they'll come soon. I guess numbers tell you all you need to know about what you're seeing, huh? I guess the pick 6 he threw, which wasn't his fault, nullifies the fact that he led a game winning drive right afterwards. I guess 0 TD to 1 INT is automatically a bad game, every game, regardless of any other factors.

And I guess Eli is a terrible QB because his passer rating is lower than Joe's right now. That clearly nullifies two SB rings and playoff success, just like Joe's low numbers clearly are more important than game winning drives and a SB winning playoff run.

And I guess paying a QB to put up huge numbers but not win is money better spent than a QB who does nothing but win and has us tied atop the division once again.

The fact that he won a SB when people said he was average or worse and will never win one makes those people wrong to a point that they can't recover from.

I'll let you in on a little secret...everyone ignores him. If you don't respond, eventually he will go back to the 40whiners forum he came from.

[ROH522155]

Any quarterback can get on a roll for four games.

 

Flacco picked an opportune time to start playing like a great quarterback but like the clock striking midnight for Cinderella , as the confetti was being swept up on Super Bowl Sunday the morphing back into Average Joe was complete.

 

Yep. Any quarterback can throw 11 touchdowns and 0 INTs in the playoffs. ANY quarterback can out duel Peyton Manning AND Tom Brady on the road in the postseason. It's so easy.

[mgridda]

There were a few drives and plays that game where Joe could have finished with a stat line that looks like 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Had McKinnie just pushed his guy off, Flacco delivers that ball, beats the safety and it could be a 95 yard TD bomb. There were a few drives where Joe could have elected to throw the ball and get the stats, but ran it in because the defense showed a weakness to the run in their personnel and package.

 

Instead, Joe walks away from this game posting 0 touchdowns and 1 interception. He has 6 interceptions over the last two weeks, 8 for the season. That really seems awful.

[mgridda]

I'd just wish for one week this guy would put up numbers in line with the money the Ravens invested in him.

 

 

Flacco is 38th in quarterback rating.  Quite frankly that sucks and if any other position on the team was in the top three pay scale of their respective position while in the same territory/ statistical rankings the Flacco fans would have their heads.

 

Flacco is an average Joe.  Actually right now he's below average Joe.

That'd be okay if his guys weren't dropping touchdown throws. It's hard to do, but Joe's doing it. He lost his top 2 targets from last year, and came into this year thinking he'd have last year's #3 be this year's #2 and a guy who was sitting on his couch 2 weeks ago be his #1 TE. The #2 guy goes down and now Flacco is working with his #2 last year, an undrafted free agent, and a guy who was cut. 

More than anything, the blocking changed schemes, we have one of the worst running games in the league and Joe is getting no time back there.

 

I'll be honest, Joe hasn't been doing well either: He hasn't been prepared. He's going off his first read, I don't see him going through his progressions or making adjustments before the play other than calling run. He hasn't been enough of a student of the game, he hasn't been studying enough really. 

[52N19]

your comparison to Johnny U's toughness is well stated. i wish johnny U was still alive to see joe. i think he would have been proud. it didn;t work out with chris redman but it was great to see johnny U on the sideline during some of redmans games.

[Ravensfan23]

That'd be okay if his guys weren't dropping touchdown throws. It's hard to do, but Joe's doing it. He lost his top 2 targets from last year, and came into this year thinking he'd have last year's #3 be this year's #2 and a guy who was sitting on his couch 2 weeks ago be his #1 TE. The #2 guy goes down and now Flacco is working with his #2 last year, an undrafted free agent, and a guy who was cut. 
More than anything, the blocking changed schemes, we have one of the worst running games in the league and Joe is getting no time back there.
 
I'll be honest, Joe hasn't been doing well either: He hasn't been prepared. He's going off his first read, I don't see him going through his progressions or making adjustments before the play other than calling run. He hasn't been enough of a student of the game, he hasn't been studying enough really.

I agree with the majority of both your post above, but I disagree with the last part. I think I understand where you are coming from, so I'll ask why exactly you feel Joe hasn't been prepared and what examples of him not adjustings or reading the defense. I will say I agree he has had his faults this season, but I don't think they are large enough to say he isn't playing well.

[flynismo]

That'd be okay if his guys weren't dropping touchdown throws. It's hard to do, but Joe's doing it. He lost his top 2 targets from last year, and came into this year thinking he'd have last year's #3 be this year's #2 and a guy who was sitting on his couch 2 weeks ago be his #1 TE. The #2 guy goes down and now Flacco is working with his #2 last year, an undrafted free agent, and a guy who was cut.

More than anything, the blocking changed schemes, we have one of the worst running games in the league and Joe is getting no time back there.

I'll be honest, Joe hasn't been doing well either: He hasn't been prepared. He's going off his first read, I don't see him going through his progressions or making adjustments before the play other than calling run. He hasn't been enough of a student of the game, he hasn't been studying enough really.

Could it be that he goes with his first read because the OL gives up pressure before he has time to go through his reads? In fact, Harbaugh was just talking about that last week

[beasy2487]

Slightly off topic but I think another discounted factor with the Ravens is that every team elevates their game (or tries to) when they play us. Before it was because 75% of them grew up idolizing Ray and Ed and now it's because we're the champs. We don't "play down" to competition, they play up to us. That's why we rarely have blow out wins but, combined with the fact that we're built for cold weather, it's also why we're always there in the end. We're forced to compete every down, every week unlike the regular season warriors. As a result, we come out playoff time forged from a crucible of attrition and pride.

Most other "elite quarterbacks" have the luxury of getting in rhythm during the regular season, but when the wind is howling and it's win or go home, there is no rhythm. There is only you, your 10 brothers, and the next play. Peyton, Brady, Brees, Ryan...those guys aren't built for that. Our guy is, and thus, our guy wins.

[mgridda]

 

 

I agree with the majority of both your post above, but I disagree with the last part. I think I understand where you are coming from, so I'll ask why exactly you feel Joe hasn't been prepared and what examples of him not adjustings or reading the defense. I will say I agree he has had his faults this season, but I don't think they are large enough to say he isn't playing well.

 

Simple. I haven't seen Joe once this season run the no-huddle, get down to the line of scrimmage, see a mismatch, call an audible and exploit the defense for a big play. I'm not seeing Joe use a play that got them success in an earlier meeting, then change a wrinkle in it and keep the defense guessing. We're not outscheming anyone. I don't know if it's Caldwell or Joe, or both. But basically in the Bills game it wasn't just an issue of execution, and then I saw the same thing with the Dolphins. Let's be realistic here, their best corner was out for that game, and then on top of that Carroll got injured and pulled out. So in comes a fresh new rookie corner. Where was Joe abusing the new kid? The Bills game was an atrocity if you look at it honestly. This wasn't the Bills with Byrd and all their weapons in the secondary, this was a Bills secondary playing with 4th and 5th stringers. 

Something is wrong with Joe on a personal level. I don't know if it's the family, if people start coming out of the woodwork when you become the highest paid player, or if it's just everything surrounding his new baby, but he needs to put more time in the film room and start mentally beating his opponents. 

If football is like chess for an offensive coordinator or a Quarterback, then Joe's elo right now is like 500. Yes, he'd be playing MUCH better if his receivers were catching balls thrown on the money and if his line held for .5 seconds more on a handful of plays, his statistics would look better, but I'm already accounting for that. I haven't seen Joe mentally dominate an opponent yet. It's all been either the execution is there on a scheme that could go either way on how it's called against the defenses' scheme, or the execution is not there and someone messes up and it's a failed play. I want more than that. I want to see plays where Joe is demonstrating the kind of prepardness of Peyton Manning, because that's the measuring stick in this league, and throughout these first five games Joe has fallen short.

 

But I know Joe is capable of it, I've seen it the past 4 years (not his rookie year so much), and I've seen it all throughout last year's playoffs. What ever is distracting Joe needs to GTFO, and I'd like it if he spent 16 hours a day in the facility leading up to the Packers game.

 

I'm going to catch some flack for this, but I think football is very no-nonsense to Joe. Throwing and reading and playcalling comes easy to him, and he kind of coasts by on a lot of it knowing it was good enough to win him a Superbowl last year. e.g., other players on the team might not be...but I think at least for these first 5 games, Joe has been c o m p l a c e n t. 

 

I had big expectations for Joe this year. He must have been surprised when he threw 60 times against the Broncos and Bills and couldn't pull out a win. I think he'll realise it's not enough, and that he needs to put in more work preparing and studying.

[Ravensfan23]

Could it be that he goes with his first read because the OL gives up pressure before he has time to go through his reads? In fact, Harbaugh was just talking about that last week

This is exactly correct. Goingg through your reads is all about trust imo. You gotta trust your oline to hold up because you can't go through your reads and watch the rush as well.

It's tough for many to see this because the stats don't match, but this is among the best I've seen Flacco.

[beasy2487]

Simple. I haven't seen Joe once this season run the no-huddle, get down to the line of scrimmage, see a mismatch, call an audible and exploit the defense for a big play. I'm not seeing Joe use a play that got them success in an earlier meeting, then change a wrinkle in it and keep the defense guessing. We're not outscheming anyone. I don't know if it's Caldwell or Joe, or both. But basically in the Bills game it wasn't just an issue of execution, and then I saw the same thing with the Dolphins. Let's be realistic here, their best corner was out for that game, and then on top of that Carroll got injured and pulled out. So in comes a fresh new rookie corner. Where was Joe abusing the new kid? The Bills game was an atrocity if you look at it honestly. This wasn't the Bills with Byrd and all their weapons in the secondary, this was a Bills secondary playing with 4th and 5th stringers.

Something is wrong with Joe on a personal level. I don't know if it's the family, if people start coming out of the woodwork when you become the highest paid player, or if it's just everything surrounding his new baby, but he needs to put more time in the film room and start mentally beating his opponents.

If football is like chess for an offensive coordinator or a Quarterback, then Joe's elo right now is like 500. Yes, he'd be playing MUCH better if his receivers were catching balls thrown on the money and if his line held for .5 seconds more on a handful of plays, his statistics would look better, but I'm already accounting for that. I haven't seen Joe mentally dominate an opponent yet. It's all been either the execution is there on a scheme that could go either way on how it's called against the defenses' scheme, or the execution is not there and someone messes up and it's a failed play. I want more than that. I want to see plays where Joe is demonstrating the kind of prepardness of Peyton Manning, because that's the measuring stick in this league, and throughout these first five games Joe has fallen short.

But I know Joe is capable of it, I've seen it the past 4 years (not his rookie year so much), and I've seen it all throughout last year's playoffs. What ever is distracting Joe needs to GTFO, and I'd like it if he spent 16 hours a day in the facility leading up to the Packers game.

I'm going to catch some flack for this, but I think football is very no-nonsense to Joe. Throwing and reading and playcalling comes easy to him, and he kind of coasts by on a lot of it knowing it was good enough to win him a Superbowl last year. e.g., other players on the team might not be...but I think at least for these first 5 games, Joe has been c o m p l a c e n t.

I had big expectations for Joe this year. He must have been surprised when he threw 60 times against the Broncos and Bills and couldn't pull out a win. I think he'll realise it's not enough, and that he needs to put in more work preparing and studying.

Reading into things a bit much...? Maybe during the playoffs we had a veteran center, slot receiver, and tight end who were all highly versed in our system and could make the complex reads required to execute the types of plays you're talking about. This year, we have 0 of those things. Every single thing you described would happen on a play to Pitta or Boldin and require adjustments from the Center. You go to war with army you have, and if that means dumbing down the offense that's what it means.

Oh and by the way, to pull half of those things off the defense has to respect the run and your RBs have to be able to pick up blitzes and/or diagnose the play and find a soft spot for a check down. Rice is good at that but he's hurt, Pierce isn't there yet.

There are way too many factors in play to be speculating about Joe's personal life...c'mon. That's like saying Brady is playing poorly because Gisele put on an iron belt. Naw...it's because his cast is JV. Same situation here.

[Cville-Raven]

Any quarterback can get on a roll for four games.

Flacco picked an opportune time to start playing like a great quarterback but like the clock striking midnight for Cinderella , as the confetti was being swept up on Super Bowl Sunday the morphing back into Average Joe was complete.

Blow up the team and rebuild...

[Ravensfan23]

Simple. I haven't seen Joe once this season run the no-huddle, get down to the line of scrimmage, see a mismatch, call an audible and exploit the defense for a big play. I'm not seeing Joe use a play that got them success in an earlier meeting, then change a wrinkle in it and keep the defense guessing. We're not outscheming anyone. I don't know if it's Caldwell or Joe, or both. But basically in the Bills game it wasn't just an issue of execution, and then I saw the same thing with the Dolphins. Let's be realistic here, their best corner was out for that game, and then on top of that Carroll got injured and pulled out. So in comes a fresh new rookie corner. Where was Joe abusing the new kid? The Bills game was an atrocity if you look at it honestly. This wasn't the Bills with Byrd and all their weapons in the secondary, this was a Bills secondary playing with 4th and 5th stringers.
Something is wrong with Joe on a personal level. I don't know if it's the family, if people start coming out of the woodwork when you become the highest paid player, or if it's just everything surrounding his new baby, but he needs to put more time in the film room and start mentally beating his opponents.
If football is like chess for an offensive coordinator or a Quarterback, then Joe's elo right now is like 500. Yes, he'd be playing MUCH better if his receivers were catching balls thrown on the money and if his line held for .5 seconds more on a handful of plays, his statistics would look better, but I'm already accounting for that. I haven't seen Joe mentally dominate an opponent yet. It's all been either the execution is there on a scheme that could go either way on how it's called against the defenses' scheme, or the execution is not there and someone messes up and it's a failed play. I want more than that. I want to see plays where Joe is demonstrating the kind of prepardness of Peyton Manning, because that's the measuring stick in this league, and throughout these first five games Joe has fallen short.

I'm going to catch some flack for this, but I think football is very no-nonsense to Joe. Throwing and reading and playcalling comes easy to him, and he kind of coasts by on a lot of it knowing it was good enough to win him a Superbowl last year. e.g., other players on the team might not be...but I think at least for these first 5 games, Joe has been c o m p l a c e n t.

Ok I thought I knew where you were going but I was waayyy off. Flacco complacent, are you serious? He has a different type of swagger to him after winningg the ring but it's not complacency. You don't miss the birth of a child because your complacent. Guys like Cary Williams do that. You don't stay after practice working with young Wrs if your complacent. You don't spend extra time teaching Stokely and Clark the playbook if you're complacent. You don't show leadership by working with your WRs on the sidelines when they miss up in games. You don't continue to instill confidence in them by not showing them them up if you're complacent imo.

Also you say you want Flacco to be dominate and point out the issues with the oline and WRs as if they aren't a major factor. It's not just the few obvious things that show up in the stat sheets a few times a game like drops, QB pressures and sacks. No it's also the things that get little attention, but has major impact. Poor routes, not fighting hard enough to get inside on routes, no reading coverage well enough and being on the same page with Joe, quick pressure that disrupts timing, poor blitz pickups.

All those things are happening far to often in games and is a major reason why Flacco isn't dominating like you want. Now that's not to say Joe is without fault because he's not. He deserves and takes his fair share of blame. A lot of those things aren't obvious while watching the games but some are. You want Joe to dominate let's look at the Browns game.

Flacco's line was 22/33 66% 211yds 1Td. Not even close to pretty or dominate right? But what if I told you that in the 1st half alone, Dickson, Brown and Smith all had drops that would have resulted in a total of 80yds and 2Tds. We add those 3 plays to Flacco's final line and we get: 25/33 75% 291yds 3Tds 0Ints and the team wins 28-6. Are those the numbers of a guy not putting in work?

There are so many other cases to support just how well Flacco is pllaying but because the ppieces around him are inconsistent right now his numbers don't show.

[arnie_uk]

Read that he got hit over 20 times on Sunday

[flynismo]

Read that he got hit over 20 times on Sunday

He gets paid $120M, he should block for himself

[codizzle]

He gets paid $120M, he should block for himself

That's what I said.... Should be coaching himself too

[arnie_uk]

That's what I said.... Should be coaching himself too

buy him a mcdonalds after every game and I hear he will also play on a one man defense.

[jimmypowder]

I'd just wish for one week this guy would put up numbers in line with the money the Ravens invested in him.

 

 

Flacco is 38th in quarterback rating.  Quite frankly that sucks and if any other position on the team was in the top three pay scale of their respective position while in the same territory/ statistical rankings the Flacco fans would have their heads.

 

Flacco is an average Joe.  Actually right now he's below average Joe.

I guess you would rather have Romo's  performance  against the Broncos of 5 td passes,1 pick and a LOSS vs Joe's gritty

performance against the Dolphins and a WIN.

 

Sad.

[AsianRice]

I guess you would rather have Romo's  performance  against the Broncos of 5 td passes,1 pick and a LOSS vs Joe's gritty

performance against the Dolphins and a WIN.

 

Sad.

I think he put Joe in his FF starters last week and lost.....lol

[callahan09]

I'd just wish for one week this guy would put up numbers in line with the money the Ravens invested in him.

 

 

Flacco is 38th in quarterback rating.  Quite frankly that sucks and if any other position on the team was in the top three pay scale of their respective position while in the same territory/ statistical rankings the Flacco fans would have their heads.

 

Flacco is an average Joe.  Actually right now he's below average Joe.

No.  Flacco plays in a below average passing offensive system.  He himself is not below average, or even average.  He is FAR above average.  He is an excellent quarterback in this league.  The passer statistics you cite aren't valueless, but they don't tell the story of the quarterback, they tell the story of the offense as a unit.  There is no hiding the fact that this offense is in a shambles.  They have trouble getting receivers open and the offensive line can't block worth a damn, and therefore the quarterback has a tough day completing passes, but that doesn't mean it's the quarterback's fault, and in this case, it is most certainly not Flacco's fault.

[callahan09]

Simple. I haven't seen Joe once this season run the no-huddle, get down to the line of scrimmage, see a mismatch, call an audible and exploit the defense for a big play. I'm not seeing Joe use a play that got them success in an earlier meeting, then change a wrinkle in it and keep the defense guessing. We're not outscheming anyone. I don't know if it's Caldwell or Joe, or both. But basically in the Bills game it wasn't just an issue of execution, and then I saw the same thing with the Dolphins. Let's be realistic here, their best corner was out for that game, and then on top of that Carroll got injured and pulled out. So in comes a fresh new rookie corner. Where was Joe abusing the new kid? The Bills game was an atrocity if you look at it honestly. This wasn't the Bills with Byrd and all their weapons in the secondary, this was a Bills secondary playing with 4th and 5th stringers. 

Something is wrong with Joe on a personal level. I don't know if it's the family, if people start coming out of the woodwork when you become the highest paid player, or if it's just everything surrounding his new baby, but he needs to put more time in the film room and start mentally beating his opponents. 

If football is like chess for an offensive coordinator or a Quarterback, then Joe's elo right now is like 500. Yes, he'd be playing MUCH better if his receivers were catching balls thrown on the money and if his line held for .5 seconds more on a handful of plays, his statistics would look better, but I'm already accounting for that. I haven't seen Joe mentally dominate an opponent yet. It's all been either the execution is there on a scheme that could go either way on how it's called against the defenses' scheme, or the execution is not there and someone messes up and it's a failed play. I want more than that. I want to see plays where Joe is demonstrating the kind of prepardness of Peyton Manning, because that's the measuring stick in this league, and throughout these first five games Joe has fallen short.

 

But I know Joe is capable of it, I've seen it the past 4 years (not his rookie year so much), and I've seen it all throughout last year's playoffs. What ever is distracting Joe needs to GTFO, and I'd like it if he spent 16 hours a day in the facility leading up to the Packers game.

 

I'm going to catch some flack for this, but I think football is very no-nonsense to Joe. Throwing and reading and playcalling comes easy to him, and he kind of coasts by on a lot of it knowing it was good enough to win him a Superbowl last year. e.g., other players on the team might not be...but I think at least for these first 5 games, Joe has been c o m p l a c e n t. 

 

I had big expectations for Joe this year. He must have been surprised when he threw 60 times against the Broncos and Bills and couldn't pull out a win. I think he'll realise it's not enough, and that he needs to put in more work preparing and studying.

It's definitely Caldwell.  I don't know how you can say any of that is Joe's fault.  Joe hasn't been complacent, he has been following orders.  Caldwell designs the plays, calls the plays.  The coaches put the personnel on the field.  You expect Flacco to just ignore the play call and tell everyone we're going no huddle even though that's not what the game plan and coaches are calling for?  That's a good way to alienate yourself from the coaches and the team if it doesn't work.  The smart thing to do as a signal caller is to run the offense the way the coaches instruct you to do so.  Why hasn't CALDWELL put Flacco in the no huddle and allowed him to call at the line?  That's not something you can blame Flacco for not doing, but blame Caldwell for not allowing Flacco to do.

[Fang]

qbs don't beat qbs

 

Sure they do. It's a common phrase used when football analysts and fans are comparing QBs and/or talking about the outcome of a game where both QBs are significant.

 

For example, "Peyton Manning outduels Tony Romo in record shootout" as the title for this article.

 

http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/2013/10/06/nfl_peyton_manning_outduels_tony_romo_in_record_shootout.html

 

 

"Joe Flacco Beats Tom Brady In AFC Championship Game After Knocking Off Peyton Manning"

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/21/joe-flacco-tom-brady-afc-championship-peyton_n_2518000.html

[BMORElegacy]

No.  Flacco plays in a below average passing offensive system.  He himself is not below average, or even average.  He is FAR above average.  He is an excellent quarterback in this league.  The passer statistics you cite aren't valueless, but they don't tell the story of the quarterback, they tell the story of the offense as a unit.  There is no hiding the fact that this offense is in a shambles.  They have trouble getting receivers open and the offensive line can't block worth a damn, and therefore the quarterback has a tough day completing passes, but that doesn't mean it's the quarterback's fault, and in this case, it is most certainly not Flacco's fault.

Hardbaugh is either a troll or a hardcore Flacco hater.... Either way you're not going to get through to him with logic and reason. 

[codizzle]

"Joe Flacco Beats Tom Brady In AFC Championship Game After Knocking Off Peyton Manning"

That's beautiful every time

[jimjim5]

Slightly off topic but I think another discounted factor with the Ravens is that every team elevates their game (or tries to) when they play us. Before it was
because 75% of them grew up idolizing Ray and Ed...

Sorry, but professional athetes don't elevate there game because of adulation of a superstar player. They get up because they are competitors. Only fans (fanatics, fanboys), homersand people that have never played the game think like this. Ray and Ed are .... very good players. Mentors? Yes.... A performance enhancing drug? No.

[jimjim5]

I agree 100%. I stated darn near the exact same thing in another thread.

Simple. I haven't seen Joe once this season run the no-huddle, get down to the line of scrimmage, see a mismatch, call an audible and exploit the defense for a big play. I'm not seeing Joe use a play that got them success in an earlier meeting, then change a wrinkle in it and keep the defense guessing. We're not outscheming anyone. I don't know if it's Caldwell or Joe, or both. But basically in the Bills game it wasn't just an issue of execution, and then I saw the same thing with the Dolphins. Let's be realistic here, their best corner was out for that game, and then on top of that Carroll got injured and pulled out. So in comes a fresh new rookie corner. Where was Joe abusing the new kid? The Bills game was an atrocity if you look at it honestly. This wasn't the Bills with Byrd and all their weapons in the secondary, this was a Bills secondary playing with 4th and 5th stringers.

Something is wrong with Joe on a personal level. I don't know if it's the family, if people start coming out of the woodwork when you become the highest paid player, or if it's just everything surrounding his new baby, but he needs to put more time in the film room and start mentally beating his opponents.

If football is like chess for an offensive coordinator or a Quarterback, then Joe's elo right now is like 500. Yes, he'd be playing MUCH better if his receivers were catching balls thrown on the money and if his line held for .5 seconds more on a handful of plays, his statistics would look better, but I'm already accounting for that. I haven't seen Joe mentally dominate an opponent yet. It's all been either the execution is there on a scheme that could go either way on how it's called against the defenses' scheme, or the execution is not there and someone messes up and it's a failed play. I want more than that. I want to see plays where Joe is demonstrating the kind of prepardness of Peyton Manning, because that's the measuring stick in this league, and throughout these first five games Joe has fallen short.

But I know Joe is capable of it, I've seen it the past 4 years (not his rookie year so much), and I've seen it all throughout last year's playoffs. What ever is distracting Joe needs to GTFO, and I'd like it if he spent 16 hours a day in the facility leading up to the Packers game.

I'm going to catch some flack for this, but I think football is very no-nonsense to Joe. Throwing and reading and playcalling comes easy to him, and he kind of coasts by on a lot of it knowing it was good enough to win him a Superbowl last year. e.g., other players on the team might not be...but I think at least for these first 5 games, Joe has been c o m p l a c e n t.

I had big expectations for Joe this year. He must have been surprised when he threw 60 times against the Broncos and Bills and couldn't pull out a win. I think he'll realise it's not enough, and that he needs to put in more work preparing and studying.

[beasy2487]

Sorry, but professional athetes don't elevate there game because of adulation of a superstar player. They get up because they are competitors. Only fans (fanatics, fanboys), homersand people that have never played the game think like this. Ray and Ed are .... very good players. Mentors? Yes.... A performance enhancing drug? No.

Agree to disagree. They are human. Humans are subject to emotion. Emotion impacts performance. It's a sports cliche to say emotion has no impact. It absolutely does. Ray Lewis understood that and in his later years that's why he was still great. He wasn't the player he used to be but he got the other guys up. But again, it's my opinion and you're welcome to yours. I just don't believe in coincidences.

[beanfigger]

Have you guys noticed there seems to be a huge difference between the QBs that lead all those game-winning/tying drives to rack up their stats and the QBs who lead TD drives late when they have to? Matt Ryan and Tom Brady earned big time "clutch" titles by leading their teams to FGs over and over and over late in games. Honestly, if all the team needs late is a FG, I can't think of another QB better than these two. However, have you noticed how often these guys don't get the job done when they're down by four or more points?

The QBs who produce clutch TDs are the "second tier" guys. Guys like Ben, Eli, Joe, and even Andrew Luck. That is why these guys are able to rack up wins in the postseason comparable to the more flashy "elite" level guys (Luck will get his, we can be sure). You can take all the stats you want and be happy while I take a guy who can go 80 yards to victory on a regular basis over the guys who go 40 and stop.

Note: No mention of Peyton because he can get whatever he needs, whenever he needs it all regular season long. Wake me up when he starts being clutch in the playoffs, though.

[izvoodoo]

Have you guys noticed there seems to be a huge difference between the QBs that lead all those game-winning/tying drives to rack up their stats and the QBs who lead TD drives late when they have to? Matt Ryan and Tom Brady earned big time "clutch" titles by leading their teams to FGs over and over and over late in games. Honestly, if all the team needs late is a FG, I can't think of another QB better than these two. However, have you noticed how often these guys don't get the job done when they're down by four or more points?

The QBs who produce clutch TDs are the "second tier" guys. Guys like Ben, Eli, Joe, and even Andrew Luck. That is why these guys are able to rack up wins in the postseason comparable to the more flashy "elite" level guys (Luck will get his, we can be sure). You can take all the stats you want and be happy while I take a guy who can go 80 yards to victory on a regular basis over the guys who go 40 and stop.

Note: No mention of Peyton because he can get whatever he needs, whenever he needs it all regular season long. Wake me up when he starts being clutch in the playoffs, though.

Dude...

Andrew Luck is ridiculous.

[JEEPercreepermd]

I'd just wish for one week this guy would put up numbers in line with the money the Ravens invested in him.


Flacco is 38th in quarterback rating. Quite frankly that sucks and if any other position on the team was in the top three pay scale of their respective position while in the same territory/ statistical rankings the Flacco fans would have their heads.

Flacco is an average Joe. Actually right now he's below average Joe.

Who exactly has been protecting him? Nobody.

Who exactly does he have to throw the ball to? Torrey..that's it. Last week they only had 3 wr's dressed. Then one of his TE's has more drops than catches, and the other can catch but can't run.

Joe is doing just about as good as he can right now with what he's got. I can't count how many perfectly thrown balls have been dropped so far..many of those would have been big plays that would have either been a TD or put us well within FG range.

By the way, QB rating is a fictional statistic created by espn for fans who fetishize numbers over raw x's and o's. It doesn't account for the times when a qb has his man downfield but gets hit and can't step into the throw. It doesn't accout for the perfect balls dropped by a receiver. It doesn't account for a fat, out of shape, unmotivated LT getting beat leading to an interception because his arm got batted causing the ball to pop up. It doesn't account for a receiver running the wrong route, or not going back for a catchable pass. It doesn't account for a TE getting alligator arms going over the middle.

Take your QB rating to some fantasy football forum bro