[News] Joe Flacco, Dennis Pitta Set A Pair Of Team Records In Finale

[jravens1313]

And Steve Smith Sr only got 5 targets in his final game!!! I officially lost respect for Flacco. Also we threw 51 times and only ran 16. Heck of a game plan.

[jravens1313]

Great job Flacco of sending off SSS by throwing mainly to you're bff Pitta more then SSS.

I lost respect for Flacco. It gone. Bye.

[jravens1313]

When #5 doesn't throw it to anyone else but Pitta this is going to happen. You would of thought Pitta was the one retiring after this game the way he was fed the ball. It was sad to watch our joke of a QB fail our Offense again, especially for Smitty's last game..

Flacco showed no respect for Smith who was the only playmaker of the last 3 years protecting his job.

[callahan09]

18 hours ago, Fastynart said:

Who gives a crap about their team records? That doesn't mean squat. We have a mediocre quarterback being paid first rate money and we are stuck with him. He was absolutely abysmal in the loss to Cincinnati. Of course, the Swiss cheese defense did its part, but, good grief, another killer stupid interception in the end zone, just like in Pittsburgh. Why isn't Mallet allowed to play? Harbaugh is a hard headed moron. Won't make a change for the good of the team. Maybe Mallet isn't the answer, but Flacco has regressed. When he plays badly he should be taken out to give the team a chance to win. Instead Harbaugh either doesn't have the guts to do it or he worries about individual ego instead of what is best for the team. The sooner they fire him the better.

There was no interception in the end zone in Pittsburgh.  Flacco didn't regress.  He was coming back from a season-ending ACL injury last year, he got off to a rocky start at the beginning of the season where we had the worst offensive line in the NFL for about the first half of the season (including like 8 games in a row with a different O-line configuration due to injuries at the position), an offensive coordinator change in the middle of the season, etc.  You have a QB coming back from an ACL tear, wearing a knee brace which he was not used to having to do, limiting his mobility, and you put him behind an awful O line in constant flux from game to game due to injuries, and you saw the results, it wasn't pretty.  But then we fired Marc, we had a bye week, we got a little more consistency out of the O-line, and hey, Flacco started playing MUCH better.  The DEFENSE started to get far worse as the season went on.  Over the past 4 games, the key stretch to end out this season, where we only went 1-3 unfortunately and lost our position for the playoffs and the defense was bottom 5 in both yards and points allowed, including an absolute meltdown allowing 21 points and a last-minute come from behind victory to the Steelers to give away a division that we could have won up until that defensive collapse.

Flacco had played well since the bye week, improving statistically despite a huge supply of dropped touchdown passes and interceptions that weren't his fault (except for that head scratcher against Philly, most of the rest since the bye week were the fault of wide receiver misplay or bad luck off passes that bounced off someone else's hands ... I did an anlysis after the Philly game in case you missed that, with links to video of each INT so you could see for yourself.  Check NFL.com game logs for each game, you can watch the INTs there).  He didn't play inspired football yesterday, and why should that matter?  It was a meaningless game after a heart-wrenching letdown to lose the season on Christmas. He was also under constant pressure and the gameplan was atrocious.  Mallet comes in and throws an INT on a badly under-thrown deep ball on a play in which he wasn't pressured at all and had a long time to stand in a clean pocket and step into the throw.  So the complains are pretty baseless, I think.

Flacco objectively, definitely improved and was playing very good football as the season went into November & December, and he did his damn job.  The team lost as a team, Flacco being among the LEAST of the problems as the season went on.  People are re-writing the narrative to fit an anti-Flacco agenda right now because they're ignoring how his personal play improved as the season went on.  It's easy to do because his numbers in the first half of the season were bad enough to make his overall numbers for the year look much worse than the second half of the season was.  There are lots of variables at play as well, some of which I mentioned above, which explain why he improved as the season went on, as he got further distance from the knee injury and more stability at the O-line, and a new offensive coordinator.  And everyone's ignoring just how awful the defense became at the same time as the offense was improving.  But because the offense was the weak link in the first half of the season, the narrative that was installed in that first half of the season has continued to now, despite the roles literally being exactly reversed with the defense letting us down as the temperatures went down and the offense actually doing much better.

[callahan09]

14 hours ago, outkast1 said:

Just let Joe Flacco Join Trent Dilfer as the 2 worst super bowl  QBs

One guy had among the best defenses, allowing among the fewest points ever in their playoff quest to winning the Super Bowl, and didn't play any better than perhaps you could say "average". The other won his Super Bowl with his defense allowing the MOST points ever in the playoffs en route to winning the big dance, the MOST points allowed in the Super Bowl game itself, and did so putting up what's tied for the best statistical post-season performance of all time with Joe Montana's 11 TD, 0 INT performance.  It's night day.  Flacco and Dilfer are not comparable AT ALL.

Wasn't everyone mostly confident that Joe had been improving as the season went on and that he did his damn job in Pittsburgh, with the defense crapping our season down the drain with that epic fourth quarter meltdown?  If that's the case, what's changed since then?  Flacco played a meaningless game in a meaningless situation after an epic emotional letdown that killed our season the week before.  His game was marred by a terrible offensive line performance, he was under pressure all day, the defense was terrible from word go and so we were playing from behind all day and Marty called a completely terrible and totally predictable, entirely one-sided game.  That adds up to a stat line that doesn't look pretty and a scoreboard that looks even worse.  And yet, this matters somehow?  This matters more than how well he played in Pittsburgh.  Remember him leading a 4th quarter go-ahead drive?  And there were also 4 good passes that would have been touchdowns if caught that his receivers didn't help him out on, contributing to the loss and taking away the "pretty" stats that Flacco might have had in that Pittsburgh game, through no fault of his own, he played very well, much better even than the stats showed, on Christmas in Pittsburgh, with the season on the line and the whole world watching in a nationally televised game.   And yet we're back to not caring about all the improvement he made in his game as the season went on, how well he played with the season on the line, all because of a meaningless game in a bad situation with terrible playcalling and useless pass protection?  I just can't even fathom why the narrative is so anti-Flacco.  You're making him the scapegoat, but he's not the problem.

[UnitasGuy]

And Steve Smith Sr only got 5 targets in his final game!!! I officially lost respect for Flacco. Also we threw 51 times and only ran 16. Heck of a game plan.

I agree. Steve Smith Sr deserved more than 5 targets in his finale. He was here a short period of time but man I loved watching him play ball.

[Rat]

  17 hours ago, Rat said:

we all have opinions.....that includes you.....that said, u gave no more proof about what was in flacco's head then I did...but reading the rest of these posts....I was not the only one to see him constantly target pitta....next opinion is that pitta will retire.....with a record

Not so fast- you claimed to know what Joe was up to, and I said that was ridiculous. Now, you say it was only an opinion- then go om to cite others opinions as proof.

So with your being burdened by an inability to read,...I suggest you go look again.....I said..." I believe"....that my friend us ppppcalled an opinion

[EdTheMythicalOne]

2 hours ago, UnitasGuy said:

I agree. Steve Smith Sr deserved more than 5 targets in his finale. He was here a short period of time but man I loved watching him play ball.

Well, maybe SSSr needed to get open a bit more so he could get passes thrown to him?

[gooftroop]

20 hours ago, ByTheBay said:

It's all complete bologna until it isnt. Some said it was unthinkable that the Ravens wouldn't play to win yesterday. Then they didnt. Some said SSS might come back for another year. But he's not. Point is Flacco and Pitta are very good friends. Friends talk. Do you not think Pitta knew he was close to breaking a record? Players tell the media they dont care about records but of course they do. To think any different is a little naive. 

Well, the conversation was about that Flacco, in order to break a record (and win the game be damned), was feeding his buddy- and nothing else. So whether or not the team showed up, or SSS retired, is irrelevant. Anyway, if you tell me that disagreeing with you makes me naive, so be it. I didn't know I was in the presence of a mind-reader...