Flacco has done it in the past, he needs to do it again soon by Alistair Houghton January 21st 2012
Its playoff time and once again perennial contenders the Baltimore Ravens are looking strong. Yet the book on the Ravens is simple: stop their running game and Joe Flacco will not be able to put up enough points to carry his team to victory.
It wasnt always this way. At the beginning of the 2009 season Baltimore unveiled an offense that was, in essence, Air Flacco. He came out throwing the football and putting points and yards up unlike any Baltimore offense before.
He threw for 307 yards in the season opener against Kansas City, 342 yards against Cleveland and 385 yards in Minnesota against the Brett Favre led Vikings. He had a down game against the Bengals, throwing for only 186 yards and two interceptions, and an average game at the San Diego Chargers with 190 yard but two touchdowns. But he was solid again in New England, throwing for 274 yards (complemented with 103 yards from Ray Rice on the ground).
He totalled 11 touchdowns in the first six games and was carrying the Baltimore team. Remember that he wasnt throwing to Jerry Rice either: his best receivers were Derrick Mason, Todd Heap, and running back Rice.
So what happened? The Ravens record over that period happened. In spite of Flaccos good performances they went into their week 7 bye at 3-3. The reason? Defense.
The Ravens gave up points totals of 24, 26, 3, 27, 17 and 33. Thats an average of 21.7 points per game; pretty high for their normally stingy defence (if you exclude the game against the Browns then the average jumps up to 25.4 points per game).
The fact that the Ravens were throwing the ball more, and recording quicker drives, meant that their defense wasnt able to rest on the sideline and couldnt perform to its customary high level. Although the overall figures see the Ravens only down by 10 minutes to opponents in time of possession (185-175), again take out one rogue game where they had a 40-20 minute advantage over the Chiefs, and it becomes 165-135 against.
After their bye week the Ravens got away from allowing Flacco to air out the football. They went with their running game in order to keep their defense off the field as they saw that side of the ball as the strength of their football team. Flacco never had the chance to prove whether he could be a top notch franchise quarterback and his play seemed to regress because of it. By the time the playoffs came around it was back to the Ravens winning with defense and Flacco was just along for the ride.
Fast-forward two years and nothing much has changed. Flacco has good games and bad games, but the jury is still out. This year he played particularly well in two games against the Steelers yet was awful against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Flacco has one year remaining on his rookie deal to prove that he can get it done and be a help rather than a hindrance. Perhaps he needs the offense opened up again for him to be the effective player he has shown flashes of in the past. But given that the Ravens attack still runs through Ray Rice, he may just have to settle for game manager money. Or no contract at all.
Its playoff time and once again perennial contenders the Baltimore Ravens are looking strong. Yet the book on the Ravens is simple: stop their running game and Joe Flacco will not be able to put up enough points to carry his team to victory.
