Admin Steve
01-13-2012, 10:40 AM
There is obviously a lot of controversy this season regarding Flacco's poor play. Even that statement will render the homers out to defend him. But the fact of the matter is that statistically this season was a significant downturn for Flacco. Those defending his play cite the typical "intangibles" and other immeasurable reasons as to why he really "improved," but the fact of the matter is that he has contributed less to wins this season than he did last season or the season prior. More relevantly, and as the title of this piece suggests, he did contribute significantly to the team's four losses.
Granted, those four losses were on the road, but even looking at a few of the home wins this season it becomes clear that he did little to contribute to the team winning several of those games.
Against the Cardinals it was Flacco's fumble and ensuing INT that were responsible for 14 of Arizona's 27 points. The special teams unit, which played respectably otherwise throughout the game, was responsible for another 7 by allowing an 82-yard punt return. The defense otherwise can be tagged with the remaining 6 points in a 3 point win. The running game contributed nearly 100 yards with no turnovers as well. The weak link in this home game was Flacco.
In the road game vs. Cleveland Flacco was even worse, "contributing" 0 TDs and 1 INT in a game where he completed a mere 43.5% of his passes and where his lone fumble contributed to 3 points for the Browns, more points than he contributed to for the Ravens in that game. It was the running game and its near 300-yard performance with over 200 by Rice and the play of the defense that won that game. Again, Flacco was a liability.
In the home Cleveland game Flacco was not quite as abysmal with a 45.8% completion percentage and 132 yards with a well below average rating of 73.6. His only complete pass on the first TD drive was in fact the actual 5-yard TD pass to Dickson.
In the Jets game Flacco was nothing but a liability. The Ravens defense directly scored 21 of the team's 34 points without which they never would have won. Flacco posted an abysmal completion percentage of 32.3% with a mere 163 yards, no TDs, and 1 INT posting his lowest rated game of the season at 37.4. This was against the Jets' tremendously average defense at home for Flacco. His only TD in the game was to David Harris of the Jets. The D played lights out, the running game yielded 115 rushing yards by the RBs.
In the Houston game the defense did its job holding the Texans to 14 points, Rice posted a 100-yard rushing day, but Flacco once again was a liability. In this game it was Flacco's fumble that set up the Texans' first score (TD) with a starting drive at the Raven 17 yard-line. Flacco's INT stymied a drive in Houston territory shortly prior to the half that would have put the Ravens up by 10 at halftime. Giving credit where credit is due, Flacco was instrumental in partially overcoming the above with his contributions to the TD on the Ravens' first TD drive in the 1st quarter. However, subsequent to that, on the Ravens second and only other TD drive, Cameron trusted his running game which punched the ball into the end zone on three runs from the Texan 38-yard line after having seen 5 prior drives end on Flacco INTs, one end on a Flacco fumble, and another end on a Flacco INT.
Without getting into the nits of a few other games, the above facts clearly depict a QB that struggled or simply played poorly, usually to the point of having been a liability, in over half of the team's games. His poor play was the common thread in all four losses, and the defense and/or running game had to bail his poor play out in at least two more games.
When losing by 8-14 points this season, and the Ravens have rarely trailed by more, Flacco is 47 of 82, 57.3%, has 2 TDs, 3 INTs, and a rating of 69.5, rendering him clearly not the peoples' choice for QBs to lead them from behind.
Prior to this season, besides Boldin and Lee Evans, only Dickson (11) and Pitta (1) had receptions in the NFL amongst Ravens' WRs and TEs. While Lee Evans has gotten a bad rap in Baltimore, at 30 he is far from washed up, yet he is credited for dropped passes amongst homer Flacco fans not willing to consider that Flacco's play has been tremendously issue-laden this season.
Evans is 30 and while possibly having been impacted by his ankle injury, is far from washed up and has always been among the NFL's most sure-handed WRs. For this to have changed literally overnight is terminally unlikely. It is also highly unlikely that a WR that over the last two seasons averaged 600 yards on team with Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick, both worse than Flacco as a QB, and in both seasons as the #2 WR, and after having averaged nearly 1,000 yards and 6 TDs/season in the five seasons prior to that, and with a hodgepodge of QBs throwing to him that make Joe Flacco look like Tom Brady, is going to only be able to grab 4 catches for 74 yards the season following. While some Ravens fans seem to believe that Evans has many dropped passes this season, the fact is that he's had only two drops. Granted, one was an easy TD. ... Perhaps he was shocked that the ball was actually not underthrown. (mild sarcasm)
But this then raises questions, what happened to the 24 total targets if Evans only dropped a pair of them? Timing with a new QB obviously has something to do with it, but otherwise, what happened is the same thing that happened when the other receivers have a pass thrown behind them this season, or wide, or in rarer instances over, ... they were poor throws. While my attention has particularly been on Evans this season, it certainly has not escaped my notice that Flacco's throws are all over the place this season. This is why his completion percentage has plummeted by nearly 5% this season below his career average prior to this season which includes his rookie season, and over 5% from his last two seasons. He has also posted his worst TD/INT ratio since his rookie season.
Why is still somewhat of a mystery as poor QB play often is. But when a throw to an open Lee Evans that hits Takeo Spikes who is five yards out in front of him for the INT becomes Evans' fault, then something ain't playin' well in Peoria. Evans is and always has been a precise route runner -- that has not mysteriously changed this season. For anyone that has watched the games this season it is clear that Flacco's accuracy leaves much to be desired as he has under, over, and off-thrown receivers other than Evans all season long, very often under throws.
Flacco has played very well in two games this season. He played well in the season opener at home against the Steelers, and then again two weeks later in week 3 against a pathetic St. Louis Rams team. Subsequent to that it has been downhill. Over the past 13 games, he has logged 13 TDs to 10 INTs for an average of only 1 TD/game and nearly as many INTs, and INTs that have either prevented the Ravens from winning therefore contributing to losses or taking QB play out of the game as a factor for the Ravens in their wins. To be fair he played decently in another few games, but on average his play this season has been problematic. Clearly at least some of that has to do with Cameron and his offense/play-calling, but how much will need to be analyzed and debated. These things are never an exact science as well.
Heading into the playoffs, of the 8 remaining QBs, the one QB that can be counted on the least to rally his team from behind is Flacco, arguably with the exception of Yates, yet at this point this analyst's money would go on Yates over Flacco in ability to rally his offense.
As to the Ravens this season, well, apart from Flacco it has been a pretty astonishing season!
Rice led the league in yards-from-scrimmage, ranked 2nd in rushing yards, ranked 3rd in all-purpose-yards, ranked 5th in yards-per-carry for RBs with more than 175 carries and 1,000 yards, ranked 4th for touchdowns scored in the NFL and rushing/receiving combined, and ranked 2nd in the NFL for touches as well. It would be tremendously greedy to ask for more. Rice is the top RB in the league.
The Raven Defense ranked 3rd in both points and yards allowed, ranked 1st (tied with San Fran) in yards-per-carry allowed, ranked 2nd in rushing yards allowed, ranked tied for 3rd with the Giants in sacks generated, ranked 3rd in yards-per-pass-attempt, ranked 1st in both QB Rating and passing TDs allowed. Here too, to ask for more would be greedy. It is a top 3 defense easily.
On special teams the Ravens' coverage units were well below average and could use a boost there, but the return teams together were above slightly above average and did not cost the team any games but did contribute to at least one win with scores.
The odd man out here, literally, is Flacco.
Flacco is ranked 18th in QB Rating this season only marginally ahead of QBs like Palmer, the rookie Dalton, Tarvaris Jackson, Fitzpatrick, and even Sanchez.
He is ranked 24th in yards-per-attempt wedged in between two of the games shortest passers, the rookie Dalton and Fitzpatrick.
He is ranked 26th in completion % with 57.6% and wedged in between Kevin Kolb and Colt McCoy and behind QBs such as Grossman, Orton, Jackson, and Moore.
He is ranked 23rd in TD%.
Flacco apologists have little concrete to build a defense upon. He has absolutely no good company where he ranks on average this season. It can be debated why his play did not improve after a much, much better 2010 campaign, but it is what it is.
In this game of "one of these things is not like the others," the winner is Flacco. Picture mentally a top-5 QB on the Ravens at present. It would instantaneously transform the team into the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Not one playoff team has the RB that the Ravens have. Only one team has the defense that the Ravens have, the Niners.
Unfortunately the Ravens chances in these playoffs may hinge upon Flacco. If the Texans focus on stopping Rice and mitigating his play, it will befall Flacco to generate yards via the air w/o giving scoring opportunities to the Texans and avoid throwing any pick-6's. Should the Ravens win this game, then New England will do the same, focus on halting the Ravens' running game forcing Flacco to throw. Against the Patriots the Ravens may find themselves down, which is not where you would like to have Flacco if he is your QB. If the Ravens make it to the Super Bowl and face any NFC team besides the Niners they could quite likely find themselves down at some point. Against the Niners Flacco's performance may be a looming abject disaster.
So why did I specifically bring up Lee Evans earlier? Apart from Boldin, the only other experienced WR is Evans. Every other receiver on this team that is not a RB is essentially in his first season of starting and being a significant part of the passing game. Should the Ravens find themselves in a position to need their passing game to win a playoff game, I'm not sure that I like their chances given Flacco's issues and the inexperience of all but Boldin assuming that Evans continues to remain idle. We'll see. The Ravens have plenty of talent, as just mentioned, in both the running game and defense to win games, but that alone is no guarantee that they will, and if Flacco gives playoff opponents and 7, 10, much less a greater spot, he will end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of "being counted on" to win the game.
The bottom line for the Ravens in these playoffs, and against playoff caliber competition, putting the game into the hands of Flacco is absolutely not where you want to be. If the Ravens lose in these playoffs, I'm willing to bet the farm that the single biggest piece of the puzzle in terms of the reasons why will be named Flacco. Either way, if the team has to rely on Flacco to win two straight games much less three, the odds drop exponentially as to that occurring.
The best hope for the Ravens in these playoffs is to mitigate the need for Flacco to throw the ball by great running by Rice and continued solid defense. While my hopes remain dashed in this way, if Evans could be more instrumental it would be a big help. He and Flacco simply do not seem to be on the same sheet however, and given Flacco's play this season, my finger isn't being pointed at Evans or the other receivers.
Run Ray, Run!
mweiler@afceastreport.com
More... (http://ravens24x7.com/columns/Purple-Ponderings/Flaccos-Poor-Play-is-Common-Thread-in-All-Four-Ravens-Losses-)
Granted, those four losses were on the road, but even looking at a few of the home wins this season it becomes clear that he did little to contribute to the team winning several of those games.
Against the Cardinals it was Flacco's fumble and ensuing INT that were responsible for 14 of Arizona's 27 points. The special teams unit, which played respectably otherwise throughout the game, was responsible for another 7 by allowing an 82-yard punt return. The defense otherwise can be tagged with the remaining 6 points in a 3 point win. The running game contributed nearly 100 yards with no turnovers as well. The weak link in this home game was Flacco.
In the road game vs. Cleveland Flacco was even worse, "contributing" 0 TDs and 1 INT in a game where he completed a mere 43.5% of his passes and where his lone fumble contributed to 3 points for the Browns, more points than he contributed to for the Ravens in that game. It was the running game and its near 300-yard performance with over 200 by Rice and the play of the defense that won that game. Again, Flacco was a liability.
In the home Cleveland game Flacco was not quite as abysmal with a 45.8% completion percentage and 132 yards with a well below average rating of 73.6. His only complete pass on the first TD drive was in fact the actual 5-yard TD pass to Dickson.
In the Jets game Flacco was nothing but a liability. The Ravens defense directly scored 21 of the team's 34 points without which they never would have won. Flacco posted an abysmal completion percentage of 32.3% with a mere 163 yards, no TDs, and 1 INT posting his lowest rated game of the season at 37.4. This was against the Jets' tremendously average defense at home for Flacco. His only TD in the game was to David Harris of the Jets. The D played lights out, the running game yielded 115 rushing yards by the RBs.
In the Houston game the defense did its job holding the Texans to 14 points, Rice posted a 100-yard rushing day, but Flacco once again was a liability. In this game it was Flacco's fumble that set up the Texans' first score (TD) with a starting drive at the Raven 17 yard-line. Flacco's INT stymied a drive in Houston territory shortly prior to the half that would have put the Ravens up by 10 at halftime. Giving credit where credit is due, Flacco was instrumental in partially overcoming the above with his contributions to the TD on the Ravens' first TD drive in the 1st quarter. However, subsequent to that, on the Ravens second and only other TD drive, Cameron trusted his running game which punched the ball into the end zone on three runs from the Texan 38-yard line after having seen 5 prior drives end on Flacco INTs, one end on a Flacco fumble, and another end on a Flacco INT.
Without getting into the nits of a few other games, the above facts clearly depict a QB that struggled or simply played poorly, usually to the point of having been a liability, in over half of the team's games. His poor play was the common thread in all four losses, and the defense and/or running game had to bail his poor play out in at least two more games.
When losing by 8-14 points this season, and the Ravens have rarely trailed by more, Flacco is 47 of 82, 57.3%, has 2 TDs, 3 INTs, and a rating of 69.5, rendering him clearly not the peoples' choice for QBs to lead them from behind.
Prior to this season, besides Boldin and Lee Evans, only Dickson (11) and Pitta (1) had receptions in the NFL amongst Ravens' WRs and TEs. While Lee Evans has gotten a bad rap in Baltimore, at 30 he is far from washed up, yet he is credited for dropped passes amongst homer Flacco fans not willing to consider that Flacco's play has been tremendously issue-laden this season.
Evans is 30 and while possibly having been impacted by his ankle injury, is far from washed up and has always been among the NFL's most sure-handed WRs. For this to have changed literally overnight is terminally unlikely. It is also highly unlikely that a WR that over the last two seasons averaged 600 yards on team with Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick, both worse than Flacco as a QB, and in both seasons as the #2 WR, and after having averaged nearly 1,000 yards and 6 TDs/season in the five seasons prior to that, and with a hodgepodge of QBs throwing to him that make Joe Flacco look like Tom Brady, is going to only be able to grab 4 catches for 74 yards the season following. While some Ravens fans seem to believe that Evans has many dropped passes this season, the fact is that he's had only two drops. Granted, one was an easy TD. ... Perhaps he was shocked that the ball was actually not underthrown. (mild sarcasm)
But this then raises questions, what happened to the 24 total targets if Evans only dropped a pair of them? Timing with a new QB obviously has something to do with it, but otherwise, what happened is the same thing that happened when the other receivers have a pass thrown behind them this season, or wide, or in rarer instances over, ... they were poor throws. While my attention has particularly been on Evans this season, it certainly has not escaped my notice that Flacco's throws are all over the place this season. This is why his completion percentage has plummeted by nearly 5% this season below his career average prior to this season which includes his rookie season, and over 5% from his last two seasons. He has also posted his worst TD/INT ratio since his rookie season.
Why is still somewhat of a mystery as poor QB play often is. But when a throw to an open Lee Evans that hits Takeo Spikes who is five yards out in front of him for the INT becomes Evans' fault, then something ain't playin' well in Peoria. Evans is and always has been a precise route runner -- that has not mysteriously changed this season. For anyone that has watched the games this season it is clear that Flacco's accuracy leaves much to be desired as he has under, over, and off-thrown receivers other than Evans all season long, very often under throws.
Flacco has played very well in two games this season. He played well in the season opener at home against the Steelers, and then again two weeks later in week 3 against a pathetic St. Louis Rams team. Subsequent to that it has been downhill. Over the past 13 games, he has logged 13 TDs to 10 INTs for an average of only 1 TD/game and nearly as many INTs, and INTs that have either prevented the Ravens from winning therefore contributing to losses or taking QB play out of the game as a factor for the Ravens in their wins. To be fair he played decently in another few games, but on average his play this season has been problematic. Clearly at least some of that has to do with Cameron and his offense/play-calling, but how much will need to be analyzed and debated. These things are never an exact science as well.
Heading into the playoffs, of the 8 remaining QBs, the one QB that can be counted on the least to rally his team from behind is Flacco, arguably with the exception of Yates, yet at this point this analyst's money would go on Yates over Flacco in ability to rally his offense.
As to the Ravens this season, well, apart from Flacco it has been a pretty astonishing season!
Rice led the league in yards-from-scrimmage, ranked 2nd in rushing yards, ranked 3rd in all-purpose-yards, ranked 5th in yards-per-carry for RBs with more than 175 carries and 1,000 yards, ranked 4th for touchdowns scored in the NFL and rushing/receiving combined, and ranked 2nd in the NFL for touches as well. It would be tremendously greedy to ask for more. Rice is the top RB in the league.
The Raven Defense ranked 3rd in both points and yards allowed, ranked 1st (tied with San Fran) in yards-per-carry allowed, ranked 2nd in rushing yards allowed, ranked tied for 3rd with the Giants in sacks generated, ranked 3rd in yards-per-pass-attempt, ranked 1st in both QB Rating and passing TDs allowed. Here too, to ask for more would be greedy. It is a top 3 defense easily.
On special teams the Ravens' coverage units were well below average and could use a boost there, but the return teams together were above slightly above average and did not cost the team any games but did contribute to at least one win with scores.
The odd man out here, literally, is Flacco.
Flacco is ranked 18th in QB Rating this season only marginally ahead of QBs like Palmer, the rookie Dalton, Tarvaris Jackson, Fitzpatrick, and even Sanchez.
He is ranked 24th in yards-per-attempt wedged in between two of the games shortest passers, the rookie Dalton and Fitzpatrick.
He is ranked 26th in completion % with 57.6% and wedged in between Kevin Kolb and Colt McCoy and behind QBs such as Grossman, Orton, Jackson, and Moore.
He is ranked 23rd in TD%.
Flacco apologists have little concrete to build a defense upon. He has absolutely no good company where he ranks on average this season. It can be debated why his play did not improve after a much, much better 2010 campaign, but it is what it is.
In this game of "one of these things is not like the others," the winner is Flacco. Picture mentally a top-5 QB on the Ravens at present. It would instantaneously transform the team into the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Not one playoff team has the RB that the Ravens have. Only one team has the defense that the Ravens have, the Niners.
Unfortunately the Ravens chances in these playoffs may hinge upon Flacco. If the Texans focus on stopping Rice and mitigating his play, it will befall Flacco to generate yards via the air w/o giving scoring opportunities to the Texans and avoid throwing any pick-6's. Should the Ravens win this game, then New England will do the same, focus on halting the Ravens' running game forcing Flacco to throw. Against the Patriots the Ravens may find themselves down, which is not where you would like to have Flacco if he is your QB. If the Ravens make it to the Super Bowl and face any NFC team besides the Niners they could quite likely find themselves down at some point. Against the Niners Flacco's performance may be a looming abject disaster.
So why did I specifically bring up Lee Evans earlier? Apart from Boldin, the only other experienced WR is Evans. Every other receiver on this team that is not a RB is essentially in his first season of starting and being a significant part of the passing game. Should the Ravens find themselves in a position to need their passing game to win a playoff game, I'm not sure that I like their chances given Flacco's issues and the inexperience of all but Boldin assuming that Evans continues to remain idle. We'll see. The Ravens have plenty of talent, as just mentioned, in both the running game and defense to win games, but that alone is no guarantee that they will, and if Flacco gives playoff opponents and 7, 10, much less a greater spot, he will end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of "being counted on" to win the game.
The bottom line for the Ravens in these playoffs, and against playoff caliber competition, putting the game into the hands of Flacco is absolutely not where you want to be. If the Ravens lose in these playoffs, I'm willing to bet the farm that the single biggest piece of the puzzle in terms of the reasons why will be named Flacco. Either way, if the team has to rely on Flacco to win two straight games much less three, the odds drop exponentially as to that occurring.
The best hope for the Ravens in these playoffs is to mitigate the need for Flacco to throw the ball by great running by Rice and continued solid defense. While my hopes remain dashed in this way, if Evans could be more instrumental it would be a big help. He and Flacco simply do not seem to be on the same sheet however, and given Flacco's play this season, my finger isn't being pointed at Evans or the other receivers.
Run Ray, Run!
mweiler@afceastreport.com
More... (http://ravens24x7.com/columns/Purple-Ponderings/Flaccos-Poor-Play-is-Common-Thread-in-All-Four-Ravens-Losses-)