Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 7:00 AM EST in Sprint Game Ball of the Week

CHARLOTTE NC - NOVEMBER 21: Joe Flacco #5 of the Baltimore Ravens drops back to pass against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on November 21 2010 in Charlotte North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Going into Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, everyone including the Panthers, expected the Baltimore Ravens to roll over Carolina. Once the Ravens scored on their second offensive play and then kicked a FG to go up 10-0 by the end of the first quarter, it began to lookas if the Panthers were going to roll over themselves. Alas, that was not to happen and the Ravens defense had to rise to the occasion to put the game away late in the fourth quarter with two interception returns for touchdowns.

However, once the game was over and the stat sheets distributed, it was clear to all who the recipient of this week's Sprint ' Game Ball of the Week' was going to be. Third year QB Joe Flacco started the game with a sweet 56 yard TD pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh and continuously found his receivers, with blistering rockets as well as soft touch passes to nine different receivers.

Flacco's final stat line read: 24 completions in 33 attempts for 301 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a robust QB Rating of 110.8. In comparison, on the other side of the ledger was Carolina Panthers QB Brian St. Pierre, whose day consisted of 13 completions in 28 attempts for 173 yards, one TD pass, two pick-sixes and a sad QB Rating of 48.7. Take away the 88 yard TD pass and St. Pierre threw for 85 yards on the other twelve pass completions. Ouch.

Despite receiving criticism for his scrambling abilities and checking down too quick to his running backs, Flacco absolutely deserves this Sprint ' Game Ball of the Week' and if he can maintain this type of performance through the rest of the season and especially against the better teams in the league, he will lead the Ravens deep into the post season.

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Comments

wow, 30 yards on 33 attempts? that's hard to do

why is flacco holding his left hand up with the number 4 as he throws? it’s like he doesn’t know what to do with it, or is signaling someone somehow.

by Luke E on Nov 23, 2010 7:24 AM EST reply actions

Ouch....better?

My Toshiba netbook’s keys are so far apart that unless you hit them directly in the middle they don’t “print” and I find so many errors but obviously miss some, eh?

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 8:36 AM EST up reply actions

no problem

i just thought it was funny. imagine the criticism if he really did average less than a yard per attempt.

by Luke E on Nov 23, 2010 6:37 PM EST up reply actions

Despite receiving criticism for his scrambling abilities …

That’s pretty much just been you. All the other Ravens fan sites I’ve been to have been talking about how Flacco’s pocket awareness has improved over the past couple of weeks and how he was able to extend plays outside of the pocket.

… checking down too quick to his running backs …

I haven’t seen any criticism regarding Flacco checking down too quickly. As I recall, most of his check downs against the Panthers occurred while he was being hurried. If those check downs did actually happen too quickly, then that criticism has to be leveled against the offensive line.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Nov 23, 2010 8:14 AM EST reply actions

Joe's scrambling has improved

as I saw a couple of times he got out and rid of the ball. But that was only a couple of times, as once the pocket breaks down, you and everyone else holds their breath hoping no fumble and he just throws it OOB. In the Carolina game, for the frst three quarters he didn’t check down much at all, but tht was because the receivers downfield got open quickly. Over the course of this and last season, he has been criticized for doing that. Gotta agree the o-line has been disappointing.

Good points, tho.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 8:34 AM EST up reply actions

Grrr Gaither Grrr Dr. Rosenhaus....

Yeah, for this season:

Gotta agree the o-line has been disappointing

For all the high hopes we had for the O-Line during the pre-season. I guess trying to compensate for the lack of Gaither has really been problematic for this unit. It would be really, really sad if the downfall of the Ravens season was due to poor O-line play as a direct result of actions taken by Gaither and Rosenhaus during the off-season and pre-season.

by vlad755 on Nov 23, 2010 9:06 AM EST up reply actions

could we give up on the conspiracy theories please

by davver on Nov 23, 2010 9:36 AM EST up reply actions

But Without

Conspiracy theories, there would be no need for tin-foil hats…

by vlad755 on Nov 23, 2010 11:17 AM EST up reply actions

Gaither is definitely injured

because niw he will not have a great season to flaunt at free agent suitors and they will questio his health, leading to less of a contract.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 12:48 PM EST up reply actions

I dont believe that

A premier LT in this league (health issues or not) is still a very rare commodity. You can’t just stick any All-Pro Offensive Lineman in there and get a John Ogden as is evident by the fact that Oher is getting his ass handed to him on a regular basis.

Gaither will get his contract one way or another and if we don’t draft a top notch LT next year, then I’m guessing we will be the ones to hand him a fat payday. Granted he may not may $10mil a year because he has some “issues”, but he will get close to it from some team.

by Mstevens_Design on Nov 23, 2010 1:50 PM EST up reply actions

yeah, he will get a contract somewhere

for a lot less money then if he played some games this year. the conspiracy theories made sense in camp, they make zero sense now.

by davver on Nov 23, 2010 2:54 PM EST up reply actions

I still believe he was trying to bluff and when we called him out on it, he had no choice but eat the year on the bench. Plus if you really look at it, he knew we had no one behind him to take that spot. He knew that we would look bad for the move and he would look good for it.

Even if that isn’t true, then losing your starting spot to Oher certainly doesn’t bring in money either. If he gets a 1 year deal next year on a mediocre team and has no competition at the LT spot, and shines…. dude gets rich fast!

How many teams will buy into potential even if the player has injury issues, and how many teams will buy into a healthy but mediocre player? I’m still pretty sure that he and his agent are doing what is best for their client in the long term… with or without our team in mind.

by Mstevens_Design on Nov 23, 2010 9:06 PM EST up reply actions

i think you are wrong, and have stated my reasons why.

this is all I can do if you are not convinced.

by davver on Nov 23, 2010 9:57 PM EST up reply actions

Joe deserves it

But could easily go to Cundiff as well.

by DT711 on Nov 23, 2010 10:55 AM EST reply actions

Cundiff's leg is amazing

ad watch, as I said in Sunday’s Open Thread, the league will move kickoff start back to the 25 yard line because of him!

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 12:50 PM EST up reply actions

Suggs to. He had one hell of a game.

by Mr MaLoR on Nov 23, 2010 1:01 PM EST up reply actions

No doubt

by DT711 on Nov 23, 2010 4:24 PM EST up reply actions

joe in on pace for a stellar year

by davver on Nov 23, 2010 11:32 AM EST reply actions

Joe

Is on pace for 3,900 yards (a little less than the 4,000 I predicted), 25 or 26 TD’s and 11 picks. This compares to his numbers from last year of 3,600, 21 and 12 -a nice improvement. Although I think we all were expecting a larger net improvement than 300 yards and four or five TD’s with the addition of Boldin.

If comparing Joe’s projected numbers to actual QB’s from 2009, Joe falls somewhere between Orton and Eli Manning -yick…
If comparing Joe’s Projected numbers to actual QB’s from 2008, Joe falls between the other Manning and McNabb -much better company…

by vlad755 on Nov 23, 2010 12:28 PM EST up reply actions

I think we'll see an upward rise

in his averages from the beginning of the year to the end. Last year, he had a majority of the TD and a lot less INT’s in the 2nd half and I expect the same this year. So 4,000 yards and closer to 30 TD’s with around 10-12 picks on a lot more pass attempts sounds right.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 23, 2010 12:53 PM EST up reply actions

Although I think we all were expecting a larger net improvement than 300 yards and four or five TD’s with the addition of Boldin.

Where I think we will see the improvement is in our record, which will most likely be at least 2 games better than our 9-7 record from last year. That is about all I could ask for.

by Mr MaLoR on Nov 23, 2010 1:03 PM EST up reply actions

Touche

Yes, I would rather have the net gain in wins than stats also.

by vlad755 on Nov 23, 2010 2:25 PM EST up reply actions

he faces easier games coming up, IMO

all his bad #s came from Jets and Bengals road games first two weeks. we face the steelers, saints, houston, browns, bengals, and tampa. non of those have great secondaries with the possible exception of a bungles team that has given up. we play 4/6 at home. i expect a lot of stat padding

while we brought in WR we also lost gaither, have had problems on the line, and our run game is not helping him this year. our defense took a step back too. Flacco is literally carrying the offense this year, cut the guy some slack.

by davver on Nov 23, 2010 2:53 PM EST up reply actions