Ravens Win Over Texans Was 'Tale Of Two Halves'

If you had not witnessed the Baltimore Ravens 29-14 victory over the Houston Texans yesterday, you might not have thought the game was anywhere as close as it seemed. Looking at the box score of the game on paper, the Ravens dominated virtually every category from a statistical point of view. 

Surprisingly, one of the categories they did not win was the battle of turnovers, as Houston did not turn the ball over all game, while Baltimore QB Joe Flacco was responsible for both of his team's give-a-ways. Flacco lost a fumble that led to the Texans first touchdown and his interception late in the first half killed a chance for the Ravens to put points on the board before halftime.

However, the same Flacco who had those two turnovers and seemed out of sync with his receivers in the first half, hit two passes over 50 yards to set up placekicker Billy Cundiff for two of his five field goals and led his team to 19 second half points as the Ravens pulled away for the victory. At the end of the half, one guy in my section said this is going to be the Flacco we will have to get used to. 

He went on to explain that Joe is a good quarterback, but not an elite one. He s better than average with a rocket for an arm but also the ability to softly drop the ball over the shoulder into his receiver's hands. Unfortunately, he is also a slow-footed guy who holds onto the ball too long, away from his body like a pocketbook that can lead to fumbles and throws that leave you scratching your head.

This fan stated he was a big fan of Flacco and believed he can lead us to the Super Bowl with this solid defensive team but felt that if he was on pretty much any other team, he'd be a .500 QB at best. However, since he is a Raven, and will be due a big payday with his contract up for renewal, the team needed to give him his payday and let him lead the Ravens as far as he can, which should be deep into the post seson once again in 2011-12.

This "Tale Of Two Halves" was perfectly evident today, and as bad as the first half looked other than the team's opening 97 yard drive for a touchdown, the second half was good enough for Flacco to end the day with over 300 yards passing for the second time in three games and his highest average yards per attempt in any game this season.

While the inconsistency might frustrate some people, the one constant has been that the guy is a winner and although everyone would like to see him put together two halves, much less multiple games in a row of solid play, the simple fact that has been played out over three-plus years in his NFL career is going to be what I wrote about in a previous post. In essence, that post said the the Ravens quarterback does not have to be really good in order for this team to win the Super Bowl, just good enough. Right now, Joe Flacco appears to be exactly that. Good enough.