Joe Flacco one of the longest-tenured NFL quarterbacks to have never been shut out

When ranking and talking about quarterbacks, a lot of stats and numbers are thrown around. Touchdowns, yards, interceptions and the like dominate the discussion, as they should. But one seldom-seen statistic is the shutout: it’s embarrassing, deflating, and quite a big deal. While such a display of defensive dominance (and sometimes offensive incompetence) doesn’t occur too often, it happens enough that only a few veteran quarterbacks can claim to be unscathed by shutouts.

While Joe Flacco might get a lot of grief from all sorts of folk who put great stock into stats, he comes out on top this time. Though a number of defenses can say that they’ve had Flacco’s number over the years, no team can say that they’ve successfully held a Flacco-led offense to a shutout. In all 138 regular-season games he has started, the Ravens have never put up a goose egg on the final box score. When you consider the playoffs, that streak expands to 153 games.

Only Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers have longer streaks among active starting quarterbacks. Of those four, Brees is the only one who hasn’t been shutout, with Roethlisberger having two shutouts to his name and Brady and Rodgers having one each.