Joe Flacco struggled last week, and so did the Ravens.
He also didn’t get much help. As Steve Smith put it, the Ravens receivers couldn’t catch a cold. There were costly drops by pretty much everyone and they didn’t make things any easier on Flacco.
But Joe no doubt struggled himself. He made some poor decisions, including one he referred to as “the stupidest play I’ve ever made in football.” He threw behind some receivers, and he numerous times held on to the ball too long, which has been an ongoing issue for him and was a point of emphasis for improvement in Gary Kubiak’s west coast system.
It’s more obvious than ever, that as Joe goes, the Ravens will go. He will truly be the barometer of success for the Ravens in 2014 and beyond.
Maybe this seems like an obvious statement, but it hasn’t always necessarily been the case for Flacco. In fact his biggest critics have often said that a lot of the success he had early on in his career could be attributed to the pieces he had around him. A strong defense lead by the best middle linebacker and possibly best free safety of all time, and other future hall of famers made things easy on Joe.
The Ravens playoff game in New England in 2010 is a prime example. Flacco finished 4-10 for 36 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. The Ravens won in a rout, 33-14. Obviously this is probably the most extreme example but you get the point.
The reality is the reasoning for his success probably falls somewhere in the middle. He has absolutely been surrounded by some incredible talent, but you can’t dispute he has had some great games in both the regular season and the playoffs, including a historically great run that lead the Ravens to their second Super Bowl.
The Ravens defense has the potential to be really good in 2014. They are fast, physical and have a great combination of young talent and veteran pro bowlers. But they aren’t good enough at this point to carry the Ravens to victories on their own, and the Ravens’ success will largely hinge on the play of the man behind center.
Last week against the Bengals proves it. Flacco had a miserable first half, completing 10 of 23 passes capped off by a terrible mental mistake as the clock ran out that not only cost the Ravens three points, but was a major mental victory for the Bengals and halted any momentum the Ravens were building. The Ravens were outscored 15-0 before halftime.
In the second half Joe completed 25 of his 39 passes and aside from a bad interception was much sharper. The Ravens outscored the Bengals 16-8 in the final 30 minutes.
When Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens invested $120 million dollars in Flacco after his great Super Bowl run, they were banking on the fact that Joe would be able to carry the Ravens the way great quarterbacks can. While 2013 was a down year, the hope going into 2014 was that it was due to a set of bad circumstances – alack of weapons, poor line play, an anemic running game, etc.
A large focus this offseason was correcting those flaws and giving Joe the tools he needed to be successful. It’s now on him to deliver. If he can there’s a good chance the Ravens will being playing football in January, if he can’t there will be a lot of tough questions to answer come 2015.
