Joe Flacco vs. Lamar Jackson sounds exciting, but once you get past the novelty of the Ravens facing their former franchise quarterback, the Week 1 tilt becomes about the matchup. The Ravens are very familiar with Flacco and that could help them if, as it appears, he’s starting against them in the season opener.
Since leaving the Ravens after the 2018 season, Flacco has started just 13 games. In eight starts with the Denver Broncos, he tallied 1,822 yards with five touchdowns and six interceptions. With the Jets, he’s started five times and amassed 1,202 passing yards. He hasn’t won a game with the Jets, despite tossing nine touchdowns to just three interceptions.
One thing Flacco definitely doesn’t have much of at this point in his career is escapability. He has been sacked 35 times in the post-Ravens portion of his career. For perspective, that’s the same number of sacks that he had in the 2012 regular season. Caving in the pocket will be a key for the Ravens should Flacco get the start.
Another factor with Flacco are his unexpected random moments of brilliance. Last year against the Miami Dolphins, he threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns. In a 2020 game against the Patriots, he went 18-for-25 for 272 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. In that game he had a passer rating of 128.7, a fairly extreme outlier compared to his four other 2020 performances. Flacco also had some strong showings for Denver in 2019, including 303 yards and three touchdowns against Jacksonville.
You never know what you’re going to get from Flacco. He can be a game manager one game and then be a turnover slot machine the next. One week he can be completely average and the next week he can put up 300 yards and look like January Joe. The unpredictability of Flacco provides the ultimate x-factor for the Jets.
The Ravens should work to remember the patterns that got Flacco in trouble in his long tenure with the Ravens. It wasn’t crazy elaborate defensive schemes that got him messed up, but rather the simple Cover 2 of teams like the Cincinnati Bengals. You can’t let Flacco find a matchup to exploit. He trusts his receivers and he lets them go up and make a play. You have to force him to find the window under pressure. It sounds so simple, yet as all Ravens fans remember, it worked wonders for Marvin Lewis in way too many battles.
The awful concepts of Marc Trestman and Marty Mornhinweg showed us that Flacco isn’t a great fit for the west coast offense, being a gunslinger at heart. He likes to take chances and he likes to use his strong arm to his advantage. The Ravens already know what they will see out of Flacco if they take away the run and make him nickel and dime them down the field. Eventually, an inaccurate pass becomes a turnover. Eventually, he makes a mistake or loses his patience after enough Captain Checkdown.
How many of Flacco’s interceptions went directly to a defender in the middle of the field? If you are a Ravens fan that can’t answer that question you may have repressed your memories, because the number was too high to count. John Harbaugh lived through many of Flacco’s worst moments. He needs to simulate the conditions that led to those rough days at the office for good old number five.
The Ravens’ secondary has to be careful about the deep pass. Specifically, cornerbacks can’t bail Flacco out with a flag. There was a time when underthrowing a pass to Torrey Smith was practically a strategy of drawing pass interference penalties down the field. Vintage Flacco also included plenty of underthrown passes towards the sideline, that were floated and thrown off his back foot. Marlon Humphrey, Marcus Peters, and company can’t let Flacco get away with bad throws. They have to watch their hand fighting with receivers down the field.
The emotional component of the Ravens facing their former Super Bowl MVP is for a pregame show segment on CBS. It’s doubtful that a Ravens team that has fully transitioned to a new era would even get caught up in the feels for this. It’s a factor for the fans. For the Ravens, it’s another opponent and there is a much more clinical outlook on their history with Flacco.
Pointing out Flacco’s flaws and past failings isn’t meant to put him down. Joe’s time with the Ravens should always be cherished and appreciated. That means nothing once the football is kicked off and the regular season begins.
Harbaugh was attached at the hip to Flacco for over a decade and the history serves not as a sentimental distraction, but a tactical advantage.
