Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The day that Joe Flacco, quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens, had not been able to provide through his first five seasons in the NFL was the day he finally had this past Saturday. The day included a playoff victory for the Ravens with Flacco at quarterback with Flacco coming up big throughout the game and ending up as a hero with a late pass that saved the day for his team.
In the Raven’s 38-35 double overtime win over the Denver Broncos, Flacco went 18/34 passing for 331 yards and three touchdowns. He did lose a fumble, but with no interceptions thrown and the fumble not being a particularly costly one, it was the best playoff performance of Flacco’s career. In his five seasons, Flacco has been to the playoffs every season and has played in eleven playoff games including Saturday’s win.
Like any great performance from a quarterback, it came with plenty of help from the other big contributors on offense. Torrey Smith was getting past Champ Bailey all game without any problem, and this lead to Smith’s two touchdown catches; those catches were from 59 and 36 yards, and both occurred in the first half. Ray Rice contributed in this game solely with his rushing. The durable two-way running back didn’t catch a pass in the game, but ran for 131 yards on 30 carries with a touchdown. Also, the offensive line only gave up one sack while standing firm against a Broncos’ defense that has been better than many in the NFL this season.
One thing that stood out about Flacco’s play on Saturday was that he made the big passes count. By that, I mean that Flacco didn’t go to the well that often, but also didn’t have the greatest success connecting with the two men who ended up catching his three touchdown passes. Smith and Jacoby Jones combined for five catches and three touchdowns while being targeted by Flacco a combined 11 times.
As for Flacco’s touchdown pass to Jones: it was better and more important than both his TD passes to Smith combined. This is undoubtedly the play that will define Flacco as a quarterback, as a player, and as a winner for years to come. To be in a situation so familiar, down by seven with less than a minute to go, and cave in would be what has been expected out of Flacco due to past playoff failures. In this case, Flacco manned up and sent a long pass down the field for Jones that got by two Broncos defenders and into Jones’ hands. Jones himself blew the Broncos fans a kiss after he made it into the end-zone, a fitting end in a weird way to such a beautiful play.
This was Flacco’s time to shine and he took advantage of it. Now all he has to do is repeat that kind of performance in another hostile environment, but at least it will be against a team he has become very familiar with.
Phil Clark is a writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Or check out his blog.
