How Soft Is Joe Flacco?

With Ed Reed bringing up the well known point that Joe Flacco may be soft, the question of just how soft is Joe Flacco is raised. To answer this question we can look at some points from Flacco’s past.

Point #1- Flacco transferred to Delaware in college when he could not beat out Tyler Palko at Pitt. Delaware was a Division 1-AA school, while Pitt was a Division 1 school. Palko went undrafted in the NFL before getting picked up by the Chiefs. Basically he couldn’t beat out Palko so he went to somewhere he was guaranteed to start.

Point #2- Joe Flacco still lives with his parents. The guy makes $8.6 Million a year. He also claimed that he switched colleges to be closer to home.

Point #3- He cares what people think of him.

“I don’t care, I’ll be wearing a ring and we’ll holding a trophy and the perception probably won’t change but it doesn’t really matter.” – Joe Flacco

Obviously you do care.

Point #4- He took this wedding photo.

Point #4- Who even grows a fuman chu anymore? Leave the mustache growing to real players.

In my eyes, those points add up to someone being softer than baby poo. His mom probably lays his pajamas out so he can go to bed after practice.

Ed Reed Speaks On Joe Flacco

If you haven’t heard yet, Ed Reed has made news by doing what he usually doesn’t do. Talk. In an interview Monday on XM NFL Radio, Flacco made some comments on how Flacco and the coaching staff basically need to get it together. Reed also called out the offensive line, saying that they needed to block for Flacco better. Some people seem to have an issue with the way Reed went about making these comments. That he probably shouldn’t have publicly said these things about Flacco. This is true to a point, but it would have been 10x worse if all the things he said weren’t true. Joe Flacco is the softest part of the Ravens. Period. The offensive line may need to block better, but Flacco needs to learn to move in the pocket. He can’t just stand there like a statue and expect not to get sacked. Bottom line is that I’m going to believe anything that comes out of Ed Reed or Ray Lewis’s mouth, especially when it has to do with their own team.

Match Up: Patriots vs. Ravens

With the Patriots and Ravens both advancing to the AFC Title game this Sunday, two teams who are basically exact opposites of each other on paper are set to square off. Lets look at the match ups, both team and individual that are sure to make this game one of the best in a while.

Patriots Offense- With one of the most prolific offenses in the league the least of the Patriots worries are on the offense. Look for the Patriots to come out quick with the hurry up offense to start off. I don’t expect to see many runs from the Patriots at all, maybe a few out of the shotgun, but that’s all. Also look for the Patriots to big TE’s, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, to start strong. The Patriots really rely on these two guys to set the tempo. If Hernandez, Gronk, or Branch can stretch the field relatively early, look for Wes Welker to catch some passes underneath. If not look for Welker on some screens or out patterns toward the sidelines. Brady will have to watch out for Ed Reed on the long passes, though.

Ravens Offense- Make no mistake about it, the Ravens offense heavily relies on the running of Ray Rice. Look for the Ravens to come out with a run heavy offense on their first possessions. They’re going to try to slow down the Patriots hurry up offense by keeping Brady and the offense on the sidelines. I expect Rice to get upwards of 25 carries if he is gaining yards. If Ray Rice isn’t gaining yards or the Ravens are playing from behind, than the offense is in trouble. Joe Flacco is a solid QB, but not a top-level QB. If the Patriots defense gets to Flacco early, it may be hard for him to recover. With Anquan Boldin not the threat that he used to be, the Ravens offense could be in trouble.

Patriots Defense- With the Patriots defense getting healthy at just the right time, they might not be as bad off as some think. Yes, they did give up a huge amount of yards and ranked 31st in total D. But what many overlook is that the Patriots also ranked 2nd in takeaways. If the Patriots D can force the Ravens offense into some untimely turnovers, the already sluggish Ravens offense is going to have a tough time. With Chung and Spikes returning to help sure up a defense that has seen a large amount of injuries, the Patriots are better off than they were during the regular season. With McCourty seeing more time as a safety, his speed should make Flacco think twice about throwing it long down field. As long as Wilfork and the rest of the D line can at least slow down Ray Rice, they should be fine.

Ravens Defense- The Ravens defense has been it’s staple for many years. It’s also been the reason why the Ravens have been successful. With Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, two all time great players at their positions, the Ravens defense is definitely the strong suit of their team. With these two guys getting up there in age and slowing down, other players are beginning to step up. This is not to say that Reed and Lewis aren’t still good. Reed is still one, if not the top safety in the league. Lewis is still a beast in the run game, and the best pass reading linebacker I’ve ever seen. Two guys who  are following in their footsteps though are Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata. These two guys are the ones who really make opposing QB’s read the defense a second time. Pair this to the fact that Reed and Lewis are on the field, and you’ve got four of the NFL’s best players trying to stop you.

Individual Match Ups

Look for Ray Lewis to cover Gronkowski with help over the top from either a safety or a corner. When Hernandez and Gronk are on the field at the same time look for mismatches on either Hernandez or Welker. The mismatches will be there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggs Vs. Brady- When Terrell Suggs comes after Tom Brady it’s going to be quick and hard. Look for Brady to get knocked down by Suggs once or twice. If Brady’s blocking calls are off then he’s going to be in trouble.

Score: Patriots 34- Ravens 24

Patriots offense is just going to be too much for the aging Ravens D. The heavy run offense of the Ravens is going to have to go to the air and try to play catch up to the high-powered Patriots offense.

Tebow Time Has Officially Expired

With the Patriots decisive win over Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, “Tebow Time” as the clinically insane call it, has finally been put out of its’ misery. Even though I know it won’t happen, I hope that people now see Tim Tebow for the fraud that he is and has always been. He is nothing more than a product of the option system, just as the wildcat offense was last year. No different. With that whole situation cleared up, now we can finally move on. But first a look back at the game and some key points

-The Broncos took a page right out of Bill Belichick’s play book by deferring the kickoff when they won the coin toss. What John Fox forgot was that for deferring to be successful you need a good offense. Someone also forgot to tell him that the option doesn’t work when your down by 30+. Whoops.

– Using Aaron Hernandez as a RB totally screwed the Broncos D for the whole game. That combined with the hurry up totally confused them. Even when Hernandez lined up as a TE, the Broncos still couldn’t cover him.

-There should be no debate who is the best TE in the league after that game. I know the Vernon Davis had a huge game, and Jimmy Graham did too, but neither had 3 TD’s.

– If Phil Simms and Jim Nantz couldn’t tell that Gronkowski caught that ball when he dove for the TD, then they shouldn’t be in the booth. Period.

-Brandon Spikes and Patrick Chung brought an energy to the Patriots defense that hasn’t been seen all season.

-The Patriots special teams is one of the best in the NFL.

-When Broncos fans watch regular season games on a local channel are they subjected to only religious commercials? The only reason I because I doubt that if we weren’t playing Tebow we would have seen a John 3:16 commercial.

-The most surprising thing I saw all game was at the end of the game there was a prayer circle and Tebow walked right by it. I was shocked to say the least.

-I’m trying not to get to excited about the defense, after all it was the Broncos, but it was there best game all season.

– I didn’t see one shot of John Elway all game. He’s probably been on 24 hour suicide watch since the first snap of the game. I bet he regrets jumping on the bandwagon now.

– I’m just glad that Patriots fans would rather drink Budweiser than the Kool- Aid.

Next week it’s the Ravens coming to Gillette in a game that should have the Patriots as heavy favorites going in. Watching the game today, as long as you stop Ray Rice and don’t turn the ball over, the Ravens aren’t that great of a team. From what I saw today all the criticism of Joe Flacco isn’t that far off. One player to watch is going to Ed Reed, who came down awkwardly on his left leg on the last play of the game against the Texans. If he isn’t able to go against the Patriots the Ravens are going to be in trouble.