Not sure if this post belongs here, but I just wanted to do a little comparison of how Flacco plays late in the season... Beware, stat dump incoming:


Joe Flacco in the final quarter (last 4 games) of the regular season + post-season
(The numbers in the brackets at the end of each line are the splits for the first 12 games of the season. The percentages are really "percentile", that is the percent of qualifying players that he ranked better than)

Season by season

2012 (5 Games, Rank 6/30 = 80%): 77 / 128, 1061 Yards, 9 TD, 2 INT --> 103.7 QB Rating
[85.0 QB Rating, Rank 18/34 = 47%]

2011 (6 Games, Rank 11/30 = 63%): 108 / 171, 1197 Yards, 11 TD, 5 INT --> 93.1 QB Rating
[78.3 QB Rating, Rank 21/31 = 32%]

2010 (6 Games, Rank 9/29 = 69%): 99 / 155, 1024 Yards, 9 TD, 3 INT --> 94.1 QB Rating
[92.8 QB Rating, Rank 10/31 = 68%]

2009 (6 Games, Rank 12/30 = 60%): 82 / 138, 955 Yards, 7 TD, 4 INT --> 85.3 QB Rating
[84.6 QB Rating, Rank 19/33 = 42%]

2008 (7 Games, Rank 27/28 = 4%): 88 / 172, 1132 Yards, 3 TD, 6 INT --> 63.4 QB Rating
[82.3 QB Rating, Rank 20/32 = 38%]

Cumulative

Since 2008 (30 Games, Rank 13/21 = 38%): 454 / 764, 5369 Yards, 39 TD, 20 INT --> 87.0 QB Rating
[84.6 QB Rating, Rank 18/29 = 38%]

Since 2009 (23 Games, Rank 8/21 = 62%): 366/592, 4237 Yards, 36 TD, 14 INT --> 93.8 QB Rating
[85.0 QB Rating, Rank 16/30 = 47%]

Since 2010 (17 Games, Rank 8/26 = 69%): 284 / 454, 3282 Yards, 29 TD, 10 INT --> 96.4 QB Rating
[85.2 QB Rating, Rank 17/31 = 45%]

Since 2011 (11 Games, Rank 7/26 = 73%): 185 / 299, 2258 Yards, 20 TD, 7 INT --> 97.7 QB Rating
[81.6 QB Rating, Rank 21/31 = 32%]

Since 2012 (5 Games, Rank 6/30 = 80%): 77 / 128, 1061 Yards, 9 TD, 2 INT --> 103.7 QB Rating
[85.0 QB Rating, Rank 18/34 = 47%]

Some analysis

What I'm seeing is that Flacco is typically below average (what I'd consider below the 50th percentile) in the first 3 quarters of the season, but plays better than average at the end and in the post-season. There are two exceptions in each case: He played above average in the 2010 early season, and below average in the 2008 (rookie year) late season.

This year, as you can see from the stats above, he has been the 6th best quarterback since (and including) the Redskins game (and yes, that includes the Denver game, too!). He's got a 103.7 QB Rating in the past 5 games, including the two losses at Redskins and versus Denver (also includes the Cincinnati game that he only played two series' in). I think that's pretty impressive, that even including 2 games he is considered to have lost for his team (though I know that's a load of malarky about the Redskins game... after all his turnovers were past, he led to the team to another touchdown to give the team an 8-point lead... that's the definition of doing what you must to win, but the defense and special teams let the other guys come right back to take it from us), his stats still look really good.

Since 2009 (so just excluding his rookie year), he has had a 93.8 QB rating in the final quarter of the regular season + play-offs combined. I'll take that any day. The man steps it up late in the year, and that's not an insignificant factor in why we get into the play-offs and win play-off games every year.

That has been improving ever since, as well. His cumulative late-season QB Rating has improved every year since his rookie year, to an all-time high this season.