Joe Flacco is better than Matt Ryan.

**The Excellector** · 07-06-2011, 06:48 PM

On a side-note, Joe Flacco is going to be the man in a few years.

Lone Raven, Joe Flacco.

Then, when he is prepared to come out during the introduction, they will play a dubbed and edited version of the intro to Shogun Assassin. Instead of Gigoro, it would be Joe Flacco Jr. lol.

"When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest quarterback, in the NFL, and he was the Ravens' decapitator. He cut off the heads of a hundred and thirty one defenses, for the Ravens. It was a bad time for the rest of the league. The Ravens just stayed inside their 'Castle':D, and they never came out. Fans said the Ravens' brain was infected by devils (Irsay), and that they were rotting with evil. The Ravens said the fans were not loyal. They said that they had a lot of enemies, but they blew out more teams than that. It was a bad time, every other team living in fear. But still, we were happy. My father would come home to mother and when he'd see her, he'd forget about the blowouts. He wasn't scared of the Ravens, but the Ravens were scared of him. Maybe that was the problem.

At night, mother would sing for us, while father would go into his temple and pray for peace. He would pray for the competition to get better. Then, one night, the league sent Belichick spies to our house.::D They were supposed to tape my father, but they didn't. That was the night that everything changed, forever.

That was when my father left his great quarterback life, and became a hall of famer. He became one of the legends who overshadowed the game, and he took me with him. I don't remember much of this myself, I only remember the league's defenses, hunting us wherever we go, and the touchdowns falling, and the score. :D

**psuasskicker** · 07-06-2011, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by The Eternal Ring

That is not to say that Joe Flacco has not had some bad playoff games. However, the Miami, Tennessee and Kansas City games all brought forth better performances from Joe than we have even seen from Ryan in the playoffs.

You lost me right here. I'm happy to admit the KC game was a very good performance from Flacco. However, the Tenn game was mediocre at best, and calling the Miami game - where he completed less than 40% of his passes for under 6 YPA with no TDs - anything more than "bad" is flat out a farce. That may sound harsh, but I'm sorry, there is simply no measure by which that performance was close to good, other than that he didn't throw an INT, and that by itself is not an accomplishment. Jimmy Clausen had three games started last season where he didn't throw an INT. So did Derek Anderson.

- C -

**SugarRay52** · 07-06-2011, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by psuasskicker

You lost me right here. I'm happy to admit the KC game was a very good performance from Flacco. However, the Tenn game was mediocre at best, and calling the Miami game - where he completed less than 40% of his passes for under 6 YPA with no TDs - anything more than "bad" is flat out a farce. That may sound harsh, but I'm sorry, there is simply no measure by which that performance was close to good, other than that he didn't throw an INT, and that by itself is not an accomplishment. Jimmy Clausen had three games started last season where he didn't throw an INT. So did Derek Anderson.

- C -

His stats clearly weren't great in the Tennessee game but that 48 yard TD pass to Derrick Mason wasn't exactly chicken scratch and considering the way that game turned out that play was huge. Joe is going through the same treatment Eli Manning went through before he won a Superbowl. People were saying:

"Eli can't win big games"
"He throws too many picks"
"He's not a real leader"
"His leadership abilities are comical" - Tiki Barber - that eventually bit him in the ass.

When Eli and the Giants shocked the world by beating the best Tom Brady led Patriots team ever it changed how people viewed him. Sure people still get on Eli about his interceptions but they don't attack him the way they did before he won a Superbowl and if they do it falls on deaf ears.

It's part of the QB territory far as getting criticized, it's up to Joe to make people forget about his bad playoff performances. I'm pretty sure people won't harp on his bad playoff games if he helps bring a SuperBowl title back to Baltimore, if they do then they have problems that can't be solved LOL (not talking about you specifically).

**chicagoravensfan** · 07-06-2011, 10:02 PM

I wonder how many people would still say they'd take Ryan over Flacco if the defense had done their job at the end of that Thursday night game in Atlanta.

**psuasskicker** · 07-06-2011, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by SugarRay52

His stats clearly weren't great in the Tennessee game but that 48 yard TD pass to Derrick Mason wasn't exactly chicken scratch and considering the way that game turned out that play was huge.

I don't disagree with that, but one play doesn't turn a crappy performance into a good one. It keeps it from being bad, because yes, that play was certainly very important in that game. However, he made one or two other decent throws in that game and the rest crap and we were really lucky Chris Johnson got hurt cause we were getting killed before he did. Take out that throw and he was 10/21 for 113 yards. That's horrendous, upgraded to mediocre because of that play and its importance in the game.

Originally Posted by SugarRay52

Joe is going through the same treatment Eli Manning went through before he won a Superbowl. People were saying:

"Eli can't win big games"
"He throws too many picks"
"He's not a real leader"
"His leadership abilities are comical" - Tiki Barber - that eventually bit him in the ass.

When Eli and the Giants shocked the world by beating the best Tom Brady led Patriots team ever it changed how people viewed him. Sure people still get on Eli about his interceptions but they don't attack him the way they did before he won a Superbowl and if they do it falls on deaf ears.

I think the main difference is that Eli is legitimately not a very good QB while Flacco looks to be becoming one. The QB learning curve seems to be well longer than three years for many, and Flacco has made improvements every year so there's no reason to think he's peaked yet. Manning, on the other hand, does in fact throw far too many INTs, and has had only one year which was really good, and a large part of the reason it was is because he was slinging it around the field everywhere and it still only got them 8-8 and home playing X-Box for the playoffs.

Manning had a stretch of four terrific games that happened to be in the playoffs. I only call the GB game terrific given that it was so cold he was throwing a rock instead of a football; realistically he was only mediocre in that game, but given the conditions it turned out to be a helluva good performance. He gets cut slack because he was a key cog in that Superbowl win and more importantly in the journey to get there.

But be realistic now. We're not talking about Joe Flacco knowing that he for sure is going to romp through three or four playoff opponents on his way to delivering a Lombardy. If we knew that to be the case, I wouldn't have been speaking up in the first place. Flacco hasn't done it yet. If he does, yes, he will deserve respect. But so what? If Jimmy Clausen does it, he will deserve respect to. You can't just assume it's going to happen.

Naturally it's up to him to silence the critics. But right now, no one that's criticizing him is saying anything inaccurate.

- C -

**EdReed4HOF** · 07-06-2011, 10:16 PM

They're both good young QBs, there are so many different factors that go into determining who's better. (i.e. Flacco does have a better defense, Ryan plays in a dome so he doesn't have to deal with the natural elements, Flacco has to face the best defense in the league at least twice every year, etc)

**Jeremiah W** · 07-06-2011, 10:56 PM

I buy the quality of opposing defenses argument and the playoff wins regardless of how pretty some of them may not have been it is still 4-3 vs 0-2 with the regular season stats a toss up. How do we know Ryan would not have struggled just as much had his team been able to advance in the playoffs when it did not happen?

If anything is clear, it is too close to call that one is clearly better than the other, and factoring in the ROI angle of the #3 pick vs the 18th, I can not see how anyone can claim the Ryan is a better value when taking all factors in.

In the meantime, as a Harm City Homer, I will back my guy every time and three times on Sundays. You know the Ryan backers have no good argument when they are going to the old eye ball test and throwing out the statistical arguments. The QB debates always go the playoffs when everything else is close and it does not matter why Manning is under .500 in the playoffs and Brady has 3 rings, it is what it is and is why Brady wins most of the head to head comparisions with him. It is just talk though, and like the Big Jen owns the ravens junk, it is not really going to help eitehr team the next time they meet.

**Ravenswintitle** · 07-07-2011, 06:07 AM

I don't get the obsession with trying to prove Flacco is better than Matt Ryan.

**GOTA** · 07-07-2011, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Ravenswintitle

I don't get the obsession with trying to prove Flacco is better than Matt Ryan.

Me neither. ESPN keeps telling me that Ryan is better and since they know everything that should end the discussion. Maybe if they would make one of their ranking lists with the 2 of them they could put Ryan #1 and Flacco #2 and then they could create a special around it :D

**Beerracuda** · 07-07-2011, 01:39 PM

I can't get into this debate. I'm totally biased. Not because I'm a die-hard Ravens' fan, but because of the amount of disgust I still have over the announcers during last season's game between us and the Falcons.

Not sure who those announcers were (I think it was NFL Network), but with every sentence they tongue bathed Ryan's nuts even more. Every sentence had "Matt Ryan" in it. Even when he threw an easy 2-yard pass that any high school QB could complete, the announcers called it "a masterpiece". It made me sick to my stomach, and since then I can't stand Matt Ryan. Sorry, I know that's not fair, but that's just the way it is.

**GOTA** · 07-07-2011, 01:41 PM

As long as he can stay healthy Matt Stafford is going to be better than both Flacco and Ryan.

**The Excellector** · 07-07-2011, 01:51 PM

In the Tennessee playoff game, no, Joe Flacco did not play great, but he led a clutch fourth quarter drive, deep into Tennessee territory, to set up the game winning field goal. On the road, in the cold, against the number one seed and stout Titans defense. I have not even seen that much from Ryan yet, in the playoffs, when Ryan has had similar offensive weapons and played one of his playoff games at home. Ryan had a similar opportunity against Arizona (26+ PPG allowed), and he threw an interception.

That is my point. Flacco catches heat for not playing a 'major' role in most of the Ravens recent playoff wins. Yet, Ryan hasn't even shown once that he can put out a playoff performance where he plays mediocre, but leads such a drive in the fourth quarter for the victory, let alone a good playoff performance.