Joe Flacco’s playoff performances over the past 5 years since entering the NFL in 2008 have been remarkable. His 10-4 record and 21 touchdowns to only 8 interceptions put him among the league’s elite quarterbacks in the playoffs. In this post you will see how Flacco’s accuracy on shallow crosses and surprising pocket mobility allowed him to make plays against the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Wildcard match-up.

Stats

Flacco – 18/29, 259 yards, 8.9 yards/attempt, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 1 fumble, 8 rushes for 8 yards, 1 sack for 13 yards

In Gary Kubiak’s offense, the shallow crosses to the wide receivers and the stick route passes to the tight ends are especially important. Joe Flacco threw the ball with accuracy most of the game, where he at least allowed his targets to make a play on the ball. This can be seen in Plays 5, 8, 12, 16, 21, 27, 32 and 36.

Play 5

Situation: 1st and 10 at BAL 35

Description: Q1 – (1:16) J.Flacco pass deep right to O.Daniels to PIT 47 for 18 yards (B.McCain; L.Timmons).



Flacco on play-action bootleg right finds TE Daniels crossing over the middle of the field for a big gain on the play. I would like to have seen Flacco throw the ball tighter to Daniel’s body allowing him to make some yards on the catch, but this was a good play to keep the chains moving.

Play 8

Situation: 1st and 10 at BAL 20

Description: Q2 – (5:35) J.Flacco pass deep left to S.Smith to BLT 43 for 23 yards [C.Heyward].



Flacco has WR89 S.Smith on a deep crossing route from the right outside finding him underneath the Cover 2 defense of the Steelers for a large gain. Again, like Play 5, I would have liked to see Flacco throw the ball in front of Smith for him to make a larger gain on the play.

Play 12

Situation: 3rd and 10 at PIT 30

Description: Q2 – (4:16) (Shotgun) J.Flacco pass short left to O.Daniels to PIT 11 for 19 yards (T.Polamalu).



This is one of my favorite throws by Flacco. It’s a very tight window for Flacco to find his tight end Daniels on a stick route. Flacco throws the ball right perfectly with anticipation as Daniels is breaking free from his coverage.

Play 21

Situation: 3rd and 20 at PIT 41

Description: Q3 – (10:53) (Shotgun) J.Flacco pass short middle to S.Smith to PIT 27 for 14 yards (B.McCain, L.Timmons).



WR89 S.Smith runs a shallow crossing route from the left outside against his defender in off-man coverage. Very accurate throw to hit Smith in stride to at least allow the Ravens a chance at completing the long 3rd down conversion.

Play 27

Situation: 2nd and 3 at BAL 24

Description: Q4 – (14:22) J.Flacco pass short right to S.Smith to BLT 42 for 18 yards (T.Polamalu, M.Mitchell).



This is another tight window throw for Flacco to squeeze the ball into. WR89 S.Smith runs a hitch route from the right slot and Flacco throws the ball perfectly in rhythm to pass to his wide receiver.

Play 32

Situation: 3rd and 13 at BAL 34

Description: Q4 – (10:10) (Shotgun) J.Flacco pass short middle to O.Daniels to PIT 43 for 23 yards (T.Polamalu).



Daniels lines up in the right slot running a shallow cross. Pittsburgh’s safety comes up to try to stop Daniels for a short gain, but Daniels is too quick for him allowing him to scamper up the field for a solid gain. Good throw by Flacco to his Daniels in stride.

Play 36

Situation: 1st and 10 at PIT 21

Description: Q4 – (8:03) J.Flacco pass short right to C.Gillmore for 21 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Tucker extra point is GOOD, Center-P.Scales, Holder-S.Koch.



Play-action bootleg flood right. Flacco takes the snap and scrambles outside right finding his TE80 Gilmore on the shallow crossing route for the game-winning touchdown.

The play-action fake completely fools the Steelers linebackers into committing on the run stop. Great play-call by Kubiak and execution by Flacco.

As you can see, outside of plays 5 and 8 Flacco possessed laser point accuracy to find his wide receivers all evening.

As I am watching Flacco’s throws throughout this game, I couldn’t help but not be impressed with his arm strength. With that in mind, it was a little bit dissapointing the inaccuracy Flacco showed on his deep ball attempts.

Play 1

Situation: 1st and 10 at BAL 7

Description: Q1 – (8:33) J.Flacco pass incomplete deep right to T.Smith. Coverage by 25-McCain.



In this play, Flacco stares down his first read WR82 T.Smith on the deep comeback route and then releases the ball too short of him while T.Smith is breaking free from his off-man coverage. It was a good decision to go for it here, but if Flacco was able to release his eyes from his target he would also have seen WR89 S.Smith running a seam route over the middle wide-open as well.

http://i.imgur.com/JBLlkLm.png

This play resulted in an incompletion due to the poor timing on the deep comeback route. Flacco probably expected T.Smith to cut back earlier, but you can’t ignore the missed opportunity especially in the playoffs.

Play 10

Situation: 1st and 10 at PIT 30

Description: Q2 – (4:26) J.Flacco pass incomplete deep left to S.Smith. Coverage by 22-Gay.



In this play, Flacco releases the ball deep on a go-route to WR89 S.Smith, but doesn’t allow him to make a play on the ball. He needs to keep the ball inbounds to give his wide receiver a chance at coming away with the deep pass.



