Play 22
Situation: 1st and 10 at BAL 31
Description: Q3 - (7:38) J.Flacco pass deep right to S.Smith to PIT 29 for 40 yards (B.McCain).
Flacco throws short to the inside shoulder of WR89 S.Smith on the go-route. This ball should have been placed on the outside shoulder to make sure the cornerback could not have played the ball in the air. S.Smith deserves the credit on this play for pulling in the deep pass.
Play 28
Situation: 2nd and 8 at BAL 44
Description: Q4 - (13:13) J.Flacco pass incomplete deep right to T.Smith [T.Polamalu]. Coverage by 25-McCain.
This is my least favorite play of the game. Flacco goes deep to WR82 T.Smith on the stop-and-go route. Flacco overthrows the ball and almost gets picked off by CB25 McClain in off-man coverage. Give full credit to WR82 T.Smith for breaking up the interception and bailing out his quarterback.
Play 35
Situation: 3rd and 1 at PIT 34
Description: Q4 - (8:59) J.Flacco pass incomplete deep left to T.Smith. Coverage by 22-Gay.
On 3rd and 1, Flacco throws the deep corner route to WR82 T.Smith in the back of the endzone. T.Smith almost gets the touchdown as he beats the deep coverage safeties, but the ball is slightly in front of T.Smith who can’t drag his feet for the score.
This was a very surprising play call to me. The situation is 4th quarter with 8:59 remaining in the game on 3rd and 1. Why not call a shallow cross or run a play that could have kept the drive alive? This is a very ballsy play and it almost works, but it is definitely a questionable decision that could have backfired for Kubiak if the Ravens ended up losing the game.
There were only a small handful of throws that I didn’t like to see as I was analyzing Flacco. Play 31 is an example of this.
Play 31
Situation: 1st and 10 at BAL 37
Description: Q4 - (10:56) J.Flacco pass incomplete short left to T.Smith. Coverage by 22-Gay.
Flacco starts his reads right and then turns to throw the ball left. In turning his body right before the throw, Flacco releases the ball off of his back-foot. Additionally, there is no wide receiver in the area.
I’m still not sure who Flacco was expecting to find in the area, but there was nobody present. I’m a little bit surprised Flacco didn’t get flagged for intentional grounding, since he was still in the pocket with no eligible receiver in the area and it looked like he was maybe just trying to get rid of the ball.
Outside of throws, Flacco showed surprising mobility that helped set him up for bigger plays and allowed himto keep the drives from stalling. This can be seen in Play 3, 14, and 25.
Play 3
Situation: 3rd and 15 at BAL 2
Description: Q1 - (7:46) (Shotgun) J.Flacco scrambles left end ran ob at BLT 11 for 9 yards (S.Tuitt).
Flacco in shotgun takes the snap and reads the coverage. He sees that nobody is open, so he scrambles outside left moving the ball out of the endzone. The Steelers did a good job of locking down the wide receivers and for the 3rd down stop especially this close to the endzone, but Flacco gets credit for giving his punter more room to kick the ball and for not forcing a throw that could have resulted in an incompletion or worse.
Play 14
Situation: 3rd and 9 at PIT 10
Description: Q2 - (2:52) (Shotgun) J.Flacco pass incomplete short left to M.Brown (W.Gay). Pressure by 92-Harrison.
In this play, Flaccco is in shotgun and scrambles outside left. Flacco does a great job of turning his shoulders to find his target WR14 Brown in the back of the endzone. Give credit to Steelers’ CB22 Gay for the pass breakup and for stopping the touchdown.
Play 25
Situation: 1st and 10 at PIT 14
Description: Q3 - (5:44) J.Flacco scrambles left end to PIT 9 for 5 yards (C.Heyward).
Flacco takes the snap and scrambles outside left for a 5 yard gain on the play. Once Flacco sets his feet in the pocket he actually has an underneath receiver running a stick route, where in my opinion he should have thrown it there, but he was more focused on the potential deep ball to the corner.
http://i.imgur.com/q04nztj.png
Although this fine on 1st down and Flacco made a positive play due to the great protection of his offensive line, I still would have liked to see the completion over the middle to fully avoid any potential contact on the play.
Play 26
Situation: 3rd and 7 at PIT 11
Description: Q3 - (4:21) (Shotgun) J.Flacco pass short left to T.Smith for 11 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Tucker extra point is GOOD, Center-P.Scales, Holder-S.Koch.
In this play, Flacco uses his mobility and pocket precense to stay alive and find WR82 T.Smith in the back of the endzone for the touchdown. T.Smith makes a good adjustment for the scrambling quarterback to get open.
As you can see, Flacco showed great acccuracy outside of a few throws against the Steelers. Using his surprising mobility, and arm strength Flacco was able to set up plays all evening in Gary Kubiak’s offense. This game tape makes me very excited for the divisional matchup against the Patriots next week.
