Last Jersey Standing

January 21, 2013 | Filed under: As Seen In NJ,Sports | Posted by: Jesse Jacondin

Credit: Keith Allison

If you are having trouble figuring out who to root for come Sunday, February 3rd, might as well support the NJ rep and go with New Jersey Joe.

Joe Flacco is probably the most controversial football player from New Jersey and probably one of the most controversial players in all the NFL. It’s not that he has some shady past or some off-field issues, but because he is so inconsistent yet so good when he is on.

Let me illustrate my point with his regular season quarterback ratings and you can see how good the Audubon native can be and then again how bad.

128.4, 66.8, 117.7, 83.2, 55.6, 106.9, 45.4, 94.6, 115.8, 75.5, 86.6, 61.9, 121.4, 76.5, 114.2, 61.5.

Notice the abundance of games where his QBR was above 100, outstanding. Then notice how few 90 or even 80 rated games there are and you can see why Flacco is so maddening as a quarterback and why, despite enormous success, he will never headline any fantasy football teams. He is amazing one week and loses all the Flacco-magic the next.

However, if there is one thing that you can say about Joe and the one reason why I might choose the Ravens over Kaepernick and his tats in two weeks it is this–come the postseason, Joe Flacco comes to play.

His QBR’s starting with his victory over the Colts in the Wild Card round have been 125.6, 116.2, and 106.2 and in that span he has thrown 8 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and only has 1 fumble. Those numbers are eerily similar to Eli Manning’s during his Super Bowl-winning post season last year. In fact, you need to go all the way back to 2010 to find a postseason game in which Joe Flacco had a QBR less than 95.

I have said it before and I will say it again–I don’t trust Joe Flacco. However, now it is looking like I need to amend that statement to–I don’t trust Joe Flacco…until January that is.

Enjoy Martin Luther King Jr. Day everybody and congratulations to the 49ers, Ravens, Ray Lewis, the Harbaugh Family, and of course Joe freakin’ Flacco.