While this season blew the doors off the ridiculous Sanchez Flacco comparison, I thought Flacco was clearly better during and after the 11 season. Of course plenty of Sanchez Homers felt and argued otherwise. They were wrong.
I stopped at this sentence here. Baltimore wouldn't have made the playoffs in '09 and '10 with Sanchez.
I don't consider myself a Sanchez homer, but last season, I thought Sanchez was just as good if not better than Flacco up until the last 3 games Sanchez played that year. Flacco wasn't really that good in the playoffs until that AFCCG against the Patriots. This year blew the doors off though I agree 100%. Flacco really shocked me this year - that said nitpickers should pick on the fact that he's completing less than 50% of his passes '10 Sanchez would of won the SB with the Ravens IMO. '09 no. '10 was Sanchez's only good year in the league really.
This whole "elite" QB thing is ridiculous. Elite should mean the consistent very top few, now it somehow means "good enough to make the Superbowl" The elite QBs in the league are Rodgers, Brady Manning (Peyton) that's it.
Flacco is the product of some great receivers and got bailed out by them on some big plays. He gets some props for being able throw a jump ball where his receiver has a shot at it (can't say Sanchez could do that consistently), but Flacco could have just as easily thrown 4 picks against the Patriots. I love how in the Patriot/Ravens game, Brady and company go through so much trouble to get receivers open to make a completion and Flacco just has to throw a jump ball. Give Sanchez that talent at WR, where you can just throw a jump ball to make a completion, and I'm thinking he looks more serviceable.
They won a playoff game in 2010 where Flacco completed 4 passes, Flacco was along for the ride and wasn't making big plays unlike Sanchez. he was holding them back, our D in title games held us back.
I watched 4 QB's on Sunday the only one who looked less than elite was Brady. Performing at a high level under pressure is exactly what you want from your QB. It's pretty clear you don't have to play at an elite level to make the NFL playoffs but you do at some point to actually win a SB with very few exceptions.
Not necessarily. At the time Sanchez was around the same capabilities as Flacco. Before the playoffs started, it was more Sanchez removing himself from the conversation than Flacco elevating his play considerably. What he is doing in the playoffs is unexpected. He's good protecting the ball but now he hasn't had a clunker of a game you usually expect from him. Also of course the Ravens said, "here take over the 2nd half" and he did it.
Meh. Hey I usually respect your opinions here even if I am disagreeing about one or another of them, but here I just don't see the argument. I would not say Flacco was a top ten Qb prior to 11, of course. No one was at the time. The question instead was whether Flacco or Sanchez was the better Qb, and I thought it clear that Flacco was, even early in 11. Much was made of turnover at receiver for Sanchez. Well Flacco entered 11 having lost six of his top ten receivers from the prior year. Once he got going he had an improving regular season followed by a solid playoff run. Comparing stats, 11 was a down year for Flacco following two years of improving performance after his rookie year, but his yards per attempt and Qb rating were still higher than Sanchez's, with 11 being MS's best year for those numbers. But with the season on the line, Sanchez crapped the bed. Meanwihle Flacco went to the playoffs for a fourth year in a row, and I think I heard he's the only Qb to have played on a team that won at least one playoff game in his first five years. In other words chemistry with his receivers no doubt troubled Flacco in 11, but he improved very much as the year went on. Meanwhile Sanchez, with the playoffs on the line in 11, crapped the bed down the stretch. Overall stats have always given Flacco the edge. This was evident before this past year. Yet my recollection is most Jet fans thought Sanchez was "clearly" the better Qb in 11. He wasn't. Flacco was.
How come any time a QB creeps into top 10 status at the position, people want to use the word 'franchise' and 'elite'. We don't do this for any other position. Should we call Cro an 'elite' CB, or Mangold a 'franchise' Center? I actually have grown to hate both overused terms. Flacco is very good. The Ravens have played very well overall as a team. Physical defense, balanced on both sides of the ball, good in rushing and passing attack, and consistent good QB play have all contributed to their success. It's a team game, and Flacco has done his part.
Yeah I like reading your opinions too, I mean if we agreed all the time it would be boring. I can agree with that. During the 11 season I thought it was still debatable. Remember we played him and he went 10/31 for 0 TD, 1 INT. Starting with the Jets game he went: RESULT CMP ATT YDS CMP%AVG LNG TD INT QBR RAT W 34-17 10 31 163 32.3 5.26 52 0 1 14.7 37.4 W 29-14 20 33 305 60.6 9.24 56 0 1 80.3 78.5 L 7-12 21 38 137 55.3 3.61 20 1 1 19.0 61.0 W 30-27 31 51 336 60.8 6.59 37 0 1 54.5 72.0 W 23-20 28 47 300 59.6 6.38 29 1 0 81.8 85.4 L 17-22 29 52 255 55.8 4.90 19 1 1 44.0 67.4 Sanchez down this same stretch went: RESULT CMP ATT YDS CMP%AVG LNG TD INT QBR RAT L 17-34 11 35 119 31.4 3.40 30 0 1 0.8 30.5 L 21-30 16 26 166 61.5 6.39 22 2 0 56.8 105.6 W 24-6 14 25 201 56.0 8.04 38 1 0 64.2 95.6 W 27-21 18 33 173 54.5 5.24 34 3 1 73.6 87.1 W 27-11 20 28 230 71.4 8.21 24 1 1 53.8 92.9 L 16-37 20 39 306 51.3 7.85 38 1 2 22.3 64.7 At the time they were playing at what I think are comparable levels. The Flacco understood what his team needed and played better down the stretch while Sanchez had one good game against BUF and played average to "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" down the stretch. Sanchez didn't get to showcase in the playoffs while Flacco just kept playing better. Then of course we know the story of this season. Flacco improved, not greatly and not a big jump, but improved. Sanchez went backwards and was benched sorry for the bad formatting. I can't seem to make it look nice for some reason.
The only ELITE QBs in the NFL right now are: Rodgers, Brady, Brees, and Peyton. THAT'S IT! Sure there are a bunch of guys who are on the rise (Matt Ryan, Flacco, Big Ben, Eli), but to categorize them as being 'elite'.. c'mon, now.
I basically agree with you. I think Big Ben is a tremendous player, and if I had to include anyone else, it would probably be him.
In less than 30 minutes too...:lol: I can confirm that Sanchez indeed blows and would love for him to play out his contract. :up:
Elite's the new way of describing QBs...It seems like a recent thing cause in the 90s I don't remember it being thrown around...
Just another sign of the media's influence on how we view QB's these days, and everything for that matter. The QB position is worshipped now more than ever. Not to mention the rule changes that protect them. You are right because in the 90's they never used the Elite classification when judging QB's, which is odd considering that we're talking about the decade with All World QB's like Montana, Elway, and Marino.
