Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl Hopes Doomed with Joe Flacco at Quarterback

It seems every year Baltimore Ravens fans are left staunchly defending the play of "franchise" quarterback Joe Flacco.

They spout off stats like experienced defense lawyers, none better than teammate Terrel Suggs. He's made the playoffs all four years of his career, he has a career record of 44-20 and his career playoff record is 5-3.

These are all stats a fan would love to see from their young quarterback. Obviously, in today's NFL a team cannot make it to the playoffs four consecutive seasons without some amount of consistent play from its quarterback.

The problem with all of those stats is that none of them are individual records. Flacco took over a team that finished 13-3 two seasons earlier. He has benefited from an elite option at running back and a top-three defense in three seasons of his career (top-10 defense in all four years).

Flacco has been a slightly above-average quarterback throughout his career, but this year he has regressed. In a season that saw 44 quarterbacks attempt 100 or more passes, 31 had a better completion percentage than Flacco and 23 of them completed 60 percent or more of their passes.

Some try to blame the lockout, but how did two rookie quarterbacks manage to look so great? 

"Joe Cool," as Suggs likes to call him, posted his worst completion percentage, his worst yards-per-pass-attempt average, most turnovers and several other stats that are second only to his rookie season.

"You guys want everybody to be Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. But, you guys realize those (teams) don’t run the ball?" Flacco said. "If we tried to do that, the criticism we’d take around here would be ridiculous."

He is right in this statement, because when Ray Rice doesn't get the ball the Ravens lose. In four games this season Rice had 10 or fewer carries and the Ravens went 1-3 against the likes of the Rams (W), Jaguars (L), Seahawks (L) and Chargers (L).

If anything, Flacco's statement further proves his ineptness as a passer this year.

If the blazing-hot Patriots offense continues to go on the rampage it's been on—31 or more points in seven of final eight games of regular season and 45 points last week—the Ravens will be forced to go away from the purebred running back.

When all the pressure has been on Flacco's shoulders this season, the team has failed; it's as simple as that. My condolences to the 2011 Baltimore Ravens.

f you don't think that how a quarterback plays sways the outcome of a game, look no further then last week. The Texans dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and held the Ravens to 227 yards of total offense.

When's the last time a time has won with that kind of production?