Can the Baltimore Ravens Really Win a Championship with Joe Flacco at QB?

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco thinks he's the best quarterback in the NFL. He's not, but that's just fine, for both him and his team. Flacco can be simply good and still be able to help—or even lead—his team to a Super Bowl championship.

For the four years that Flacco has been under center, the Ravens have reached the playoffs each time, appearing in the AFC title game twice. They've never made it to the big game while he's been there, but clearly, his presence on the roster has had a positive effect on the entire team's performance.

The first question, however, is whether the Ravens need Flacco and his arm to be what drives them to the Super Bowl. The Ravens boast one of the strongest run games in the league, thanks to Ray Rice, and have perennially fielded one of the most fearsome defenses.

With those two forces combined, the Ravens simply need Flacco to play well, albeit conservatively, and a championship should eventually come their way.

But this is a quarterback-driven league. Teams like the Ravens, who have a game manager at quarterback, a strong run game and even stronger defense, don't seem to make it beyond the conference championship, as both the Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers learned this year (though those two games don't provide the most perfect example—it was theirs to lose, after all).

Flacco may need to step into a more prominent role on his team for the Ravens to contend in 2012 and beyond. Thus the second question of whether he can do so.

The indications are that he can, given additional receiving targets and more time to work with them. Clearly, some of his regression in 2011 can be attributed to having a young, unfamiliar receiving corps to work with and very little time to build chemistry with them, thanks to the lockout.

Flacco's quarterback rating took a hit last season thanks to him throwing fewer touchdowns (20 in 2011, 25 in 2010) and more interceptions (12 in 2011 to 10 in 2010). His completion percentage also dipped, to 57.6, as did his yards per attempt, which were 7.4 in 2010 and 6.4 in 2011.

The worry is that Flacco's production has hit a plateau. Though his numbers dipped in some areas last season, they are, on the whole, pretty much unchanged from where they've been throughout his career.

Joe Flacco Career Stats

Year	GS	Comp%	Yds	TD	INT	Y/A	Y/C	Y/G	QBR	4QC	GWD
2008	16	60.0	2,971	14	12	6.9	11.6	185.7	80.3	1	2
2009	16	63.1	3,613	21	12	7.2	11.5	225.8	88.9	1	2
2010	16	62.6	3,622	25	10	7.9	11.8	226.4	93.6	2	4
2011	16	57.6	3,610	20	12	6.7	11.6	225.6	80.9	2	3

For someone who thinks they're the best in the league—or at least has the hubris to use such rhetoric to the media—Flacco needs to back up those claims with action.

However, he doesn't need to make all that much of an improvement this year in order for the Ravens to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at season's end. Just as the adage "defense wins championships" is reductionist, simple, cute, but by and large untrue, so is it that running the ball well does so or that having a strong quarterback does as well.

Balance is the key to building a championship squad. There are very clear-cut reasons why the Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots failed to win (and, in the case of the former two, reach) the Super Bowl last year: struggling to run the ball and failing to put together a strong defense to complement their high-caliber passing games.

Just imagine if the Ravens had a passing game to match they way they run the ball and the way they defend against opponents—they'd be practically unstoppable. But Flacco doesn't need to perform that well to elevate the Ravens offense overall; he just needs to perform better and be more consistent on a game-by-game basis.

Think of the way he played against the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. Granted, he was up against a terrible secondary, but he's been in that situation prior to that game—like against the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars—and didn't put up the 300-plus yards he did against New England.

While Flacco will have to get used to putting up numbers like that against defenses great and small, the fact that he has the capability in him is a good sign that he could flourish with greater familiarity with his receivers and increased confidence of his coaches.

Flacco doesn't need a 5,000-yard season to win the Ravens a Super Bowl, nor does he need to be the singular force who leads them to that victory. He needs to be a part of the overall force—which is the team itself—one that does more help than harm, a true game manager.

There's nothing wrong with being a game-managing quarterback. Fans and analysts alike need to divest themselves of considering this term an insult—when you're trying to insult a quarterback, just say things like "he's inaccurate" or "he's weak-armed" instead.

Game managers know how to take control of a contest when they need to and know when the win should be placed in the hands of the running back or defense. They do what it takes to win without pushing themselves to places where they end up taking unnecessary risks that could cost their team the game.

Consistency is the main thing he needs to work on, and balance is the most important overall priority for the team. Fewer games with 100-200 passing yards and more in the 200- to 300-yard range will do wonders for fans' confidence in Flacco, as well as Baltimore's chances to win the Lombardi Trophy during his quarterback reign.

The Ravens can certainly win a Super Bowl with Flacco under center; it's just that they don't need him to be the reason why.

Follow @FBALL_Andrea