How the Joe Flacco injury impacts the Baltimore Ravens
By Roland Stamm
This Monday night when the Baltimore Ravens take the field at the Cleveland Browns, it will be the first time in 122 regular-season games that the starting quarterback for Baltimore will not be Joe Flacco. How long exactly has it been since Flacco was not the starter? The date was Dec. 30, 2007. Who was the starter? Troy Smith. That’s not a name you have heard in a very long time.
It just goes to show how long Flacco has been starting. His streak of 122 consecutive games started ranks fifth all time. Only Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Philip Rivers have had longer starting streaks than Flacco. It is a shame that he torn his ACL, but it happened and the Ravens must move forward.
The Ravens will now rely on Matt Schaub to lead them to victory the rest of the 2015 season. Schaub has yet to throw a single pass this season, so it will be interesting to see how well he is in sync with the rest of the offense. Even if he is, though, he probably will not be much help for Baltimore. The last time he started a game was in 2013 with the Houston Texans. The last time he played at all was with the Oakland Raiders last season, but he only threw 10 passes, having two of those go for interceptions. Schaub had a few solid seasons in Houston, but that was a long time ago and should provide little help to the Ravens' offense.
This also hurts the receivers. If Steve Smith Sr. was still healthy, they might be able to rely on him to pick up the slack. But with Smith gone, there is no one good enough to make up for Schaub’s likely struggles. The receivers were already having a tough time finding success with Flacco and will not get any better with Schaub.
Most of these guys are not good enough to be the second starting receiver for many teams and now are being asked to carry the offense. There is almost no talent in this receiving corps, and while they will make a few catches here and there, none of them are going to have any chance of success with Schaub throwing the ball, which will show how valuable Flacco is.
Speaking of Flacco’s value, with him out, maybe the Ravens and every other football fan will finally find out if Joe Flacco is elite. If Schaub fails to deliver any success (which I think will happen), we will all know that Flacco is valuable. Maybe not elite because he should be better than a backup QB, but it will definitely show he is a talented player.
If by some miracle Schaub can play like he did in the previous decade with the Texans and get the Ravens some wins, then we will all know that Flacco is a waste of money and is not elite. That probably will not happen though. There is a reason he has been released by two teams in the last two seasons. So while the argument may not be completely settled, we will get to see just how important Flacco is to the Baltimore Ravens.
The season-ending injury to Joe Flacco is a devastating one. His impressive consecutive start streak is over, and now the ball is in the hands of Matt Schaub. With Schaub now at quarterback, any slim hope of making the playoffs is now gone for the Ravens. Clearly Flacco is better than Schaub, so the offense will struggle. On top of that, Schaub will not be able to rely on the lackluster Baltimore receivers to bail him out, so the offense should take a massive plummet.
Also, fans will finally get to see if Flacco is any good or if the defense and the system are the reasons for his success. Overall, it will be a learning experience for the Ravens and will likely be rough times these last six weeks.
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