Joe Flacco: Don’t even go there, Lamar Jackson did a great job

AP

There will be plenty of talk in the days ahead about whether Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson should have been benched in favor of Joe Flacco during today’s loss to the Chargers. But Flacco is refusing to fuel such talk.

When a reporter suggested to Flacco after the game that perhaps he should have gone in to replace Jackson, Flacco quickly shut it down and praised Jackson for his big fourth quarter, which gave the Ravens a chance at a dramatic comeback.

“You can’t even go there, man,” Flacco said. “I thought Lamar did a great job of hanging in there and giving us a chance at the end.”

That’s a classy answer from Flacco, who also acknowledged after the game that he doesn’t have much say in where he’ll end up next season, with the Ravens ready to move on from him and make Jackson their franchise quarterback. Flacco didn’t want to leave Baltimore this way, having been benched for a younger quarterback, but he’s still leaving Baltimore with his status as a good teammate and consummate professional intact.

107 responses to “Joe Flacco: Don’t even go there, Lamar Jackson did a great job

  1. Yes he did such a great job you’ll be watching from your living room next week. The fumbler

  2. If you take away Lamar Jacksons fumbles, and hi continues to improve he might someday be an ok QB. He’s good enough to keep around for a short while, and good enough to get you fired.
    In other words – at the present time he is not good enough to be the long term QB.

  3. It would have worked out a lot better for baltimore if Jackson cut the Christian Ponder imitation 50 minutes earlier.

  4. Lamar is not a QB, he’s a Cordell’s Patterson type at best. Joe should have played

  5. Joe Flacco…Best QB in Baltimore Ravens History…until Lamar Jackson is…unless he isn’t…

  6. While the Squealers are eating their own with bad table manners, the Ravens stay classy, good for them.

  7. Flacco had a nice run when Lewis and Reed where there to dominate; since then he’s been just another guy with the results to prove it.

    Still, I’d take him over the latest gimmick guy who can only move the ball playing sandlot football. That has never worked for more than a few games in this league with similar players.

  8. Great job? That was a disasterous performance by jackson. I was sure harbaugh would put flacco in, but nope.

  9. As I pointed out a few days ago on PFT, that 6-1 W streak for Lamar saw Ravens face 6 of the 7 worst ranked defenses in the league this year. However, Harbaugh and Ravens’ collective ego thought they had turned it around and become the league’s hot sauce. Even needing to squeak past the Browns by 2 points last week wasn’t enough to shake that mega ego.

  10. I want to see any rookie QB come in to a 4 and 5 team and go to the playoffs.

    Last one that did anything close to that was Big Ben, a HOF candidate.

    And he also had the support of a great defense and running game.

    8 games of experience folks. Give him some time.

  11. the media loved calling out that charge scout who said Jackson should play WR after the ravens beat the chargers a few weeks ago. They all but called that guy a racist. Will they all say that scout has a point now?

  12. sewalters79 says:
    January 6, 2019 at 5:31 pm
    Lamar is not a QB, he’s a Cordell’s Patterson type at best. Joe should have played

    =========================

    Who in the world is Cordell’s Patterson??????

  13. That’s the problem Joe. He held the ball too long. He couldn’t read the defense if it was handed to him on a sheet of paper. The only time he was effective was after running ircles in the pocket and seeing someone open and heaving a prayer to them. Jump Ball Joe and Joltin’ Lamar. When you have 2 starting QBs, you don’t have a starting QB.

  14. They made their choice earlier but everybody knows that the Ravens would have had a better chance with Flacco. Experience is golden in the playoffs.

  15. Flacco must have been watching a different game than everyone else. Maybe it looks different from the sideline.

  16. Only an idiot headcoach puts in a punt returner/rb/wr at qb in a playoff game when you have a superbowl winning qb on the bench who’s won many playoff games. Harbaugh is an embarrassment and the gm is clueless for drafting Jackson as a qb. He makes tebow look like a hall of famer.

  17. Once again Steelers fan here with nothing but respect for Harbaraugh sticking to his new gun and not caving into the wishes of the anti-minority vocal minority. If the likes of Bortles and Tannehill can get chance after chance to stink up the joint then Jackson deserves at least a season or two to prove his wares.

  18. Obviously Flacco was just being polite. The first half was shocking , there is no way Flacco could have been worse.

  19. streetyson says:
    January 6, 2019 at 5:55 pm
    As I pointed out a few days ago on PFT, that 6-1 W streak for Lamar saw Ravens face 6 of the 7 worst ranked defenses in the league this year. However, Harbaugh and Ravens’ collective ego thought they had turned it around and become the league’s hot sauce. Even needing to squeak past the Browns by 2 points last week wasn’t enough to shake that mega ego.


    One could easily say the same thing about the Patriots and their fan base. 5-6 games almost guaranteed in the AFC East. For years. 29th ranked SOS this year. Do you hold the same opinion there?

    Think that is the condition of the league.

  20. Give the kid a chance. If it weren’t for Jackson the Ravens wouldn’t have been in the playoffs. He’ll improve. You don’t want Jackson to be a star because the notion of a black star QB truly ruffles your feathers. I’d have more respect for you if you simply said it rather than hiding in the closet like a coward.

  21. My eyes weren’t lying. Down 23-3 late and sitting next to a discouraged rookie on the bench, in a playoff game no less, a “consummate professional” wouldn’t just sit there and pout like a child. Perhaps help the kid? After the rookie makes the game interesting, Flacco all of a sudden is super teammate. Exposed.

  22. Of course skawh comes to his defense. If Flacco put up the exact same performance, skawh would be crying for Lamar to come in

  23. While the Squealers are eating their own with bad table manners, the Ravens stay classy, good for them.

    I thought of you as the game ended knowing that your life has been ruined again only increasing your hatred of the Steelers….the team you want to copy. No matter how many screen names you use you cant hide your pain from being owned by the Steelers….why else your obsession. Enjoy the future with a one trick pony who frequently loses his saddle.

  24. As one who actually lives in Baltimore, I hate the Ravens, let’s be clear about that. But at the end of the day Harbaugh should have channeled Nick Saban and put Flacco in at halftime when the score was 12-0. If I was ownership I would for him. The only reason the Ravens scored all those points at the end is because it was pretty much over and the Chargers softened up their coverage.

  25. frodoftw7 says:
    January 6, 2019 at 5:36 pm
    That was perhaps the worst quarterback performance that I’ve ever seen in the playoffs.
    —————–
    HOLD MY BEER!!

    Tyrod Taylor……

  26. Bottomline? Flacco wins that game today. Lamar isn’t a starting caliber QB in the NFL.

  27. Flacco made a noble reply to that question – anything sounding remotely different & he would have been vilified by the talking heads as “sour grapes” !
    Harbaugh see’s Jackson as the leader of the Offense because he feels it gives them a better chance at winning.
    So for better or worse he stuck with Lamar & that’s what good coaches do when they don’t want ANY QB controversy to tear up team unity.
    People aren’t sold on WR’s masquerading as QB’s in the NFL – they don’t stay healthy very long as a general rule!
    I think at best Lamar’s gets a full season to improve and then that’s it regardless whether Harbaugh is coaching or not.

  28. thermanmerman99 says:
    January 6, 2019 at 6:32 pm
    Of course skawh comes to his defense. If Flacco put up the exact same performance, skawh would be crying for Lamar to come in
    ———
    Actually, SKAWH sold his Flacco stock win Flacco threw the ball up to a double covered receiver in the end zone with a minute and a half remaining, and timeouts, when Baltimore had NE beat in Foxboro. That ended Baltimore’s season. Flacco has zero passion for the game, and HOF Ray Lewis called him out for it.

    You sofa beer chugging critics expect too much from rookie QB’s. What other rookie QB was in the playoffs? Stop, you look foolish.

  29. Joe Flacco: Don’t even go there, Lamar Jackson did a great job

    Player CP/AT YDS TD INT fumbles
    Lamar Jackson 14/29 194 2 1 3

    And a lot of those completions/yards(6/85) and 1 TD was in garbage time(<5mins) when the Chargers were laying off just to prevent a long play, so apparently you have a very low bar for QBs there in Baltimore huh Joe! It's the secret scauce in your longevity!

  30. A great job is Foles winning the SB. Not Jackson losing a WC game, but the right response from Flacco. What else is he going to say? The critics will have their way with LJ.

  31. Lamar Jackson looked great after the game was already decided. The Ravens had a way better chance of winning if Joe Flacco started the game or at the very least started the second half. I have no idea what John Harbaugh was thinking.

  32. patsfan4lifesbchamps says:
    January 6, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    Backup Joe!

    >>> More like “BYE JOE”!

  33. Mornhinweg ruin Flacco. He will ruin Lamar. Please go coach a Pop Warner leaque team, if they will have you.

  34. Sorry to say that having class in pro sports is dying and being replaced with the in your face, I know better, hear me roar players. Good luck to Joe. Hope he lands in the right spot and it works for him.

  35. Well said by Flacco.

    I read PFT and try to ignore posts that claim that their team and division is the best in their conference but it’s most often posters claiming the AFC North is the top division and how the Pats only win because of weak competition. They say this despite the Patriots playing a first place schedule for the the better part of the past 20 years.

    There are fans from the Steelers, Ravens and even the Bengals (there is also a Seahawks fan that can’t let that SB loss die) that regularly post on most Patriots threads. Since facts matter, they should take note that there is only one AFC division that has already been eliminated from the playoffs, the AFC North.

    I don’t say this to gloat. I am a fan, not a player or an owner so I have won nothing personally.

  36. frodoftw7 says:
    January 6, 2019 at 5:36 pm

    That was perhaps the worst quarterback performance that I’ve ever seen in the playoffs.

    >>>NAHHH, Dilfer of the 2000 Ravensis by far the worst! The big difference being the 2000 Ravens D bailed Dilfer out by not only getting them TO but turning a lot of those TO into points.

    Dilfer’s stats @Tennessee 5comp 17att 85yds 0TD 0INT 3sack 29.4comp% 47.9 QB Rat 23rush 49yds 2.1YPC

  37. Never understood coaches who just can’t understand utilizing 2 QBs in a game like today. Drop the ego & feelings, all about winning. Flacco would have definitely helped.

  38. Flacco was not coming into game unless Lamar gets hurt. Joe goes in, gets career ending injury, Ravens on hook for remainder of contract Ravens need Derek Carr!

  39. Jackson played badly, but he was a 21 year old rookie QB. Joe Flacco is likely being traded/released so he could have said a lot of things – but he went out there and took a very high road. Good for him.

    And I’ve seen Joe Flacco have trash outings throwing the ball too. I watched Matt Moore have a better night throwing than him. Matt Moore.

    He has a lot to clean up, but you don’t draft a QB and expect Peyton Manning or Tom Brady on day 1. It takes time. Let’s see what an offseason does for him.

  40. Jackson is a rookie QB the Chargers saw a couple weeks ago.

    Flacco’s a veteran the Chargers haven’t faced in over 3 years. Which means most of their players haven’t played him. And they had no time to game-plan for him.

    Playing Flacco sounds like a pretty good tactical move to me, but what do I know…

  41. He had minus 2 yards passing in the 4th quarter. If the Chargers didn’t go prevent(prevents you from winning) he wouldn’t have gotten anything. He got lucky as it is. Both td drives, the ball should have been picked. He isn’t even as good a rusher as Josh Allen. The LA db dropped the ball right in his hands(why he’s not a wr). Don’t even go there? Maybe Flacco wants to ride the pines, collect big $$$ and not get pounded physically and in the press.

  42. steelcurtainn says:
    January 6, 2019 at 9:45 pm
    Please keep Jackson for the next 10 years. Enjoy the division Tshirts.

    SincerelY,
    Steeler nation
    ___________________

    We definitely will enjoy our Tshirts. Actually have one on now. And you guys continue to enjoy being the most talented, underachieving team in the league. We had rookie QB who had only played in 7 games. What’s your excuse? Tomlin? Le’veon? Big Ben? The fact that your front office can’t draft a DB that can cover better than a 7th grader? By the way, has AB showed up for work yet? Peace

  43. Fans always want to change something when it’s going bad but Harbaugh is no idiot and he made the right call. The Chargers’ D-line was dominating all game and the statue the is Joe Flacco would’ve been lucky to get out alive.

  44. Not sure if Flacco would have done better; Jackson did not have the wheels to outrun Chargers’ front-7 until Derwin got there to clean Lamar up, which is scary. Is Flacco’s arm that much faster than Jackson’s wheels? I don’t know, it’s an elite arm that beats that front 7 blasting through Raven’s o-line scheme on pretty much every down.

    TB12 the goat and whatever, but if he’d have been behind Ravens’ o-line today against that rush…I don’t know man. Flacco’s right, Jackson wasnt near as bad as he looked; that offensive disaster for 3.5 quarters was team effort.

  45. Harbaughs do Harbaugh things like move on from good passing quarterbacks for flashy running quarterbacks that dont last in the nfl. Prediction, flacco will be in the playoffs for his next team while Lamar is out of the league and john Harbaugh will be a college head coach in the midwest.

  46. Lamarr played no worse than Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Terry Bradshaw, Drew Brees and Johnny Unitas did their first year at the helm;

    in that he rallied back from injury at the end in his first playoff game, i have to think there is more Russell Wilson in him than DeShaun Watson or Mitchell Trubisky;

    let’s give him another season against his new natural nemesis up in make-believe-land and find out;

  47. “ELITE” jump ball specialist joe flacco would have won it…

    … if he had the receiving corps from 2011-2012.

    Andy Dalton would have won this game if he had the ravens #1 ranked Defense and
    current depth of tight ends and wide receivers.

  48. Harbaugh should have been fired in the 3rd quarter. Lamar was in over his head. He can’t throw the ball and didn’t want to…every person in the stadium knew it. And Harbaugh was like…um..what do I do. All the other guys on the team have to freaking out. He just threw away the season..this isn’t about next year…it was about winning 1 game.

  49. The Chargers let up and nearly cost themselves the game. They do that again in New England, and they will find themselves out of the playoffs.

    The Chargers have a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

  50. Lamar jackson is 21 years old and people are expecting him to be a veteran reader of defenses as if he were a 15 year vet in ther league. As of now he’s just as attuned to reading professional defenses as most 21 year-old QBs. That’s a skill that will be developed with experience.
    He’s won ballgames. Let’s just give his career a chance to develop before we call him a bust just yet.

    Although reading the comments it sure seems like a ton of posters wante want him to fail pretty hard. I think it says more about the people typing than the young qb in Baltimore, though. Lots of ugliness.

  51. Classy comment by Joe Flacco but anyone who saw that game knows that it’s absolutely untrue.

    Flacco should find a new team but as a bridge starter, his value is maybe 2 years 25 million. Any more than that and you start hurting the team due to the cap charge.

  52. The youngest quarterback to ever start a playoff game and he gets bashed because he performed poorly against one of the NFL’s best defenses? Flacco was 9-of-23 for 135 in his playoff debut (23 years old). Relax people.

  53. It used to be that college football ran more pro style offense, but now it’s all about athletes at the qb position. They’re great at running and throwing on the run, but not so much sitting in the pocket and scanning the field. The NFL is starting to move towards that, which is bad.
    For one thing, run first qb’s are injuries waiting to happen in the NFL and passing is the best way to move the ball the quickest. Sorry but any qb who’s better and running then throwing the ball is no qb at all. Some of these kids haven’t even lined up under center, it’s ridiculous.

  54. Lamar has an entire off-season now to learn the nuances of playing the QB position the NFL. I think the Ravens org. did a great job in tailoring this offense to his style. But I am sure the Ravens know that he cannot sustain that type of play over the years.

    It Will be interesting next season to see his development as a passer (from the pocket). But ball security is the #1 thing he has to work on…

    Rivers,Brees and Brady are last of an era of immovable pocket QBs. Look at the QBs in the playoffs: Watson, Prescott, Luck, Tribiski,Jackson are all at least somewhat mobile. And it appears defenses are making a strong comeback. Speaking of defenses…KC and the Rams could be in danger of being one and done in these playoffs. The defenses they are about to face are nasty, they travel well and they are hot!

  55. We definitely will enjoy our Tshirts. Actually have one on now
    _______________________________________________________________
    Chill, I respect the ravens as a team, defense is ok, offense not so good. I’m just saying they made a mistake in drafting Jackson. Running qb’s don’t win the big games.

  56. Joe done good backing his teammate. He’ll get a shot next year somewhere else if he chooses.

  57. daramsman says:
    January 7, 2019 at 9:50 am
    Lamar has an entire off-season now to learn the nuances of playing the QB position the NFL. I think the Ravens org. did a great job in tailoring this offense to his style. But I am sure the Ravens know that he cannot sustain that type of play over the years.

    It Will be interesting next season to see his development as a passer (from the pocket). But ball security is the #1 thing he has to work on…

    Rivers,Brees and Brady are last of an era of immovable pocket QBs. Look at the QBs in the playoffs: Watson, Prescott, Luck, Tribiski,Jackson are all at least somewhat mobile. And it appears defenses are making a strong comeback. Speaking of defenses…KC and the Rams could be in danger of being one and done in these playoffs. The defenses they are about to face are nasty, they travel well and they are hot!

    Brady yes but Rivers and Brees can both run when needed. If they are the last of their kind, then the NFL will be in my past as well. These runaround guys are like watching mediocre college teams play. The problem is that the skill set required to play a la Jackson/RG3/Vick is more quickly perishable than pocket passing skills. You need to be able to read a D, not just take off when you get confused.

  58. Maybe waiting until your down 3 TD’S and 9 minutes left in the game before starting to throw the ball may have had something to do with it.

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