Ravens’ Postseason Results Illustrate the Importance—and Fickleness—of TOs
Two years ago almost to the day, Joe Flacco made one of the
biggest plays in NFL history down 7 to Peyton Manning’s Broncos. Jacoby Jones
ran in a straight line down the sideline, Flacco heaved up a prayer, and the
Ravens play-by-play announcer could only laugh
in disbelief as Broncos’ CB Rahim Moore failed to stop a 70-yard TD pass
with 31 seconds on the clock. League MVP Manning threw his second interception
of the game in OT, and Delaware’s finest Joe Flacco capped off one of the most
remarkable postseason runs with a Super Bowl MVP trophy and a brand spanking
new $120.6
million contract.
On Saturday, Flacco was in an extremely similar situation.
Down 4 to another all-time great, Tom Brady, Flacco, threw the ball to another
speedster, Torrey Smith. This time, Patriots’ safety Duron Harmon (who, FYI, is
a lesser-known football player with Delaware
connections) intercepted the quasi-Hail Mary in the end zone. Flacco,
despite throwing for four TDs, was going home before the big game in February.
These two games illustrate that football, despite its
reputation as a “game of inches,” is really a game of turnovers. During his
incredible postseason run, Flacco only had one TO the entire season (a fumble
against Denver, and no INTs). By my count, during their four 2012 postseason
games, the Ravens had 17 of what I will call “turnover opportunities,” i.e.
interceptions + fumbles. During those 17 opportunities, Baltimore came away
with the ball 13 times. The nitty-gritty details are in the table below:
