Greetings from Tampa, where it's 73 degrees and sunny today. Sorry to my friends from the Northeast.
Just covered the Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Year press conference, won by Joe Flacco of the Ravens ahead of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (who won the more credible Associated Press Rookie of the Year honor), and three running backs - the Titans' Chris Johnson, Texans' Steve Slaton, and Bears' Matt Forte'.
The main difference between the AP honor and Diet Pepsi honor is that the former is voted on by writers, the latter by fans. Also, voting was open through the Championship round of the playoffs, as opposed to the AP Award, which is impacted by regular season performance only.
The fact that Flacco was to win the honor was a poorly-kept secret, as scout.com's Adam Caplan had reported on Tuesday, citing a league source, that the Ravens signal-caller was to win it.
We don't have a major problem with Flacco winning the award, since his two playoff wins (as opposed to zero for all of the other candidates) deservedly carried some weight. But Ryan had better numbers, a less talented supporting cast, and arguably more pressure given his status as the No. 3 overall pick for a team that had endured the Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino controversies.
And for the record, we rate the three rookie running backs up for the honor this way: 1) Johnson, 2) Slaton, 3) Forte'.
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8 comments:
I have to disagree about Flacco having a better supporting cast. He managed to put up very respectable numbers despite not having a deep threat like Ryan had in Atlanta. Ryan at least had two credible receivers. Other than Derrick Mason, Flacco did not have one dependable receiver.
Flacco also faced much better defenses throughout the year. He faced 8 of the top 10 pass defenses, while Ryan only faced 2 of the 10 (Tampa and Oakland). Average pass defense rank for Flacco was 11, while for Ryan it was 18. And Ryan's numbers were not that much better than Flacco's, who got off to a slow start against great defenses, but then played very well the rest of the season.
Let's be real here...it's obvious that whichever rookie went the furthest in the playoffs would win this unofficial "Rookie of the Year Award" started by this corporation. What's next? The Kool-Aid award? Because you Ravens fans are sure drinking it up in regards to your boy Flacco. Nevemind that Ryan had better stats and could lead a no-huddle and thrive in it. Nevermind that Ryan had nowhere near the defense backing him like Flacco had. Ryan is a game-changer while Flacco is a game manager, meaning him just doing enough so as not to turn the ball over. Winning was often placed on Ryan's shoulders while Flacco rode his defense to victory. So Ravens fans, please, just go right ahead and enjoy that irrelevant corporate award voted on by the so-called "fans". Ryan won the real ROY. He was judged by 50 selected sportswriters who study the game of football for a living.
How this guy win this award? He threw 3 picks in the biggest game of the year for his team.
You have to remember Flacco was beaten by the eventual Super Bowl champions. Flacco had a bad game, doesn't make him a worse quarterback. The first time that the Falcons had a real test (playoffs), they (including Ryan) faltered. Ravens losses = Tennesee, Pittsburgh (3), Indianapolis, and the Giants. All playoff teams. Atlanta's loses = Tampa Bay, Carolina, Philadelphia, Denver, New Orleans, Arizona. And as to Baltimore leaning on its defense, they scored 6 less points this year then the Atlanta Falcons did. The point is to make it deep into the postseason. Flacco succeeded, Ryan failed. Only time will tell which is better. I'm not ready to call either one a hall of famer or a bust yet.
Flacco isn't very good at all. Chris Johnson shoulda won rookie of the year of Matt Ryan also. Chris Johnson put up amazing numbers and only fumbled once. The ravens defense made flacco look good. They were the ones winning every game.
Great tips, I think a lot of people hit the ‘plateau’ and the wall is just too much for them. I find that, like someone mentioned above, if you focus on the smaller goals and not necessarily hitting that magic number everything starts to fall into place and you begin to gain ground again.
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