Collins or Flacco: Who Would You Rather Have Saturday?

by Jimmy on Jan 8, 2009 1:08 PM CST in Commentary Comment 18 comments

		Passing									Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Sack	YdsL
2008- Collins	16	80.2	242	415	58.3	2676	167.2	6.4	12	7	8	60

		Passing									Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Sack	YdsL
2008- Flacco	16	80.3	257	428	60.0	2971	185.7	6.9	14	12	32	276

Obviously Joe Flacco has the brighter upside, but which guy do you want THIS SATURDAY?

We have heard all week about how remarkable Flacco is, and how much scarier the Baltimore offense is this time than when these two teams met in October. After looking at the numbers I just don't buy it. Flacco's season numbers are pretty much the same as Kerry Collins. People will throw out that looking at the numbers from the whole season aren't fair because Flacco is a rookie.

OK, let's take his last 6 games of the regular season:

Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	INT
85.8	86	152	56	1,158	6	3

Pretty much the same.

Flacco is getting a lot of praise for his play in the game against Miami. Why? Because he made 1 nice throw to Derrick Mason on the sideline? He was 9 of 23 in the game against the NFL's 25th ranked pass defense. The Titans are 9th.

The closest comparision I can find between the two for this game is how they performed against the Steelers this season. We will just count Flacco's second game against them since the first one was in 3rd game as a starter (although it was the better game). Flacco was 11 of 28 for 115 yards with 0 TDs and 2 INTs in week 15 at home. (16 of 31 for 192 with 1 TD and 0 INTs in the week 3 game) Collins was 20 of 29 for 215 with 1 TD and 0 INTs week 16.

Advantage: Collins.

Collins has similar numbers, but he has been here before. If he has shown us anything this season, it is that he has learned a lot of lessons from his time in the NFL. There have been a couple of bad games this season, but overall he has been really good at protecting the football.

Collins has taken over some games for the Titans this season. The Ravens, Bears, and Colts games all come to mind as games where the Titans could not run the ball but were able to pull out a win simply because of Collins. Plus Collins has had some games in his career where he has put up some really good numbers. Flacco never has. It is crazy to think a rookie has an advantage over a veteran when the numbers are this similar.

I'll take Collins.

-Much thanks to August West for his assistance with this post.

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I just helped with the punctuation...

cus Jimmy nailed the rest of it. I’d take Collins for Saturday, and Flacco 3 years from now.

Where I was raised 2 + 2 = 3rd and 6.

by August West on Jan 8, 2009 1:57 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

could KC lay an egg saturday?

of course he could, anything can happen in the playoffs. But i’ll say this, I like having the QB with 3 weeks rest, home field advantage, a recent win in his opponents house under his belt, and a ton and a half of big game experience.

there’s just something about when KC pulls the ball back and cocks that arm that makes me feel like good things can happen. i dont get the warm fuzzy feeling watching flacko. He shows alot of promise but promise doesnt get it done in big games.

win or lose KC’s my man. put me down in his column Jimmy!

by stetix01 on Jan 8, 2009 1:57 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

some quick stats on flacco

here are flacco’s last 8 games. i’m listing the teams he played against, their ranking in passing defense (based on opposing qb rating), and flacco’s rating that game.
hou, 26th, 118.9
nyg, 8th, 58.1
phi, 5th, 95.5
cin, 21st, 119.9
was, 7th, 64.4
pit, 2nd, 22.2
dal, 20th, 96.9
jac, 28th, 115.8
i agree that flacco’s improved, but it looks like he is doing his damage against bad passing d’s (credit to him and baltimore for doing so).
against top ten passing d’s he’s throwing up passer ratings of 95.5, 64.4, 58.1, and 22.2, in other words he’s had 1 good game out of 4 against good pass defenses.
lucky for us, the titans currently rank 3rd in passing d. (the stats indicate that the new and improved flacco will have a rating of 60.5 against us.)
unluckily for us the ravens rank 1st.
i didn’t look up similar stats for kc because i think kc is a known commodity, and there have been few claims of kc’s “improvement” from titans fans.
in any case, i would take kc for the simple fact that he takes better care of the ball and gets sacked less.

by rolypoly32 on Jan 8, 2009 2:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

wow that's pretty enlightening, roly!

Where I was raised 2 + 2 = 3rd and 6.

by August West on Jan 8, 2009 2:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

great work!

by stetix01 on Jan 8, 2009 2:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Wow ! Jimmy

Are you feeling ok? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. What a drastic change from a year ago.
I will take Collins for the above reasons as well. I hope he has another stellar game like he had against Pittsburgh. Flacco will probably play well, but hopefully not so good as to beat the Titan defense. This is go time, so prepare for a great game on Saturday.
.

Joy Kat

by Joy kat on Jan 8, 2009 3:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Great stats and research

even for a Tennessee guy (just kidding, Jimmy)! Looks pretty even, with perhaps a slight edge lately to Collins, although a slight edge to Flacco over the entire season. However, I’ll still take Flacco as he has a run game that I think has a better chance to do damage in this war in the trenches than a faster, around the edge guy which hasn’t worked against the Ravens run defense. Therefore, we have a better chance of wearing you down than you do to us, espeically with the two D-linemen returning from injury. Also, the progression of Flacco gives me much encouragement, as he has played as well as we’ve needed him to in our victories, so numbers alone don’t do it for me. Besides, our histroy with Collins makes me think that once we get to him, even if it is just a hit after releasing the ball,…well Ravens fans have seen what he can do.

Finally, the confidence here is Baltimore is that while the Ravens are so much better now than we were when we first played, the Titans are 3-3 in their last six and no excuse in the book will convince me that they are peaking while we are. It’s the teams that are playing best now that win, not the ones who have played well during the season.

Rexx

by Rexx on Jan 8, 2009 5:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

How many times did ya'll beat the Steelers?

That was without the studs.

Titans Blogger at Music City Miracles even though gramsey hates it.

by Jimmy on Jan 8, 2009 5:44 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

How many times did ya’ll lose to the Texans? When was the last time those guys were contenders? Remind me, because I forget.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Jan 8, 2009 9:54 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Once.

Titans Blogger at Music City Miracles even though gramsey hates it.

by Jimmy on Jan 8, 2009 10:22 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i cant help

but be the spelling police with y’all.

It’s one of my very few pet peeves that I can’t let go of!

On to the question: I’d take Collins in this game any day of the week and twice on Sunday. If you put Flacco and Collins up against that same Baltimore defense – not that that’s possible of course, but just imagine – is there really any f’n question??

Problem for Collins is that intelligence can only take you so far against a team as talented and equally savvy mentally as Baltimore. Chad Pennington, a Rhodes scholar, proved that last week. But still, if you put Flacco and Collins against the same Baltimore defense 10 times, I’m taking Collins in at least 7 of those games.

Key to this game to me is whether Tennesee can stop the run and force one or two turnovers. I think both QBs will struggle at times and make a few plays as well. Game should be decided elsewhere, in my opinion.

by Blitzburgh on Jan 9, 2009 8:55 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

to clarify

ya’ll is the same as spelling can’t ca’nt.

sorry, done now :)

by Blitzburgh on Jan 9, 2009 8:55 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

As soon as you guys get Shaub, Slaton and Andre Johnson

we’ll worry about what that loss meant. That Texans game was one of the reason I was so happy we got Baltimore: we’ll crush defensive oriented teams, but struggle with high-powered offenses that stay balanced (like Houston had the last half of the year).

It’s significant that you guys lost to the Steelers in such ugly ways because we’re a lot like them… only better.

Where I was raised 2 + 2 = 3rd and 6.

by August West on Jan 9, 2009 9:16 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

we have a fat guy at running back too

he’s good at wearing down defenses.
plus, the two guys coming back on d-line are pretty damn good and now pretty well rested.
i would think it’s easier to wear down a team that’s played 16 straight weeks.

by rolypoly32 on Jan 8, 2009 8:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

3 guys

vickerson back from the star caps thing too

The Official Enforcer of MCM

by hal41605 on Jan 9, 2009 8:17 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I was just thinking

the same exact thing… We are peaking. We beat Pitt in the last game we played that we actually tried to win. We are the healthiest we’ve been in some time.

by Big Bad Bulluck on Jan 8, 2009 5:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I think i

the winning team is the one that has the highest value for the following formula:

(IQ scores) + (# of ATVs gifted to offensive line during year) + (# guys in final year of contract) + (number of days players have been without a woman) – (# of players guaranteeing win to media * 100) / number of fans scheduling victory parties ahead ot time.

In other words, in just a bit over a day, we get to watch and see what happens ;-).

by numbertenox on Jan 8, 2009 11:35 PM CST reply actions 0 recs