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          NFL Nation

          Reasons for Flacco's improved accuracy

          • Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff WriterSep 15, 2014, 11:00 AM ET
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              Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
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          Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco completed 72.4 percent of his passes (21-of-29) in Thursday night's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is the first time he's eclipsed the 70 percent completion rate since the Ravens' game at Pittsburgh in October.

          In fact, Flacco was more efficient earlier in his career. In his first three seasons, Flacco produced 15 games where he completed over 70 percent of his throws. Over the last four seasons, he has only had seven such games.

          Why was Flacco so accurate on Thursday? The reasons are quite simple.

          Flacco threw higher percentage passes, which is going to be a staple of Gary Kubiak's new offense. He focused on shorter passes as 21 of his 29 attempts traveled 5 or few yards downfield, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Flacco's average air yards was 5.1, which was 3 yards less than the season-opening loss at the Bengals.

          Many of Flacco's problems in recent years were the result of forcing passes downfield. The Ravens were a vertical offense under offensive coordinators Cam Cameron and Jim Caldwell. Under Kubiak, the Ravens want Flacco to throw more in rhythm and get rid of the ball quicker. A good amount of Flacco's throws Thursday were slants to Steve Smith, shorter passes over the middle to his tight ends (Owen Daniels and Dennis Pitta) and safe tosses to running back Justin Forsett in the flat.

          It was a more composed performance for Flacco and it came five days after he was brutally honest on how bad the offense played in the season opener. Once again, as I wrote a week ago, the only consistent part of Flacco's game is his inconsistency.

          The other factor in Flacco's higher completion rate is pass protection. Flacco was under duress or hit on just one of his 29 dropbacks Thursday night. No quarterback who played an entire game in Week 2 had a safer pocket. This is completely opposite from last season, when Flacco was hit or under duress on 131 of his dropbacks. Only Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson faced more pressure last year.

          "Anytime you go against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I can stand back there and be pretty much untouched, it’s a nice feeling," Flacco said.