Flacco Is Latest Super Joe

Getty ImagesWhat does Joe Flacco now have in common with Joe Montana and Phil Simms?

Joe Flacco capped an outstanding postseason with his fourth straight exceptional performance, throwing three touchdowns without an interception in the Super Bowl to earn the game’s MVP award and lead the Ravens to a 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. In doing so, Flacco joined a club led by former 49ers greats, and including one of the men who called his victorious performance for CBS: Quarterbacks who led their teams to championships without throwing a single interception.

Flacco tossed 11 touchdowns without an interception in the postseason, matching Joe Montana‘s feat for the 49ers after the 1989 season. Six other quarterbacks have thrown for four or more touchdowns without an interception in a single postseason while leading their teams to Super Bowl wins: Steve Young (nine for the 1994-95 49ers), Troy Aikman (eight for 1992-93 Cowboys), Drew Brees (eight for 2009-10 Saints), CBS analyst Phil Simms (eight for 1986-87 Giants), Tom Brady (five for 2004-05 Patriots) and Ken Stabler (four for 1976-77 Raiders).

It’s an impressive list. Four of Flacco’s seven predecessors led the NFL in passer rating during the regular season. Flacco didn’t: He ranked 12th in the NFL this year with a rating of 87.7, while throwing 10 interceptions. That made him an unlikely candidate for a near-flawless postseason with a passer rating of 117.2, notwithstanding his excellent road playoff win-loss record. But regular-season results aren’t always predictive of postseason performance. Aikman threw 14 interceptions with a rating of 89.5 before protecting the ball much better in the playoffs.

And if anyone could appreciate the transformation Flacco underwent after the regular season, it was Simms. In the 1986-87 season, he threw 21 touchdowns and 22 interceptions with an average of 7.5 yards per attempt and a mediocre passer rating of 74.6. Facing superior defensive opponents in the playoffs, Simms threw eight touchdowns with no interceptions, for an average of 8.5 yards per attempt and a rating of 131.8, second only to Montana’s 146.4 in 1989-90 among quarterbacks with at least seven touchdowns in a postseason.