[Vinny Testaverde's Niece]

Originally Posted by SlickBri481

Exactly. Flacco is an above average QB who had a really good stretch of 4 games in the playoffs. Prior to this stretch, my guess is he played around 90 career games. I bet he never had a 4 game stretch this good (at least with TD:INT ratio). What is more telling about him as a player? 90 games or 4?

If he were an elite QB, he'd be having elite regular seasons. Plain and simple

His 'really good stretch' just happened to coincide with the changes the Ravens made on the O-line that enabled Flacco to suddenly become 'elite'.

Instead of just plugging in Bobbie Williams into Reid's spot, the Ravens moved right tackle Kelechi Osemele to left guard, shifted left tackle Michael Oher to the right side and put Bryant McKinnie in at left tackle. Baltimore has used this offensive line combination on every snap in the postseason after not using this lineup for one snap in the regular season.

The reshuffling has certainly paid off for the Ravens. Quarterback Joe Flacco has been sacked only four times on 99 dropbacks (one sack every 24.8 dropbacks) in the playoffs. That's much improved than getting sacked once every 16.3 dropbacks in the regular season.

"You’re really rolling the dice, switching guys around like that," right guard Marshal Yanda said. "You’re in the playoffs, so if something goes wrong or you have a bad game, we’re done and we’re not here right now. Those guys did a really good job of not missing a beat. That just speaks well to how good of players they are."

The key to the success of the offensive line has been left tackle Bryant McKinnie, who was almost not on the Ravens this year. Just before the regular season, McKinnie posted on Twitter that he had been released by the Ravens. But, after taking a $1 million pay cut, he remained with the team in a reserve role all regular season.

McKinnie, 33, has looked strong and fresh this postseason, allowing just one sack. Now, he'll go against 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith, who had 19.5 sacks in his first 13 games this season but none in his last five.

So if Flacco gets his big payday maybe McKinnie and some of those other guys, along with Boldin and Jones who totally bailed Flacco out repeatedly, will walk if they can't get paid too. See how 'elite' you are when you're surrounded by them, Flacco.