Inside Joe Flacco’s most important trait in the eyes of the Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Make no mistake about it, Joe Flacco was brought to Denver for one primary reason.

To win.

“Joe’s a perfect fit for us. The fact that he’s a winner,” John Elway said, getting straight to the point on Friday at Flacco’s introductory press conference.

Elway is no stranger to winning on the field, as he came out on the right side of over 63 percent of his games as a player back in the day.

Denver’s new quarterback doesn’t trail the two-time Super Bowl-winning Hall of Fame quarterback by too much, either, winning 59 percent of the 178 games he’s played in in the NFL.

For comparison sake, highly-praised Aaron Rodgers has won only 0.34 percent more games than Denver’s new signal caller.

Not bad company to be in.

But why?

How?

Can he bring the most important stat in all of sports to Denver, despite being benched for a rookie last season and accumulating uninspiring stats since 2015?

“Listen, I played a lot of tight games in Baltimore. We relied on our defense a lot. It’s just always been the culture around there and what people see us as,” Flacco explained. “We played in a lot of hard-fought games because of that.”

Sound familiar? Dating back to the Peyton Manning days, Elway, now in a general manager role, has preached the formal to success is playing great defense with a complementary offense.

“We got an awesome defensive-minded head coach that I think we can benefit from a ton,” Flacco said, complimenting his new coach, Vic Fangio after being asked about the high-flying offenses in the AFC West.

But why exactly should a defensive-minded philosophy inspire hope to Broncos Country about their new QB?

“I think when [tight games] happen you’re not going to have games that look pretty, but you’re going be tested a lot, and you’re going to be put through the ringer a lot and even though they don’t look pretty, you don’t realize how well you may have played in those games,” Flacco said.

“But then when it comes to playoff time, a lot of the playoff games, that’s what they are, they’re all ugly, and they’re tough, and you’re throwing out of a little pocket. You’re not back there unmolested for 10 seconds. You’re throwing out of tight pockets. I think that’s what a lot of my career was in Baltimore. It was a lot of those tight games where we won by close margins.”

Battle tested.

Without saying those two words, that’s precisely what Flacco brings to the table.

“I think when you get used to playing in those conditions, and everybody else get used to playing—maybe not the same conditions—you just prepare yourself for being in the moment in these big situations when you have to be in the moment locked in and treat them just like anything else,” he said, poised and relaxed while surrounded by a dozen reporters.

Call him Joe Cool. An iced cup of Joe. Joe on the rocks.

The perfect example of Flacco’s ice-cold veins is one of the worst memories—or as it should more properly be called a nightmare—in Broncos history.

“I just remember thinking, the best chance here would be able to tie somebody up on the inside and hit somebody going outside and obviously if somebody came open over the middle you can get, but—it just happened to be one of those things that played out perfectly.”

Of course, Flacco was recounting the final 41 seconds of regulation of the bone-chilling 2012 AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Ravens and the Broncos when Flacco connected with Jacoby Jones for a 70-yard game-tying touchdown to send the game into overtime.

In Denver, the play was remembered as a monumental bust in coverage by Rahim Moore.

In Baltimore, and for Denver’s new quarterback, it was remembered as the Mile High Miracle.

“I just remember being in the moment and it happened—shoot you forget what you forget,” he said, recalling one of his most clutch games. “What I forget about that game was it wasn’t until the second overtime when the game finally ended. It was a grind from that point on.”

A grind where Flacco outlasted Peyton Freaking Manning.

The zero degrees was tough. But the most biting part about that game for Broncos fan, still to this day, is that it was a game in January, in the playoffs.

Now, however, that fact can help ease the sting left in Broncos Country from six years ago.

“Joe’s won over 100 games as a starting quarterback in the NFL and that includes the most road playoff wins in NFL history with seven,” Elway said, bringing encouraging facts to the table.

“As we recall, there was one four or five years ago that was pretty painful here in Denver. Hopefully, we’ll have a lot more of those miracles on our side this time rather than against us.”

History, and Flacco himself, would say it might not look pretty, but at the end of the day, Joe Flacco’s done a whole lot of winning.

While Elway and Fangio shied away from putting a number on what the expectations are this year with Flacco, along with the two free agent additions of Ja’Wuan James and Kareem Jackson, Joe had no problem stepping up in the pocket and delivering.

“Listen, I’ve been in the league long enough to know that success is nothing but winning football games. I don’t care if you’re a young team, if you think you’re rebuilding—if you go win six, seven, eight games, that’s not success,” Flacco simply stated as fact.

“I don’t care what the expectations were for people at some point, everybody’s real expectations are to go win games and be in the playoffs. Then from there, see what happens and go win a Super Bowl. That’s what everybody’s trying to do, and that’s what I’m trying to do the rest of my career—win the Super Bowl.”