Mark J. Rebilas- USA TODAY Sports
It seems like every time the Baltimore Ravens lose, people always point to the fact that Ray Rice didn’t touch the ball enough. Rice had 12 carries for 36 yards, and as a whole, the Ravens ran the ball 21 times for 58 yards averaging 2.8 yards per carry in their loss in week one against the Denver Broncos.
I don’t know what people want the Ravens to do in that situation. If you run the ball on first-and-10 and the running game gets stuffed for a two-yard loss as it becomes second-and-12, do you want the Ravens to continue to run the ball to make it third-and-nine?
You have to throw on second-and-12 to make the third-down play more manageable for the passing game, especially when you consider the questions the Ravens are trying to solve at wide receiver and tight end. Ravens’ right guard Marshal Yanda has had enough about the questions with the running game, and to tell you the truth, I’m tired of it too.
“Trust me, you don’t think Jim Caldwell wants to give Ray Rice the ball?” Yanda noted earlier this week via Baltimoreravens.com. “I mean, c’mon, he definitely wants to give him the ball. We’re going to give him the ball when we can, and we’ll be fine.”
NFL defenses are not clueless. As good as Rice is, good defenses can take him out of the game from time to time. At the end of the day, this situation wouldn’t be an issue if the Ravens didn’t have tight ends like Ed Dickson and Dallas Clark, who had boxing gloves for hands in week one.
Wola Odeniran is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter at WolaOdeniran52, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
