Bernard Pierce

**goldenelite28** · 01-21-2013, 06:08 PM

Pierce could easily be a 1500 yard rusher IMO.

Rice is a 2000 yard player. It's splitting hairs at this point.

**lovefootball** · 01-21-2013, 06:14 PM

Rice is known around the NFL teams he has played in the last years. Pierce is doing it on his own and other teams do not know what to expect from pierce. If Pierce had played last year, Ravens would have won more and beat the pats to go to the SB.

**bacchys** · 01-21-2013, 06:28 PM

Pierce is a bigger guy, for one thing, and his speed is deceptive. He's tougher than Rice to bring down when he's going through a lane, I think. Rice in space is very difficult to tackle, however, as the Pats (re)learned on his touchdown run to start the Ravens' scoring.

I wouldn't mind seeing more Pierce. Rice is a special player, however. He's a gamebreaker. He's a threat to score from anywhere on the field, and he can do it slashing between the tackles, catching a dump-off pass, or running a draw. But Pierce might be better at pounding a defense than Rice.

**cealex1223** · 01-21-2013, 06:38 PM

Pierce is a north and south, downhill running kinda guy. Rice makes people miss. Its apples and oranges and I'm happy to have both running for us, and not AT us.

**Lee Van Cleef** · 01-21-2013, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by cealex1223

Pierce is a north and south, downhill running kinda guy. Rice makes people miss. Its apples and oranges and I'm happy to have both running for us, and not AT us.

Not entirely, like I said, Pierce is surprisingly elusive. He breaks tackles and makes guys miss. I've been really impressed with him when the ball is in his hands. His pass blocking needs work though.

**AirFlacco** · 01-21-2013, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by Purpleguy

I think Pierce is a much better pure running back then Ray Rice at the moment. He hits the whole quicker and is much harder to bring down. Rice, however, blows him away in open space. He is an amazing check down option. It's great having both of them on the team, but I think Rice is quite a bit overpaid.

Rice is a slash runner like Priest Holmes used to be but we couldn't move the chains in the red zone with him. We missed a lot of
TDs. Billick wanted a power runner to move the pile and got Jamal Lewis. Priest moved to KC and Dick Vermeil changed the
blocking schemes to fit his slashing styles and he became the best runner in the NFL but Jamal had his 2,000 plus year too.

Pierce is like Jamal and Rice is like Priest although unlike him he scores from the red zone like yesterday. He faked up
the middle and cut to the outside with a shifty move and scored standing up with a neat mocking salute to their
fans. Rice makes people miss him in the open field. And Rice is even deadlier catching the ball. TEams plan to stop
Rice, not Flacco but now they have to stop both but haven't been able to in the playoffs.

We need both.

**FlawlessVictory** · 01-21-2013, 09:50 PM

Who cares? We have both :happyanim

Perfect compliment IMO... I remember at the beginning of the year, I thought it was a mistake, I wanted to see Rainey as the other RB... I am quite glad to have been dead wrong.

**4G63** · 01-21-2013, 09:59 PM

Can the Ravens get them both in the backfield at the same time? Talk about matchup problems!?!

**PerpetuallyBored74** · 01-21-2013, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by 4G63

Can the Ravens get them both in the backfield at the same time? Talk about matchup problems!?!

+1

Add Leach to the mix, even line him up at TE and watch how fast SF calls time out because they know they aren't prepared for that.

**Beau Petard** · 01-21-2013, 10:43 PM

E_R--
FWIW, and IMO, it almost sounds like you're trying to fix something that ain't broke! Not sure what you mean by 27 carries, as NFL.com says Rice had 19 (Pierce with 9). If you meant Denver, Rice had 30, but had a 4.4 average.

In any event, just consider the 4th and 29 play before, and the little fire drill Rice ran yesterday on a disrupted screen pass. I think part of Rice's effectiveness on offense is that defenses have to plan for him as an extremely effective receiving option for Flacco as well as his impressive ability to run the ball in all kinds of "weather" -into the line, wide, slants, etc. Adding Pierce selectively throws another ? for the defenses, as opposed to just "running him more often". Also, consider that Leach is probably the best fullback the Ravens have had at surehandedness as a receiver, which then contributes to, "Do we cover Rice, or Leach, or are they blocking on this play, or is that play action or a real hand-off, etc.?"

I really think the Ravens coaches are doing an impressively effective job of utilizing Rice and his number of carries this season.

**Everything_Ravens** · 01-22-2013, 04:15 AM

Originally Posted by Beau Petard

E_R--
FWIW, and IMO, it almost sounds like you're trying to fix something that ain't broke! Not sure what you mean by 27 carries, as NFL.com says Rice had 19 (Pierce with 9). If you meant Denver, Rice had 30, but had a 4.4 average.

In any event, just consider the 4th and 29 play before, and the little fire drill Rice ran yesterday on a disrupted screen pass. I think part of Rice's effectiveness on offense is that defenses have to plan for him as an extremely effective receiving option for Flacco as well as his impressive ability to run the ball in all kinds of "weather" -into the line, wide, slants, etc. Adding Pierce selectively throws another ? for the defenses, as opposed to just "running him more often". Also, consider that Leach is probably the best fullback the Ravens have had at surehandedness as a receiver, which then contributes to, "Do we cover Rice, or Leach, or are they blocking on this play, or is that play action or a real hand-off, etc.?"

I really think the Ravens coaches are doing an impressively effective job of utilizing Rice and his number of carries this season.

27 as in the number on ray rice's jersey.

You were thinking way to deep into that one man. I guess I could have made that more clear. I dont think anything is broke but just take that game for example and consider the first half strategy Caldwell was trying to execute. If it was throwing to the half back I have no problem with rice in there (to be honest I don't have a problem with him in the game in any regard, just speculating here) but if the game plan is pounding the ball, then you have to give some serious consideration to a guy that has proven to be very explosive LATE in to this season. Wrong or right

**Brtnder81** · 01-22-2013, 05:08 AM

I think our offensive line suits Pierces style better than Rices. we have a big physical line which is better for a straight ahead runner like pierce. we have 2 very good backs that I have confidence in with the ball in their hands in big situations. this is very good to keep Rice fresh throughout his contract