View Poll Results: Bigger Impact?
- Voters
- 28. You may not vote on this poll
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Ray Rice
14 50.00% -
T Sizzle
8 28.57% -
Both
3 10.71% -
Neitheir absence will have impact
3 10.71%
Results 13 to 24 of 46
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05-04-2012, 02:50 PM #13iggyman555 Guest
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05-04-2012, 03:05 PM #15Regular 1st Stringer
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
It should not be confusing because its a hypothetical question. This is a "what if" question/poll.
Ray Rice steped up not only to be our best player on offense but also a vocal leader and a team leader. He develop into a leauge wide star. So him sitting out until mandatory training camp starting in late July/ early August and skipping OTA's and other group workouts, voluntary or not, still is not a good thing IMO. Ray Rice is a vocal leader on this offense and with Pierce, Allen, Berry all having no to little experience in the NFL, Ray Rice presence would be greatly beneficiary to the younger players before training camp starts. I know people are already sold on Pierce but i watch more tape on him and he has trouble in pass blocking and blitz pick up. Which is probably the hardest thing a rookie RB can learn in the NFL. IMO if Ray Rice wanted to hold out this season would be the year to do it. Rice is the single most (maybe next to Flacco) important player on our team. He outplayed his contract by far and he wants a long term deal with good numbers. I cant blame him if he did hold out. I wouldnt be mad.
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
I have to go with Rice. Cam would be completely lost without Ray Rice. He'd turn Flacco into Mark Sanchez. This offense completely revolves around Ray Rice.
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05-04-2012, 03:10 PM #17
Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
In such a hypothetical situation, that'd be a tough call, but I'll say losing Rice would have the biggest impact. I have more faith in the Ravens defense adjusting to a key injury than in Cam's offense being able to do so. And while some may argue -- correctly -- that Rice hasn't always come up big in the most meaningful games, the fact is that Rice's contributions have been vital to the Ravens reaching meaningful games in the first place.
I'm sure Rice won't hold out and will give it his best this year, contract issues notwithstanding. But the loss of Suggs is huge. Looking at that, plus what will apparently be a heavy reliance on relatively unproven rookies/2nd year guys, plus an absolutely brutal schedule, plus the fact that Cam still runs the offense ...I'll be trying to manage my expectations for 2012
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05-04-2012, 03:13 PM #18Hall Of Fame Poster
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
It could be the other way around though. Ray Rice's absence could force Cam to "unleash" Joe and tap into his potential. You know and I know in some way, shape or form Cam's schemes and lack of creatively is holding Joe back somewhat. The silver lining in all this is to see if Joe is really capable of taking his game to the next level and only RR's absence would force Cam's hand and acclerate that opportunity.
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05-04-2012, 03:17 PM #19
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
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05-04-2012, 03:18 PM #20
Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
Anything is possible ...but ... I suspect it's more likely that opposing defenses would be able to concentrate on stopping the Ravens' passing game since they'd have no fear of Rice. And Rice himself is important in the passing game as one of the more dangerous checkdown options in the league. And as far as "unleashing" Joe, I'm not sure how much it'd help given the type of routes Cam usually calls.
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05-04-2012, 03:19 PM #21Hall Of Fame Poster
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
I'm seeing this theme repeated a lot, but how do you explain the long stretches of games, or WHOLE GAMES, where Rice was either utterly ineffective or didn't even get the ball, yet the offense still moved down the field?
I cited several examples earlier and I haven't seen any of them answered. Final drive vs. Pittsburgh: Rice did not catch a ball or rush the ball one time, yet we moved 92 yards and scored a TD. vs. Arizona, for much of the game we were running the short passing game, Ray Rice had a few catches and punched in 3 short yardage TDs but was he really the straw that stirred the drink in that game? I submit Boldin, Pitta, and Flacco carried us in that game. Moreover vs. Houston and vs. New England in the playoffs Rice did absolutely nothing, yet we beat Houston (off 2 passing TDs and a great defensive performance) and were 1 dropped pass away from beating New England (again, 2 passing TDs.)
So if you don't think Flacco and the passing game can take over a game, you weren't watching. I'm not saying they can CONSISTENTLY do it, certainly not, but it has happened. We have won games without Ray Rice and I suspect we can continue to do so.
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05-04-2012, 03:34 PM #22Hall Of Fame Poster
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
There's a big difference between Rice being out and Rice being either ineffective or underutilize. While my vote still goes to Suggs don't underestimate the impact Rice would have on the offensive side of the ball if he were to holdout or miss the entire season due to an injury. It would not be pretty.
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
How many of Flacco's passes come off of play action? What defense isn't forced to alter their coverage schemes because they are worried leaving a linebacker covering Rice? That's just the effect Rice has in the passing game. It's not even about him running the ball where he is a threat to break one almost every time.
Rice doesn't have to touch the ball to be effective. He just has to be on the field because he is the one that every defense is out to stop. That makes it a lot easier for Flacco to put the ball in other places. Without Rice out there defense would be pounding Flacco every play because no one is worried about any of the receivers or tight ends on this team and they clearly aren't worried about being beaten by the playcalling.
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Re: Bigger Impact: No Rice or No Suggs?
So backs have to be awesome in every single game they play through the season? It must be hard with all the knocks that you take, there isn't a more physically draining position than playing running back, especially when you are 5'8 and often used like a power back. Oh and don't you expect the offense to be able to sustain a drive down the field without relying on Ray Rice? You kind of expect that to happen for a SB contending team, teams like the Packers and the Patriots managed to go through games and win them without running the ball at all. What makes it special that we managed to do it on a couple of drives every other game?
Well to start with, in the 92 yard drive we where against the clock, I don't think any teams would want to run the ball in that situation, even the Texans. The Steelers also basically know EXACTLY how to stuff our run game, if you put any back out there, I'm pretty sure most of the time the Steelers would be able to stop the run. They game plan around stopping Rice all week, like we game plan all week around stopping Roethlisberger.
In the Arizona game we where down pretty badly at the beginning of the second half, so we couldn't really afford to run the ball with the score being the way it was.
Well if the offense could actually sustain offensive drives without completely relying on Ray Rice, and effectively pass the ball more consistently, maybe teams would respect our passing game more, and not revolve their whole game plan around stopping Ray Rice. I doubt any back in the league would have any more success in those games against the Texans and the Patriots behind our offensive line the way those teams where stacking the box up.
I'm not sold on that at all. We haven't proven that we can do it and win games against good defensive teams. The only exception to that is the week 9 game against the Steelers. That's THE ONLY time I've seen them do it. We passed the ball well vs the Patriots, but their secondary was awful all year. Just have a look at the Jags and Seahawks game, look at how we failed miserably when we got away from running the ball. You either roll with Rice, develop Pierce into a good RB, or sign a good RB, either way this offense needs to have an effective rushing game. The Ravens will never EVER have an offense like the Packers or the Patriots with the coordinator we have, the weapons we have, and the offensive line we have.
Terrell Suggs is a better player, but losing Rice would have a bigger overall negative effect on our team.
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