Ray Rice might be insisting that he is 100 percent healthy after suffering a hip flexor injury earlier in the season, but head coach John Harbaugh is confident the running back is hurting the Baltimore Ravens. Rice acknowledged that his hip injury affected running earlier in the year, but Harbuagh believes the injury is still playing a key role in why the Ravens have yet to put together a complete game in 2013.
Rice is averaging just 2.5 yards per carry. That is extremely uncharacteristic for the running back who is used to lighting up defenses week in and week out. Harbaugh says he has "no doubt" that the hip is playing a role in the lack of production, despite what Rice may say.
"Everybody has these situations," Rice said, via the Ravens' official website. "A down year is not going to make or break me as a person. I've been through a lot worse than averaging what I'm averaging in carries. I got broad shoulders. I'll take it. If you watch the film, you'd understand that we've been playing pretty good fronts," he said. "We've got eight games left, and that's my focus now."
Rice is right about having a down year. He has failed to get into open space. His longest to date is 14 yards. So far this season, he has just 289 yards on 115 carries and three touchdowns. Last week he put up a small 30 yards rushing and just 26 yards receiving.
Despite the low numbers, Harbaugh intends to keep Rice the starting running back no matter what. The three-time Pro Bowler was outplayed by backup Bernard Pierce last week. While both running backs were extremely unimpressive, Harbaugh has no intention of going with the "hot hand" going forward.
"Both of those guys are going to get a large number of carries, and I think whichever guy is playing better should get more carries as we go forward," Harbaugh said. "Both of those guys have to play for us and play well. You can't have one back carrying the ball 35 times these days. We don't need to do that; we think we've got two very good backs."
The real issue for the Ravens is their offensive line which is playing the biggest role in why neither running back can put together a decent and consistent game. Neither back appears explosive and is not functioning well under the new zone-blocking scheme. Until things change, Harbaugh better hope Joe Flacco gets the passing game intact.