Ray Rice's use

[KMA]

If this is how they plan to use Rice, it's going to be a long season for Rice owners. The Ravens offense looked desperate, yet, they continued to "rest" Rice. It was like he was not even there in the second half. Going against Manning you would have thought they would have tried to get something going on the ground. 60+ pass attempts by Flacco? Anyone counting on this offense to be effective is in for a rude awakening. Why do the Ravens continue to try to turn Flacco into Stafford? He has NO Megatron...Pierce couldn't catch a cold out there. Sad really. The carry distibution had the look of a RBBC. 12 - Rice, 9 - Pierce, though Rice had quite a few targets.

[Pine Tree]

It will get better than this for sure, i think he'll be a much bigger part of the offense going forward, and that's coming from someone whose been down on Rice for a while

[holy_stromboli]

Rice is the only startable Raven right now in standard leagues, IMO. And even he is going to be in trouble moving forward. Aside from usage, the talent on their O is horrible. If you noticed, Rice was only barely getting his hands on those dump offs because the Broncos kept a spy on him out of the backfield practically all night. If it wasn't for a stupid Welker fumble, Rice would have disappointed many tonight.

And if Oher is out a while, it's gonna be a baaaaad year. Dare I say the Ravens have a chance to finish last in the AFC North (the Browns could surprise...)?

[Water Buffalo]

If anything, this game gave me even more faith in Rice this year. He scored 21 fantasy points in PPR leagues in a game where the Ravens couldn't get anything going offensively and Pierce got a fair amount of touches. Even if he hadn't scored Welker's gift TD, he'd be at a respectable 15 points.

As long as Rice continues to get ridiculous quantities of catches he's going to be incredibly viable in PPR leagues.

[henry1jg]

Buy-low opportunity!

[bigcsr67]

Yup, the ravens have some work to do... 15 games left, Im sure things will change. No Pitta and Boldin is going to be rough for the ravens O. They are gonna have to figure something out, or they will be in trouble. On a side note, what an explosive start to the season! Cant wait til sunday!!!

[DJB]

Rice is going to be fed the ball for sure. Not worried about him.

[Jfever]

If anything, this game gave me even more faith in Rice this year. He scored 21 fantasy points in PPR leagues in a game where the Ravens couldn't get anything going offensively and Pierce got a fair amount of touches. Even if he hadn't scored Welker's gift TD, he'd be at a respectable 15 points.

As long as Rice continues to get ridiculous quantities of catches he's going to be incredibly viable in PPR leagues.

This ^


I was not impressed with how Rice was used. He was spelled too often and frankly the Bronco's defense looked very good. However - at the end of the night Rice earned just over 20 points. If he and the Ravens can look bad but still get me 20 plus points a game.... I sure in the heck am not going to complain.

Man.... people get so damb jumpy! Rice is easily a top 10 rb in ppr leagues. EASILY. Be down on him if you want. I'm not at all. If he can look crappy and still put up 20 points - he'll still end up scoring 320 points in a 16 game season.... Nothing to gripe about.

[ekassor]

The game reinforced to me that there is no worry of a real Rice/Pierce timeshare. Rice looked much better on the field than Pierce and the Ravens know they underutilized him. Joe Flacco threw 30 times in the 1st half when the game was still highly competitive, who do the Ravens think he is - Joey Football? Flacco looked awful he missed by 5 yards on about 40 of his 64 attempts (well OK I'm exaggerating a lil, but you get my point)

Rice will be more than fine is my take away from game 1.

[flexcapacitor]

I don't think anyone should get jumpy about Rice in PPR leagues. He is going to be a dump off machine because Flacco doesn't have anyone to throw to and Pierce can't catch. Even with Pierce he is still going to see 250+ carries plus 70-80 catches.

[SteelLake]

I traded d. Thomas / gore for him this offseason. After 1 game I'm thinking it was the right move.

I also felt encouraged about the game. Flacco throws 60+ time and rice still gets 20 touches? I also think it'll be obvious to coaching staff that rice needs to be a bigger part of game after last night

[WZA]

Holy sh*t Georg013....PANIC....RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!,

This game is not an indicator of how close the carries will be throughout the year. If you take into consideration all the targets Rice had (11), he was way ahead of Pierce. Plus, Pierce can't catch the ball.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...this situation is just like the Foster-Tate situation a couple years ago. Everyone thought Tate would significantly eat into Foster's carries and it never happened.

Nothing to see here folks...move along.

These are not the droids you're looking for...

[bobbytheo3]

Keep telling yourself everything is fine, Rice owners. Ignore the fact that both rbs played almost equal time and the only reason Rice had a good ppr fantasy game (ppr leagues are terrible by the way) is BECAUSE they threw 60 times and Denver ran a thousand plays, and he got the Welker gift td. In a game with a normal amount of possessions and pass attempts, he is going to lose a ton of value if Pierce gets as high a percentage of the snaps as last night.

[Chris_R]

If anything, this game gave me even more faith in Rice this year. He scored 21 fantasy points in PPR leagues in a game where the Ravens couldn't get anything going offensively and Pierce got a fair amount of touches. Even if he hadn't scored Welker's gift TD, he'd be at a respectable 15 points.

As long as Rice continues to get ridiculous quantities of catches he's going to be incredibly viable in PPR leagues.

100% agree. But also, it should have people calm down whenever they hear about a RBBC. It's always used negatively and frowned upon, but I think it's obvious Pierce will be used quite a bit and Rice will still be a high end RB1. Yet whenever we heard Andre Brown would be used with David Wilson it was a negative. The Ravens are going to use Pierce early in games, and every week, he's good enough that he's earned that and they don't even have the type of passing game to be throwing it around for 4 quarters so they have to run. But I still have faith in Rice and his production, and as you said 20+ points in ppr leagues in a complete blowup with very little carries.

[KMA]

Holy sh*t Georg013....PANIC....RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!,

This game is not an indicator of how close the carries will be throughout the year. If you take into consideration all the targets Rice had (11), he was way ahead of Pierce. Plus, Pierce can't catch the ball.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...this situation is just like the Foster-Tate situation a couple years ago. Everyone thought Tate would significantly eat into Foster's carries and it never happened.

Nothing to see here folks...move along.

These are not the droids you're looking for...

Did my post really scream run for the hills? Maybe I need to tone down the voice. I was more concerned with them trying to force Flacco into a Stafford role when he is clearly short on the weapons department. I am in no way implying that we sell Rice. Did I mention that somewhere? How am I being jumpy on this one? Just noted some observations. Nothing more nothing less. They underutilized Rice. Fact. If they continue to do that they will suck. Fact. Flacco does not have elite options at WR and is therefore not a 60 attempt passer. Fact. Rice got 12 carries and Pierce got 9. Fact. Where did I jump the gun? Couple guys seem to think I'm abandoning ship. Let me set the record straight. I'm not. Just think they need to do a better job of featuring #27. Been there done that. See 2012....