Ravens' Ray Rice leads running back evolution

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http://news.cincinnati.com/usatoday/article/57400806&usatref=sportsmod?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CSports%7Cp

 

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (USA TODAY) — Ray Rice's dream this season is to duplicate what Roger Craig accomplished for the San Francisco 49ers in 1985 and Marshall Faulk did for the St. Louis Rams in 1999: rush for 1,000 yards and rack up 1,000 yards receiving.

"My thing ain't just rushing yards," Rice says. "I'm all-purpose, whether it's catching or running. My ultimate goal is to get 1,000 and 1,000."

On a recent off day during training camp, Rice took on a news reporter in Madden 13— and his video-game strategy was clear: Get the ball to Ray Rice and let him pile up yardage.

He starts with a screen pass to tiny, digital No. 27, who weaves his way upfield, dodging tacklers. Then there's another pass to Rice, this time lined up as a slot receiver to create a mismatch. Only occasionally does real Ray Rice run digital Ray Rice up the middle.

His game plan reflects what's happening in the NFL today.

Since Craig's heyday in the 1980s, rule changes and offensive trends have devalued the running attack, and last season two backs carried the ball 300 times, the fewest since 1993. Despite what the New York Jets say, ground and pound is mostly out of fashion.

A shortage of star talent at the position combined with pass-friendly rule changes have led to a new philosophy, with most teams buying low at running back and using a platoon, choosing to spend the money elsewhere.

And even those with high-priced feature backs, such as Rice, are splitting their touches between runs and receptions. The days of constantly pounding the ball between the tackles appear over.

"The running back in today's game is a little bit unique in the sense that he not only has to play well in the backfield," says former NFL coach Herm Edwards, an ESPN analyst. "You've got to take him out of the backfield and see what he can do."

Among those best equipped for the duties of today's complete running back: Rice, the Jacksonville Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew (currently holding out), the Philadelphia Eagles' LeSean McCoy, the Houston Texans' Arian Foster, the Tennessee Titans' Chris Johnson, the St. Louis Rams' Steven Jackson and the San Diego Chargers' Ryan Mathews, all of whom rushed for at least 1,000 yards and caught more than 40 passes last season.

And if you're a team without such a heavy hitter, it can be a job for two men or more, some specializing between the tackles, others taking the ball outside and maybe others — pass catchers — who are considered third-down backs.

Rice is a rarity

Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt has installed a group of running backs with varied skill sets. Second-year pro Ryan Williams returns from a knee injury to split carries with Chris "Beanie" Wells, who rushed for 1,047 yards in the rookie's absence. A year earlier, Wells had split the load with Tim Hightower, now with the Washington Redskins.

"It's the style of offense that's changed. There are offenses that spread the field out more now and they use multiple backs. They're different styles of backs now," Whisenhunt says.

It's a direction that can be as frustrating to fantasy football owners as it is to the running backs themselves. Rare is the kind of payday Rice earned in July — a five-year contract worth about $40 million, signed at the offseason deadline.

"My contract was from work that I've previously done," he says. "I've just been rewarded. So you scratch that, and you want to reinvent the wheel."

The Ravens' plan for Rice — who had 1,364 rushing yards and 704 receiving yards in 2011 — stands in contrast with popular thinking around the league. So valued is Rice that the team made Vonta Leach the league's highest-paid fullback last summer with a three-year, $11 million contract that lured him away from the Texans. Rice's lead blocker says, "The offense is going to go as Ray goes."

"Our offense leans on Ray Rice," Leach adds. "Not only does he have to pass block on third down, but somebody has to cover him, and that creates a mismatch. That's one of the things that makes him dangerous, makes him one of the top backs in the league. He can play all three downs."

A steady diet of running the football and short passes out of the backfield works for the Ravens — who have made playoff appearances in coach John Harbaugh's first four seasons — though some teams are trying to get away from it.

The Atlanta Falcons have dedicated more time to the downfield passing attack with quarterback Matt Ryan and plan to limit the touches of Michael Turner, who had one of the most one-dimensional seasons of any running back in 2011 — 301 carries, 17 receptions.

The team used the sixth overall pick in the 2011 draft to grab wide receiver Julio Jones, who joins Roddy White to form one of the best pass-catching tandems in the league. Then came another blow to Turner's potential production: The Falcons released former Pro Bowl fullback Ovie Mughelli in May.

"There has been an emphasis on some passing stuff," says Turner, 30. "But we have a lot of weapons, and guys need to touch the football."

The Minnesota Vikings learned the trouble with building an offense around a running back when two-time all-pro Adrian Peterson went down with torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral knee ligaments in December. A few months later, they drafted tackle Matt Kalil to protect the blind side of quarterback Christian Ponder, their 2011 first-round pick.

Edwards says the new NFL model is to lean on a capable rusher until you identify a franchise passer.

"You would prefer to invest your money in a left tackle and a quarterback," he says. "If not, you get the runner."

The need for balance

But Edwards says the best offense is a balanced one. As successful as the Ravens have been in recent seasons, Harbaugh's team has yet to advance beyond the AFC title game.

In their previous two playoff exits, the Ravens were a successful two-minute drill from tying or winning the game. Against the New England Patriots last season, Lee Evans' drop in the end zone and Billy Cundiff's missed 32-yard field goal attempt sent the Patriots to Super Bowl XLVI. A year prior, Flacco and the Ravens had the ball, down seven points to the Pittsburgh Steelers with 1:33 remaining in their divisional game, and couldn't get a first down.

"Their games are too close," Edwards says of the Ravens. "You control possession, but all of a sudden you play a pretty good quarterback who can move it on your defense, and now it's a one-possession game all the time. You put the burden on your quarterback."

During the 2011 playoffs, the eventual league champion New York Giants led the NFL with 466 rushing yards, and quarterback Eli Manning rescued the club with late heroics and a combined 612 passing yards in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl.

"If you watched the New York Giants in the playoffs, they ran the ball. They were in run sets," Chargers coach Norv Turner says. "They threw the ball extremely well. But they had great balance. That doesn't mean you have to do that every week, but some weeks it's going to help your team to be able to do that.

"We want to be a complete team, that if the best thing to do that week is to run the ball and go play-action, we'll do it. … And if the best thing to do is to spread 'em out, then we'll spread 'em out. If you look at all the teams that do the best, it's the teams with good balance."

Like many teams, the Giants got the job done on the ground with interchangeable parts. Brandon Jacobs ran for 164 postseason yards in his seventh season with the team, but he was released in the offseason after declining to take a pay cut. Ahmad Bradshaw averaged 4.3 yards a carry and scored the Super Bowl-winning touchdown, but he is expected to split time this season with rookie David Wilson.

Theirs is a platoon trend that is picking up steam around the league, making highly paid runners such as Rice an extravagance for the typical NFL team.

"We always believe you've got to have a couple of backs; you can't have just one," Whisenhunt says. "You have to have versatility with them. That's the way the league is going."