Fantasy Football Reality Check: Ravens a Passing Team, Which Suits Rice

Each Monday of the fantasy football season, we'll cut through the fantasy numbers put up by individuals and tell you what they really mean.

The Baltimore Ravens are known as a black-and-blue, smash-mouth, old-school, ball control football team. After all, they won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer at the helm. They had Jamal Lewis as the punishing bruiser for years. Things are a bit different now, to say the least. The Ravens have now attempted 227 passes and 154 runs this season. They have gained more than twice as many yards and first downs through the air. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron loves to throw the ball in a variety of different ways. Joe Flacco is becoming a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback. Do the math: the Ravens are a passing team.

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The best part about this fact is that it actually helps the fantasy football value of Ray Rice, who is clearly the best running back the Ravens have. The diminutive Rice averages six yards per carry due to how perfectly Cameron picks his spots to run the football. Sunday was a perfect example: Rice carried the ball just 10 times, but gained 77 yards and scored twice. The best part about Rice, however, is his value through the air.

Rice caught 10 passes for 117 yards Sunday. Those are the numbers of a WR1 against the Vikings' tough defense, not a shifty running back. On the season, Rice now has 33 catches for 325 yards -- meaning he's gained 766 yards from scrimmage in six games. That's a lot of points, especially for a guy who lost a load of touchdowns earlier this season to Willis McGahee.

McGahee's out of the picture now. It's the Ray Rice show.

Even on a passing team, they have an RB1. Funny how that works, eh?

Other Reality Checks

• Hopefully you didn't sell the farm for Braylon Edwards after his electric debut in a Jets uniform. In his second game -- and home debut -- he hauled in just three balls for 40 yards. These past two games do a great job of illustrating what we can expect from Edwards the rest of this season. He's playing for a new team and with a rookie quarterback. In addition to there being an adjustment period, he'll have to deal with fickle quarterbacking as Mark Sanchez encounters growing pains. Don't be surprised to ride a veritable roller coaster with Edwards in fantasy point totals. I expect, at the end of the season, a line graph of his weekly point totals to look like a mountain range.

• In case Rashard Mendenhall owners were worried Willie Parker was going to get the job back in the Steelers' backfield, we have news for you: it's still Mendy Mania. Mendenhall received 17 carries to Parker's seven. He got the short-yardage carries, including the Steelers' lone rushing touchdown. Another layer to mention here, though, is that the Steelers are clearly a passing team -- like the Ravens, though not to the same extent. They attempted 35 passes in a game which was never really in doubt, compared to 29 carries by running backs. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 417 yards, so the pass was working quite well for them anyway. On the season, the Steelers have thrown 208 passes and their three running backs have carried the ball a combined 144 times. Thus, Mendenhall is a RB2 in larger leagues and Parker is a flex option as a bye-week filler, at best.

• Speaking of teams known as running teams who are actually passing teams, the Bears can't run the football with Matt Forte. They just can't. The run blocking is awful. The holes are so small and cave so quickly, that the smaller and quicker Garrett Wolfe has had better success with the ball in his hands than Forte has. The longest run of the night was by Jay Cutler. The Bears are finding more success passing for touchdowns in short yardage than getting Forte in the end zone from the one-yard line. There's just no good news for Forte owners and it doesn't appear things will be changing anytime soon, either, because the personnel on the line is the problem. It's definitely time to worry about Forte, and I wouldn't have a problem trading him if you could get back first-round value.

• I wouldn't get caught up in this "don't trust Bill Belichick with running backs" game. Sure, that has been the case in the past, but this season, he's mostly leaned on one guy. First, it was Fred Taylor. He got hurt. Then, it was Sammy Morris and he fell injured early Sunday (which, by the way, really sucked -- one play and he's out? Fantasy killer). After the Morris injury Sunday, Laurence Maroney carried the ball 16 times. BenJarvus Green-Ellis had seven carries, but let's look deeper. The Patriots undressed the Titans, 59-0, so much of the second half was trash time. Green-Ellis carried the ball four times in the fourth quarter with Maroney out resting. That means the carry ratio when the starters were still in the game was 16-3 in favor of Maroney. If Morris is out versus Tampa Bay next week in London, Maroney will be a fine play. Dare I say an RB2 in large leagues? The Bucs can't stop the run. I would grab Maroney off the waiver wire immediately for the short-term.

• Steven Jackson is an absolute monster, it's just too bad he's playing for such a bad offense. The good news is that the Rams did start to move the ball a little better Sunday. Jackson didn't have many running lanes, but he still managed 50 yards on 16 carries. He found a way to be productive through the passing attack, though, as he garnered 78 yards on six catches. The 128 total yards would look much nicer if he could find a way to get into the end zone, but I guess we'll have to keep waiting. It will be interesting to see what he does against the Colts next week. You can run on Indy, but the Rams will likely be so far down they'll have to pass. The following week against Detroit, though, and SJax will definitely be worth 20 points. I'd bet on it.

• The Giants' running back situation did little to sort itself out Sunday. In the running back rankings, I explained that I believed Brandon Jacobs would resume his role as the more valuable fantasy back against good competition, as Ahmad Bradshaw had simply gotten fat against chump teams. Sunday, we still didn't get a very good read as the Giants got blown out of the building and were only able to use the two backs a combined 17 times on the ground. They had similar average-per-carry numbers, which is a good sign for Jacobs owners, but Bradshaw scored the one rushing TD, which is a bad sign. I'm still sticking with Jacobs the rest of the way, but it's only by a slight margin.