Ravens running back Ray Rice fumbled twice on Sunday. He would prefer that reporters not bring that up when interviewing him.
When he was asked about those fumbles, Rice said he didn’t understand why one game was being held against him after he played 16 games in the regular season without fumbling a single time.
“I didn’t fumble all year. So I don’t really get that question,” Rice said, via ESPN.com.
It’s actually not correct for Rice to say he didn’t fumble all year: He did fumble in Week 11 against the Steelers, although the fumble went out of bounds so there was no harm done. And although Rice has a great track record of holding onto the ball in the regular season, playoff fumbles have been a problem for him: He now has seven career fumbles on a total of 1,527 touches in his regular-season career (one for every 218 touches) but five fumbles on 152 touches in his postseason carer (one for every 30 touches). So what’s going on in the playoffs?
“It’s just me being smart in the situation. You look at how many touches I had already. My fumble ratio is way down. Once again, I’m going to address it -- I’m not a fumbler. You guys know that, and that’ll be the last time I address me fumbling. It won’t happen again,” Rice said.
The fact that Rice’s fumbles are way up in the playoffs may be nothing more than a statistical fluke from a relatively low sample size. Ravens fans can only hope that’s the case, and that Rice is right when he says it won’t happen again.