Mosher: McGahee gives Ravens a running game

Sep/15/08 08:02 AM Filed in: Willis McGahee
WillisMcGahee
Here's something Ravens fans can take to the bank for the rest of the season: their leading rusher won't be the fullback, their longest touchdown run won't come from a wide receiver, and their signature rushing highlight won't come from Joe Flacco.

The Ravens, without injured Pro Bowl running back Willis McGahee, moved the chains in odd varieties during their 17-10 win last Sunday over the Bengals.

They churned out 229 rushing yards. Eighty-six of them came from second-year pro Le'Ron McClain, the team's 260-pound fullback who amassed 19 carries -- or nearly three times the number of carries McClain had accrued for his career.

Before Sunday, McClain had never carried the ball more than twice in one game and had just 18 career rushing yards.

Second-round pick Ray Rice added 64 yards on 22 carries in his NFL debut, but neither McClain nor Rice contributed the game's highlight runs.
Those came from wideout Michael Clayton and from Flacco, the rookie quarterback also making his NFL debut.

Clayton's 42-yard touchdown run off a double reverse staked Baltimore to a 7-0 lead, and Flacco's awkward, less-than-graceful 38-yard touchdown scamper broke open the game at 17-3.

With McGahee now getting an extra week to heal after Monday night's game with Houston was postponed to Nov. 9, the Ravens' run game can return to normalcy.

"It's going to be good to have Willis in the backfield," receiver Derrick Mason said. "We have all of our weapons healthy and ready to go, and the only person we were missing was Willis. To have Willis back, our main back, is good for our offense."

McGahee underwent arthroscopic knee surgery last month. After missing the entire preseason and nearly all of the minicamps, McGahee's conditioning is gradually returning. He should factor significantly into the ground game next Sunday against Cleveland.

"I want a full workload, but that's something the coaches will have to go through upstairs to figure out what they want to do," he said. "I'm feeling pretty good. It gets better every day, so I can't complain."

(delawareonline.com)