RiceWatch: Game 7, Bengals

Here's the breakdown of Rice's action from the Bengals game. Note: the yardage is where Rice catches the ball in relation to the line of scrimmage:
  1. Intercepted 10 yard in. Man coverage by Ashley Ambrose. Just a horrible pattern by Rice and good coverage. Rice slows down while Ambrose continues full speed to make the pick. The reason why Rice slowed down was clear-- Bengals' safety Bracey Walker was coming across from the other direction and would have taken Rice's head off. Perhaps it was a "business decision" for Rice to avoid the hit and give up the interception.
  2. 9 yard in then out. The in is covered, Young scrambles, and Rice breaks out. Zone. Dives to ground to avoid tackle. Announcers do pretty good job noting that the Young had an obnoxious amount of time to throw (just about 5 seconds). It doesn't take the greatest receiver ever to get open with that much time, especially against a zone.
  3. 2 yard drag. Zone blitz. Tackled.
  4. 1 yard hitch. Zone. The typical Rice catch, standing all by himself as the linebackers backpedal away into their zone. Dives forward.
  5. Intercepted 14 yard seam. Zone. Tovar actually does what a LB should-- although playing a zone, know where the receiver is and react to the ball. Enberg remarks that they go one too many times to TE, as in disbelief that it couldn't have been attempted to Rice. Simms corrects.
  6. 15 yard comeback. Rice makes a good catch with a man all over him. Tackled.
  7. 4 yard slant. Rice pushes off his man so blatantly that the guy falls down. Tackled. Maguire says that Rice "Makes the extraordinary look ordinary." A better statement is that when it comes to Rice, announcers make the ordinary (a 4 yard slant) sound extraordinary.
  8. -1 yard hitch. Zone. Dives forward.
  9. Intercepted 38 yard post. Zone. Rice pushes the defender away then the ball bounces up into Orlando's arms. Enberg-- Rice makes "a spectacular effort". Maguire, "that would have made the highlight film." But now, it obviously won't make the highlight reel, because who wants to accept that Rice did something bad?
  10. Incomplete 12 yard fade. Man. Rice is bumped within 5 yards, yet he turns and complains to the ref before the ball even hits the ground. Phil Simms is actually good, saying, "that is not a penalty."
  11. 6 yard drag. Zone/blitz. Dives to ground to avoid hit.

Rice returned to his usual game: of Rice 7 catches, 4 were less than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. The 3 interceptions out of the 7 attempts over 5 yards were truly an anomaly. After vowing to "step it up" this year, Rice continues to limp through this season.