Ravens rookie running back Keaton Mitchell made a big splash with a 60-yard touchdown run against the Seahawks in Week Nine and he continued to be a big-play threat in the first half of Week 10.
Mitchell had a 39-yard touchdown run and a 32-yard catch-and-run during the first 30 minutes of Baltimore’s game against the Browns. Mitchell only played four offensive snaps and got the ball once in the second half of what ended as a 33-31 Ravens loss, however, and his usage was a topic of conversation at head coach John Harbaugh’s press conference on Monday.
Harbaugh explained why things played out that way while also suggesting that the team is going to work to make sure that it doesn’t happen again on Thursday night against the Bengals.
“As you look back on it, [it’s] part of the process of getting a young guy in there and working him into the gameplan as part of the process as we go,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “I don’t think we felt probably as an offensive coaching staff we were going to throw the whole gameplan on him. Those are the plays that get called from the groupings that were called in the second half. Looking back on it, would we have wanted him out there more? Yes. I think that’ll factor into this gameplan.”
Mitchell said he is “just going to make the best of” whatever opportunities he gets and his work in the last two weeks is a good argument for the Ravens finding more ways to put that to the test.
..
