Okay, I saw this week how the Baltimore Ravens made the fairly dramatic in-season move of replacing their offensive coordinator.

Cam Cameron went down for a number of alleged reasons, including his offense’s inconsistency and, interestingly enough, his apparent unwillingness to get the ball in the hands of star running back Ray Rice.

Here’s my question: Just how many touches is enough for Rice, a running back who is huge in fight and heart but not in stature?

Rounded, Rice is averaging 17 carries per game, down one from last year. He is averaging four catches per season, down one from last year. He has gotten 95 touches in the last four games. He has gotten more than 20 touches in seven of 13 games. In three of the ones he didn’t, the team either won or lost by more than 30 points. Take a look at what happened to Rob Gronkowski late in a blowout win. I wouldn’t keep giving Rice the ball in blowouts either.

In a fourth, he had 17 touches against Dallas that produced two touchdowns. The Cowboys had the ball that day for 40:03 – it’s hard to get Rice more touches than he got when the offense has the ball for less than one-third of the game.

So that leaves two games where Rice received fewer than 20 carries and both are legitimately questionable. Those were a three point win against Kansas City in week five when Rice’s numbers in limited touches indicate to me that he should have gotten the ball more and the game two weeks ago against Pittsburgh, where the Ravens gave up a big lead late.

I’m not saying Cam Cameron deserved a long-term deal. He was prone to the occasional questionable play call. Joe Flacco has been quoted saying he is frustrated about the offense moving away from the no-huddle, where he is comfortable.

And I’ll definitely listen to arguments that with the talent the team has, the offense should be performing more consistently at a higher level, at least from a yardage perspective. Despite the presence of Torrey Smith, Anquan Boldin, Dennis Pitta and the aforementioned Rice, the Ravens are a middle-of-the-road offense, ranking 18th in yards per game (344.4), 17th in rush yards per game (108.8) and 16th in pass yards per game (235.5).

Perhaps the most legitimate point for criticizing Cameron might be the coaching staff’s inability to create any kind of consistency in Flacco’s game-to-game performance. I see one Yahoo! Sports article indicating that keeping Flacco happy meant the team had to get rid of Cameron. I’m not sure you make a move like that to quell the unhappiness of a quarterback who, despite his own assertions otherwise, has not developed into a consistently top notch signal caller in the NFL. He is good and shows signs of greatness, but then way too often fails to show up. At some point, no-huddle or not, don’t you have to put that kind of development at least somewhat on the player’s own shoulders?

I’m just not sure the performance of the offense and the team as a whole warranted the fairly dramatic move of the midseason replacement of the offensive coordinator. Rice aside, let’s look at some more raw numbers. The team is 9-4. It’s ranked ninth in the league in scoring (25.5 points per game) and it’s running away with the once-competitive AFC North. While many may say the Ravens are the fourth best team in the AFC right now behind New England, Denver and Houston, they still are in a position where, barring a complete collapse, they’ll be one of the 12 teams with a shot to chase the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the regular season.

It’s beyond me why you would mess with the chemistry of a team that has had two four-game win streaks and that, prior to a two-game losing streak, was 9-2.

If you think Cameron needs to go, he is on a one-year contract. You can just as easily make the change at the end of the season. At this point it feels like a panic move. And in a season in which Rice’s numbers aren’t that far off from what they were a year ago, making his inability or unwillingness to give his star runner the ball the reason for doing so seems a bit of a cop out to me.