The games in August don’t count in the standings once the season begins, but Ravens head coach John Harbaugh still let his team know it had accomplished something historic at Carolina on Aug. 21 in their second preseason game.
Led by backup quarterback Tyler Huntley, an airtight defense and a pair of rushing touchdowns, the Ravens rolled to a 20-3 win against the Panthers for their 19th consecutive preseason win dating to 2015.
That ties the all-time NFL record for the longest preseason winning streak, set by the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers teams from 1959-1962. The Ravens visit Washington Aug. 28 with a chance to break that record.
“There are going to be people who say it doesn’t mean anything,” Harbaugh said after the game. “… If you’re doing it, and it’s worth doing and it matters, then it’s worth doing well. So I feel like the players, coaches that were involved … those guys should all take pride in that.”
“It’s something that only one other team has ever done,” he added.
After competing against each other in a pair of joint practices earlier in the week, both teams held out key players in this game. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, tight end Mark Andrews and several top receivers sat out the second straight preseason game for the Ravens, while All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey and receiver DJ Moore were among the Panthers absences. But the Ravens’ depth showed as they pulled away and held the Panthers scoreless for the final 34 minutes.
After a sluggish first half that ended in a 3-3 tie, the Ravens took the lead for good on a 2-yard touchdown run by rookie running back Nate McCrary, and then salted the game away with a pair of lengthy fourth-quarter drives, one capped by a 20-yard touchdown run by Ty’Son Williams.
Here are five quick observations of the Ravens’ win:
1. DeShon Elliott set the tone for a defense that was in midseason form.
As with the preseason opener, Ravens defensive starters had a limited workload, and Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey didn’t play at all. But for the second straight game, the Ravens’ defense set the tempo, especially safety DeShon Elliott.
Last week, in a 17-14 preseason-opening win against the New Orleans Saints, the Ravens recorded six takeaways, with three fumbles and three interceptions. They didn’t have any turnovers against the Panthers, but the defense looked to be in midseason form with a tenacious goal-line stand led by Elliott in the first quarter.
Carolina’s opening possession began at the Ravens’ 33 after a tipped-pass interception thrown by Huntley, and the Panthers promptly marched to the Ravens’ 1. On third-and-goal, Panthers back Chuba Hubbard tried to barrel up the middle and was stuffed for no gain by Elliott and Patrick Queen. Then on fourth down, Hubbard tried to run left, but Elliott fought off a block by tight end Colin Thompson and dropped Hubbard for a 2-yard loss to turn the ball over to the Ravens.
“As long as we keep working out butts off and doing what we’re supposed to do we can be great here,” Elliott said. “Coach [Rob] Ryan always says, ‘The red zone is the dead zone. We can’t let anybody in there,’ and we preach that. I feel like we put that in our blood. We’re serious about it.”
Elliott, who played just the first quarter, tied for the team high with four tackles, including a sack of quarterback Will Grier.
2. The offense still feels a little hypothetical.
More than halfway through training camp and two-thirds of the way through the preseason schedule, offensive coordinator Greg Roman still doesn’t really know what he has with his offense, and it might stay that way until the regular-season opener.
Starting quarterback Lamar Jackson sat out for his second straight preseason game, as did tight end Mark Andrews, top wide receivers Marquise Brown, Sammy Watkins and Rashod Bateman, and All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley, among others.
The offense that the Ravens put on the field at Carolina performed admirably, and the work for Huntley was invaluable given that, in light of Trace McSorley’s back injury, Huntley is likely to be the No. 2 quarterback at the start of the season.
Playing all but the final two minutes, Huntley finished 24-for-34 for 187 yards, with one interception and a rating of 71.6. He also ran seven times for 23 yards. The backup running backs and tight end Josh Oliver showed well, which was important as they compete for roster spots.
But it has to be a little unsettling that Jackson and his top receivers have had hardly any time on the field together, the offensive line is still a work in progress, and the training room is full of wide receivers.
The Ravens have said all offseason that they like how they have improved this offense, but with so many players still on the sideline for camp practices and these preseason games, it all still feels a little hypothetical.
3. The battle for the No. 3 running back job is on.
Ty’Son Williams and Nate McCrary both scored touchdowns in this game, both showed burst and effort, bouncing off tackles, and both have added intrigue to the No. 3 running back job.
A month ago, it appeared that Justice Hill was solidly established as the No. 3 back behind J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards, especially given Hill’s success on special teams; he led the team with nine special teams tackles last year.
But Hill, entering his third NFL season, has been relatively quiet in training camp, and he has been sidelined this week by an ankle injury.
Williams, meanwhile, has impressed in both preseason games with a physical style, the ability to catch out of the backfield and gain yardage after contact.
Williams finished with 10 carries for 47 yards, had a couple of nice blitz pickups and capped his night with a 20-yard touchdown run in which he broke several tackles before keeping his balance long enough to lunge into the end zone.
“That was just a great football run,” Harbaugh said. “You get hit three or four times, break tackles, keep his feet when he’s going down … and launch himself into the end zone, that’s an old-school run right there.”
McCrary, meanwhile, an undrafted rookie out of Saginaw Valley State, scored the go-ahead touchdown and finished with a team-best 64 yards on 15 carries.
“He went sideways once or twice, and he decided to go north, and all of a sudden he’s breaking tackles, and he’s thinking to himself, I bet, ‘Hey, I can do this. I’m pretty good,'” Harbaugh said. “Then he got some confidence and made some nice runs.”
4. Tough roster decisions await in the secondary.
At one point in this game, defensive back Nigel Warrior closed hard and hammered Carolina running back Spencer Brown for a 3-yard loss. Warrior, who later tipped away a pass to force a punt, finished with four tackles, tied for the team high.
Undrafted rookie safety Ar’Darius Washington once again showed strong ball skills and coverage as he broke up a pass, and cornerback Chris Westry, though beaten early by rookie second-round pick Terrace Marshall Jr., has been one of the breakout stars of training camp and was running on top special teams units against the Panthers.
All those players were well down the depth chart when training camp began, but all have made a viable case for themselves in a deep secondary that appears to have few openings on the roster.
Harbaugh acknowledged after the game that “very difficult” decisions will be looming when the Ravens have to whittle their roster to 53 players. Traditionally, that will include 10 or 11 defensive backs.
At cornerback, Marlon Humphrey, Marcus Peters, Jimmy Smith, Anthony Averett and Tavon Young are firmly set. Rookie Shaun Wade probably is too, since the Ravens rarely give up on rookie draft picks. At safety, Chuck Clark, DeShon Elliott and Brandon Stephens are set, and Anthony Levine just about is, given his role as de facto special teams captain. There’s also special teams ace Jordan Richards in the mix, and second-year safety Geno Stone, who had a pair of interceptions in the preseason opener.
How can they possibly find room for all these emerging young players on the 53-man roster? Barring injuries, it will be virtually impossible.
“It’s a great problem to have,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a problem that you work very hard to have. … It’s a great problem, but it’s a tough problem.”
5. It looks like the Ravens have developed another team’s kicker again.
Jake Verity drilled his only field goal try for the Ravens, a 44-yarder early in the fourth quarter. Verity is now 3-for-3 in preseason action for the Ravens, and based on the field goals and kickoffs he has put on tape this preseason, he’s probably going to be kicking somewhere in the NFL this season.
Verity was signed by the Ravens as an undrafted rookie out of East Carolina, and he came to Baltimore knowing his chances of winning the job were basically zero. But by spending a summer learning under the most accurate kicker in NFL history in Justin Tucker, and working with kicking coach Randy Brown, Verity could reasonably hope to advance his chances to land a kicking job elsewhere.
After all, that had worked for Saints kicker Wil Lutz, and Kaare Vedvik, both of whom parlayed a summer with Tucker and Brown into a job elsewhere.
The Ravens netted a fifth-round draft pick for the well-timed and oft-ridiculed trade of Vedvik to the Minnesota Vikings, and while they probably aren’t going to find that gift again, teams would be wise to look toward Baltimore for kicking options.
Will the Ravens net a late Day 3 draft pick for Verity? Maybe, maybe not. But there’s a cycle that runs through the NFL every year. A team has kicking struggles, and subsequently brings in a handful of kickers on a tryout basis. The incumbent kicker struggles again, and one of those tryout players lands the job.
The prediction here is that at some point, that will be Verity. His performance, plus the Ravens’ reputation for grooming kickers, will see to that.
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