20th straight pre-season win eclipses Packers’ record and closes out team’s 10th unbeaten pre-season slate.
Saturday, August 28, 2021: The Ravens’ preseason win streak is one of those things that makes even the most opinionated sports fans scratch their heads. “OK, it’s great, but what does it really mean? It has to mean SOMETHING, right?
For Baltimore, the 20-game streak is a new NFL record after Saturday night’s 37-3 road win over the Washington Football Team.
The game, which was played before 41,241 fans at Landover’s FedEx Field, actually has quite a bit of significance. For one thing, the win completes a fifth straight unbeaten preseason (the 2020 August schedule was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and it is the tenth spotless preseason since the franchise was born in 1996. The Ravens also won 12 straight August games by going spotless in 1998, 1999, and 2000, and they also swept the then-four-game itinerary in 2009 and 2014. What’s more, after five of the nine previous unbeaten preseasons, the team went on to make playoff appearances, and, in 2000, it brought a Super Bowl title.
The previous preseason win streak record was held by the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers, which won 19 straight pre-season games between 1959 and 1962. In the final three seasons of that stretch, the Packers – by far, the league’s worst team when Lombardi took over – advanced to the NFL championship game, winning it in 1961 and 1962.
Earlier in the week, Harbaugh – an intense competitor whose passion for winning has rubbed off on his team every year, no matter what time of year – seemed to unsurprisingly fall on the side of those who believe the streak is highly relevant. “I think everything is something,” he said. “I’m of the belief that everything has meaning in life. So, if we’re doing it, it’s worth doing, it matters, and it’s worth doing well. If you want to look at the big picture of all those young players out there playing, those guys should all take pride in that. All those guys that were part of that over those years should be proud about that because it’s something that only one other team has ever done.”
The streak has propelled the Ravens’ lifetime preseason record to 67-32, including a 33-17 road record and 20 wins in their last 23 August home games. For his part, Harbaugh is now 41-12 in preseason contests, and Baltimore has not lost a preseason game since losing their final three August games in 2015, falling in the final contest at Atlanta, 20-19. The previous week saw the team incur its most recent home August loss, 31-13, to the Washington Football Team.
And in this game, it was once again the WFT – the same franchise against which Green Bay got the first and last wins of its previous record streak – that played a part in the Ravens’ claim to a bit of pro football history as it fell to 1-2 this August. Baltimore is now 10-3 in the preseason against Washington (4-2 in Landover), with four of the 20 games in the current win streak coming at WFT’s expense. On top of all that, the 34-point margin of victory set a new Ravens preseason record, breaking a mark set by the 1998 team that beat the New York Jets, 33-0.
That game also holds the record for the Ravens’ biggest preseason shutout win margin, but Baltimore couldn’t break that record once WFT got a late-first-half field goal. But besides that, Baltimore was clearly the better, deeper, and more dominant team.
But the preseason finale had one mitigating incident that could greatly affect the season to come. Second-year running back JK Dobbins incurred what looked like, at the very least, a hyperextended left knee barely six minutes into the game.
On the positive side, the Ravens had to be encouraged with the starts made by all five prospective Week One offensive linemen, so they had no problem putting Jackson on the field for a series. He completed three of four passes for 29 yards, but two sacks and the Dobbins injury hastened the departure of Jackson and four of the linemen, with only left guard Ben Powers remaining.
Backup Tyler Huntley (24-for-33, 285 yards, four touchdowns, 138.3 ratings) carried the Ravens the rest of the way. His touchdown passes were the team’s first through the air in the three August games. He also rushed for a touchdown and directed an offense that racked up 34 first downs and gained 491 total yards.
Touchdown passes were hauled in by fourth-round pick Tylan Wallace, street free agent Binjimen Victor, reserve tight end Eric Tomlinson and second-year wideout James Proche. In all, 12 different Ravens caught at least one pass.
On the ground, former practice-squander Williams – now a vital cog in the wake of Dobbins’ injury – gained 42 yards on just four carries, while McCrary got the heavier workload, with 68 yards on 22 yards.
Defensively, Baltimore held WFT to just 18 minutes of possession (to the Ravens’ 41), ten first downs, and a paltry one-third-down conversion in 11 tries. Washington also had to punt eight times to the Ravens’ two and was forced to go three-and-out on six occasions.
T
he deep Ravens roster will definitely force some tough decisions over the weekend. No doubt, some players that have had quality playing time will not make what looks to be a very loaded roster. Next Tuesday is the last of three deadlines for all teams to make roster cuts. Over the previous pair of Tuesdays, teams had to respectively get down to 85 and 80 players from the training-camp-opening limit of 90. But before the deadline of 4 p.m. (ET) on August 31, every team in the league must get down to their Week One 53-man roster.
Teams can begin building their practice squads shortly after that; then, the Ravens will prepare for their 26th regular-season opener at Las Vegas (Monday, September 13, 8:15 p.m.; ESPN/WMAR-TV, Channel 2; WIYY-FM).
The Ravens have won five consecutive Week One game by a combined score of 177-26, a run that neatly and fittingly coincides with the preseason win streak. The opening weekend run should surely continue if the team’s execution and display of depth against the Raiders are even close to what it was at many points over the past month.
After all, the Ravens keep proving that while preseason isn’t everything, it certainly leads to … something.
