BALTIMORE, Md. — The last time the Ravens lined up to play football at M&T Bank Stadium, Ray Lewis lined up on offense for the final play of Baltimore’s 24-9 victory over Indianapolis in the playoffs.Now, 30 weeks later, the Ravens were back on their home field practicing in front of approximately 25,000 fans. It was also Military Appreciation Day, the sixth-straight year the Ravens have honored the U.S. Military during training camp.
For the second straight day, the offense got the better of the defense. While the defensive line played well, especially in run situations, the offense as a whole executed better.
That, to an extent, is to be expected. Via Ryan Mink of baltimoreravens.com, John Harbaugh said the following after the game in Tampa Bay: “We’ve got a lot of communication issues on defense that came up, things we need to work on. From a cohesion standpoint, we have a lot of work to do.” Furthermore, the Ravens could have as many as seven new starters on defense this season (including two new starters at safety).
Elvis Dumervil is greeted warmly by Baltimore fans after practice.
Sure the defense may take awhile to get on the same page, but make no mistake, there is plenty of depth.
One of the better defensive players today (and throughout camp) has been middle linebacker Daryl Smith, who was acquired in early June. Smith has been a key addition for the team, especially with Ray Lewis’ retirement and Jameel McClain recovering from a spinal cord contusion.
Not only does he call the defensive plays and play the run really well, but Smith can cover, too. On one particular play, he had 1-on-1 coverage against Ray Rice, who ran a wheel route. Rice looked to have a touchdown reception in the back of the end zone, but Smith stayed with him all the way and broke up the pass.
As there’s a lot of depth on defense, so to is there depth among Ravens coaches.
Coach Harbaugh made it a point after practice to sing the praises of his staff. “We have the best coaching staff in the National Football League,” said Harbaugh.
One of the offensive standouts today was LaQuan Williams. After scoring two touchdowns against the Buccaneers, he caught practically everything thrown his way on Sunday. One one red zone play, Williams ran a nice corner route and caught a touchdown from Flacco after beating the coverage of Corey Graham and Matt Elam.
With regards to special teams, Justin Tucker continued to show why he is here for the long run. With room to spare, Tucker hit field goals from 58 and 60 yards. He also crushed an attempt from 67 yards out, but that kick was wide right.
And to answer the ever-burning question in the minds of Ravens fans, the “No. 3” wide receiver who lined up in the slot for most of the day was Tandon Doss. That spot seems to be between he and Deonte Thompson, who didn’t practice today because of a bruised left foot. The Baltimore Sun‘s Jeff Zrebiec tweeted that Thompson has been ruled out of Thursday’s game versus the Falcons, but should be good to go the next week against the Panthers.
To put an exclamation point on the day, the first-team offense scrimmaged the first-team defense in a fourth quarter situation. “Sizz” (the defense) was beating “Joe” (the offense), 38-34 with about 10 minutes remaining.
Then on the last play of the day, with seven seconds left on the clock, Flacco did what he does best: he made a play.
As the time expired, Flacco scrambled to his left, tossed a ball up for grabs and Visanthe Shiancoe made the touchdown catch despite triple coverage. Omar Brown, James Ihedigbo and Josh Bynes couldn’t keep the new Ravens tight end from coming down with the grab in the back of the end zone.
The Ravens will be back at M&T Bank Stadium four nights from now, when they host the Atlanta Falcons. Kick-off is set for 7:30 P.M. ET. The Ravens’ final public practice of the preseason will be at Stevenson University a week from today, August 18. Due to limited seating, that will be a ticketed event.
*Marcus Rivers, Marlon Brown, Bernard Pierce, Chris Johnson, Ryan Jensen, Jack Cornell, Deonte Thompson, Ed Dickson, Courtney Upshaw, Bryan Hall and Marcus Spears did not practice today. Safety Anthony Levine was activated from the PUP list and practiced today.
