After each season ends, I predict what the following year’s schedule will look like. Here’s my offering for 2019.
The National Football League’s current scheduling formula, which was established in 2002, has neatly laid out for each team what the schedule looks like (at least most of it) in future years. The actual sequence won’t be released until about April 18, typically one week before the NFL Draft, but since we already know which teams the Ravens will play–and where the games will be played–“when” is the only mystery.
It’s a fun exercise that I enjoy doing each year, and last year was perhaps my best prediction of all.
I was only one week off in predicting when the Ravens would have their bye week, and when they would play home games against Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. I also predicted when they’d play their road game at Cleveland. I was just two weeks off on the dates of games against Oakland, Tampa Bay, and Buffalo.
In preparation to make guesses for 2019, here are a few things to keep in mind.
—The following guesses apply to Sunday afternoons only (with dates next to the week numbers in the sequence below). I don’t make speculative guesses regarding which games will be played Sunday, Monday, or Thursday nights, although some matchups would seem to belong in prime time. The Ravens played three prime-time games in 2018.
—The beginning of the season carries a unique challenge. As with the rest of the schedule, guesses will be applied to Sundays only, based on the Orioles’ already-determined schedule.
—Starting with Week Five, picks were made as if the Orioles will not be playing home postseason games in October–a rather safe assumption, it must be said.
So–taking everything into consideration–what could the 2019 Ravens’ schedule look like? Here’s my guess.
Week One (Sept. 8), at Cincinnati: Since 2012, the Ravens have opened their season against an AFC North Division opponent three times. In all of those instances, the Bengals were on the other sideline. If the game is on a Sunday, it has to be on the road, because the Orioles will be at home against Texas. The Ravens and Bengals have met in September in four of the last five years.
Week Two (Sept. 15), Houston: Only twice this decade, the Ravens have opened their season with two straight division games–in 2014 and 2017–so that’s why a non-division game makes sense in this spot. This will be the home opener because the Orioles will be safely out of town in Detroit. The Ravens played home openers against division teams each year from 2010-15, but only once since.
Week Three (Sept. 22), at Buffalo: The Bills have furnished the season-opening opposition in two of the past three years, so why not make the return trip in September? The Orioles will be in Seattle and even Buffalo should be relatively balmy in late September.
Week Four (Sept. 29), Cleveland: Whether the game is home or away, it’s a safe prediction to pick the Ravens playing Cleveland in September. In 2017, the teams tangled in the season’s opening month for the tenth time in a 12-season span. It was also the 12th time in the previous 15 campaigns. Last year wasn’t far off, either, as they met in the first week in October. The Orioles will be in Boston to finish their season.
Week Five (Oct. 6), Arizona: October has traditionally been the worst month for the Ravens–a month that takes them out of contention just far enough to have the team sweat out a playoff berth the rest of the way. One reason is the lack of home games (there has been just one home game in five of the last seven Octobers), so I’ll go with an allegedly-easy opponent at home at the start of Baltimore’s cursed month.
Week Six (Oct. 13), at Pittsburgh: In four of the last five seasons, the first of the annual meetings between the Ravens and Steelers has taken place during or around Week Four. The game is also a good candidate to be a Sunday-night game. Besides, I don’t foresee the Ravens being saddled with either three straight home or road games this year, a plight that defined 2018.
Week Seven (Oct. 20), New York Jets: I’m determined to have the Ravens get a soft October schedule with at least two games at home! It might cost them later when they have to go on the road but, at least by December, they should be in a better position to grab a playoff spot with a larger margin for error.
Week Eight (Oct. 27), at Los Angeles Rams: This was the spot where I guessed the Ravens would travel to Los Angeles to play the Chargers. Instead, it was scheduled for late December, and we saw how that turned out. This game should be a good barometer of how the season is going and, more importantly, how good they can be. This is too good an interconference matchup to be played late in the season.
Week Nine (Nov. 3), BYE WEEK: Having the bye here makes sense if you go by previous patterns. The Ravens have had their last seven byes in Week Eight, Week Eight, Week 11, Week Nine, Week Eight, Week Ten, and Week Ten again. The bye weeks usually begin in late September and stretch into late November.
Week 10 (Nov. 10), at Seattle: Should my forecast come true, then this week would mark the fifth time that the Ravens will have had road games on either side of the bye. Two years ago, it didn’t seem to hurt them (the Ravens shut out Green Bay). Consecutive West Coast trips don’t seem as daunting with the off-week in between but keep in mind that Seattle is one road city where the Ravens have never won.
Week 11 (Nov. 17), Cincinnati: The Bengals’ star has fallen dramatically over the last two seasons, so I thought I would state a preference to polish off the annual two-game season series relatively early. Besides, I just got done predicting two straight road games, so a home game against a rather dreary opponent seemed only fitting.
Week 12 (Nov. 24), at Miami: Thanksgiving will be relatively late this year, so why not kick-start your holiday travel plans with sun and surf? A trip to South Florida–host to Super Bowl 54–would be appropriate.
Week 13 (Dec. 1), New England: The Patriots are the NFL’s most dominant team over the last two decades, and the schedule formula has them coming to Baltimore in what could be (should be?) a prime-time matchup. Besides, with the game falling on my birthday, this is the opponent I want to see!
Week 14 (Dec. 8), San Francisco: It was in this spot last year that I guessed the Ravens would host Oakland. I’ll put the ‘other; Bay Area team here this time. With a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo, this game could be a thorn in the Ravens’ side.
Week 15 (Dec. 15), at Kansas City: The Ravens and Chiefs have met twice at Arrowhead Stadium in December– and three times overall in the season’s final month. All the games have been memorable, and with the Ravens sure to see themselves as contenders again, this should be a marquee matchup. (December’s looking kind of tough, isn’t it?)
Week 16 (Dec. 22), at Cleveland: Last year, the Ravens played all three division opponents on the road before getting the return matches at home. And that’s the first time it has happened since 2007. The Ravens have won two of three of those second meetings but, with this one being on the road in late December, it should be anything but easy.
Week 17 (Dec. 29), Pittsburgh: For veteran readers of my predictions, you know that I pick a Pittsburgh home game to close the season. In 2010, the NFL mandated intradivisional play for all final-week games. Since then, the Ravens have played Cincinnati seven times. But Baltimore has never played Pittsburgh. The last time it happened was back in 2007–before the mandate. So, friends, can you think of a better way–make that a blockbuster way–to close the campaign? Of course not! And the game would be a prime candidate for a Sunday-night broadcast.
