Here’s my annual schedule analysis. It’s everything you’d want to know about the schedule gameplan for the upcoming season.
My annual Ravens’ schedule-sequence guess column did better this past year than ever before, getting the exact week right on three games (Cleveland, Week Four, at Cleveland, Week 16, and Pittsburgh, Week 17), and missing by just one week on four other predictions–the bye, the Cincinnati home game, the Pittsburgh trip, and the San Francisco home game.
–So far, the Ravens already have one game cross-flexed this year–the road game at Seattle. “Cross-flexing” means that a Sunday-afternoon game usually shown on CBS will be moved to Fox, and vice versa. The league does this to ensure the largest possible audience for every game, and moves are often made with little advance notice. Because the Ravens are the visiting team, the game in Seattle would normally be shown on CBS (that network has the AFC contract). But the Ravens-Seahawks will be shown on Fox instead. The Ravens have had several games cross-flexed since the program was introduced in 2014.
The Ravens’ schedule features a rare away-home sequence through the 17-week itinerary. That has never happened before in team history.
–According to the league schedule formula currently in use, 14 of any given team’s 16 opponents are predetermined as part of a rotation. Only two games will be determined by where a team finished in its division the previous year in divisions the Ravens aren’t already playing in their entirety. Therefore, designations such as “first-place” or “last-place” schedules no longer exist and haven’t since 2002. The Ravens’ two placement games for 2019 are against Kansas City (away) and Houston (home).
Based on 2018 win percentage of 2019 opponents, the league’s hardest schedule will be played by the Oakland Raiders. The Washington Redskins have the easiest schedule. The two Super Bowl teams, New England and the Los Angeles Rams, have schedules tied for the second-easiest.
–Ease of schedule is no predictor of success. The Washington team has the distinction of missing the playoffs in eight of the last 12 years. This year, DC’s opponents had a .468 win percentage last year. , Washington has the league’s easiest strength of schedule in 2019.
–The Ravens’ schedule is relatively easy. It is tied with Pittsburgh and Detroit for the league’s 12th-easiest (.496).
–The schedule rotation was revamped in 2002 so that each team would face every other team at least once every four years and travel to all the other league cities at least once every eight years. That’s why the Ravens’ game in Seattle will be the team’s first in that city since 2011. San Francisco’s trip to Baltimore will mark its first regular-season game here since Thanksgiving, 2011.
–With the season-opening game at Miami, the Ravens will open the season on the road for the 12th time; they have also begun the season at home 12 times. Last year, the Ravens opened and closed the season at home for the seventh time (1996, 1998, 2001, 2008, 2014, 2018). The last four times that has happened, the Ravens made the playoffs.
–The Ravens will have two consecutive games against teams coming off bye weeks, the November 10 game at Cincinnati and the November 17 home date against Houston. The past two years, the Ravens lost to Tennessee and New Orleans when those teams had two weeks to prepare. As for Baltimore, it’s home game with New England will come after the bye week.
–The Ravens’ October 27 bye comes after seven games will have been played. The bye is the first of only three open Sundays on the schedule, with the others being November 24 and December 15, due to the prime-time games the Ravens will be playing on those weeks.
–What about bye schedules for the rest of the AFC North? Cincinnati will have a rather late November 3 bye, while Pittsburgh and Cleveland will have the week off just before Baltimore, with both teams being idled on October 20.
One reason October has traditionally been the Ravens’ worst month is that they haven’t played at home that often during that time.
–The team’s annual Salute To Service observation will be harder to pinpoint since the team plays two November home games. No dates have yet been announced for when the team will wear its alternate black jerseys, although the regular-season finale against Pittsburgh would be a logical choice.
–The Ravens return to “Monday Night Football” for the November 25 road game against the Los Angeles Rams. It’s the first time a Baltimore NFL team will travel to play that franchise since 1975. Baltimore hasn’t won a road game in Los Angeles against the Rams since 1969.
Last year, for only the second time since 2000, the Ravens were not featured on “Monday Night Football.”
–This year, for a second straight season, 13 of the Ravens’ 16 regular-season games will be played in the Eastern time zone. For some perspective, in 2017, only 11 games fit that category–a franchise-record low that broke the record set in 2016, when the team’s 12 games in the home zone tied the existing record low. This year, the Ravens will travel out of the Eastern zone to play Seattle, Kansas City, and the Los Angeles Rams.
–The Ravens have four games this year against teams that have a lifetime winning regular-season record against them. There will be two games against Pittsburgh (25-21), and one each against Seattle (3-2) and Kansas City (5-3). The lifetime series against the Cincinnati Bengals is tied 23-23.
–Two of the Ravens’ three return matches against their traditional AFC North Division opponents will be on the road. For the first time since the league office mandated divisional play in Week 17 games in 2010, Pittsburgh will visit Baltimore to close the regular season. Last year, in an unusual twist, all three division-game return matches were at home for only the second time since the AFC North was formed in 2002. The other occasion was in 2007.
–In the past, the Ravens have been fortunate in avoiding late-season cold-weather games, unless it got frigid at home, which it did two years ago. However, December road games in Buffalo and Cleveland make cold temperatures and snow a real possibility. The Ravens, in their 23-season history, have played only one game in falling and accumulating snow. It was a December 2013 home game against Minnesota.
–Depending on whether some retractable-roof stadiums are closed on game day, the Atlanta Falcons could play 13 of their 16 games indoors this year. However, the Ravens will be outside for all 16 regular-season contests. A potential hot-weather game will be the season opener in Miami, where the Dolphins could force the Ravens to wear dark jerseys in the heat.
–In a rare scheduling quirk, the game in Miami also marks the fourth time in five years the Ravens will play a road game at the eventual season-ending Super Bowl venue. They played in San Francisco in 2015, Minnesota in 2017, and Atlanta last year.
–During the 2018 season, the AFC narrowly won the season-long interconference series over the NFC, 34-30, breaking a string that had seen the NFC win five times in the previous six years. But there will be no such clashes during Week 17. The league has mandated an all-division-game schedule for the season-closing week since 2010.
–Looking ahead, Baltimore’s 2020 schedule will include games against the AFC South and NFC East, per the schedule rotation. The list of home opponents will include Dallas, the New York Giants, Jacksonville, and Tennessee. The Ravens will travel to Washington, Philadelphia, Houston, and Indianapolis. The two 2020 placement games will be determined by the Ravens’ finish in the 2019 standings. Those games will feature teams in the AFC West and East that will play the Ravens, respectively, at Baltimore and on the road.
