The Ravens have too much on the line to wallow in letdown status after losing to the Chiefs. Baltimore needs to beat every team that it should. So bet on the Ravens to be mentally even-keeled for their trip to DC.
WHAT: Week Four at Washington Football Team (WFT)
WHEN: 1 p.m. (ET); Sunday, October 4
WHERE: FedEx Field; Landover, Maryland (82,000)
RECORDS: Ravens, 2-1; WFT, 1-2
LIFETIME SERIES (regular season): Tied, 3-3. The team formerly known as the Redskins won the last two meetings, in 2012 and 2016, after Baltimore won three of the first four games. At Landover, the teams have split their four meetings, 2-2. Baltimore has won nine of the 12 preseason meetings between the teams.
BALTIMORE AREA TV: WJZ-TV, Channel 13 (Andrew Catalon, James Lofton, booth; AJ Ross, sidelines)
BALTIMORE AREA RADIO: WIYY-FM, 97.9 (Gerry Sandusky, Dennis Pitta, booth)
REFEREE: Adrian Hill
About the Washington Football Team (WFT)
–For many years, Baltimore and Washington represented the NFL cities with the second-shortest distance between them behind San Francisco and Oakland. But with the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas this year, the Ravens and former Redskins now hold that distinction at approximately 35 miles. The teams with the longest distance between them are Seattle and Miami, which coincidentally play each other this week.
–The franchise began as the Boston Braves in 1932 under owner George Preston Marshall, sharing Braves Field with the local baseball franchise. The following year, the team moved to Fenway Park, and its name was changed to the Redskins. The new coach, Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, was purported to have ancestry that went back to the Sioux Indian tribe. The team stayed in Boston through 1936, after which it moved to Washington, DC because of poor attendance.
–In 88 full seasons, Washington has captured 24 playoff appearances, tied with Cleveland for the ninth-most in league history, with 14 division titles and ten wild-card berths. However, the franchise has made the postseason only six times since 1991 and none at all since 2015. Washington has played in six NFC Championship Games, winning five of them, with all the wins coming home. But Washington hadn’t made it to the NFC title game since the 1991 season when it routed Detroit at home. Neither Washington nor Detroit has made the NFC Championship Game since (tied for the longest drought in the conference).
–WFT has won five NFL championships, pre-merger titles in 1937 and 1942, and three Super Bowls, beating Miami in Super Bowl 17, Denver in Super Bowl 22, and Buffalo in Super Bowl 26, which was the second of Buffalo’s four straight Super Bowl appearances. Washington also lost Super Bowl 7 to the unbeaten Miami Dolphins and Super Bowl 18 to the Los Angeles Raiders.
–FedEx Field was originally called Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, after the team’s owner, at the time it opened (1997). It was to be built along Whiskey Bottom and Brock Bridge roads, near the Laurel Park racetrack. But that plan was abandoned, and it was built closer to the Capital Centre, a since-demolished indoor arena that hosted the NHL’s Capitals and NBA’s Bullets (now Wizards). It was built at the cost of $250.5 million and expanded in 1998, 2000, and 2005 until its capacity was over 90,000 seats; it has since been reduced, thanks in part to 243 executive suites. Further renovations took place in 2011 and 2012. The stadium surface is comprised of Latitude 36 Bermuda grass.
–WFT is one of six teams with which the Ravens are tied in the all-time regular-season series (3-3). The others are Denver (6-6), Minnesota (3-3), Philadelphia (2-2-1), Seattle (3-3), and Tennessee (10-10). In each of their two championship seasons, the Ravens have lost regular-season games at FedEx Field, with the second (2012) going to overtime. That game saw Washington quarterback and current Ravens’ backup, Robert Griffin III, injured when Baltimore defensive lineman Haloti Ngata fell on his leg. In 2004, Baltimore won at Washington in a Sunday-night telecast, 17-10, in front of 90,287 fans–the second-largest crowd to see a game involving the Ravens on the road, second only to the over 93,000 fans that saw Baltimore play at Dallas in 2016.
–Washington returns home to play Baltimore after falling in two straight road games, at Arizona and Cleveland. Sunday’s game marks the start of three home contests in four weeks. But from mid-November through mid-December, WFT has four road games in five weeks, including its occasional Thanksgiving trip to Dallas. Two of Washington’s final three games are at home.
–When the Baltimore Colts were part of the NFL, they met the former Redskins 20 times and won 15 of those games, taking nine in a row and 11 of the final 12 meetings. In games played in Washington, the Redskins notched four of their five wins over the Colts before the Baltimore franchise moved to Indianapolis. In 1981, in the teams’ final meeting before the move, Washington took a 38-14 win over a Colts squad that set the single-season NFL record for points allowed that year.
–This game features an inter-conference pairing, so the Ravens and Washington don’t have a long history with each other, despite their geographical proximity. The teams have met in preseason 12 times and have also scrimmaged against each other. But in regular-season play, they have each won three times, with Washington taking the last two. In their first clash, in 1997, Baltimore became the first visiting team to win in the WFT’s new stadium (one of five venues where the Ravens can make that claim, the others being in Denver, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, and New Jersey). Road teams have won three of the games, including the Ravens’ Sunday-night win at Washington in 2004 and the Redskins’ 16-10 victory at Baltimore in 2016, the last time the two teams met.
–As is the case with most non-contending teams, Washington has gotten off to slow starts in its games, getting outscored in the first quarter, 24-7, and in the second, 30-7. Impressively, the team has done well with halftime adjustments, outscoring its opposition in the third quarter, 23-0, but the damage is usually done by that point. Washington is averaging just over 27 minutes of possession per game, among the league’s lowest figures. Still, it has maintained some sense of offensive balance, with 81 run plays and 111 pass plays (including ten sacks allowed).
–Washington has committed 17 accepted penalties through three games, squarely in the middle of the league pack. WFT’s opponents have been flagged 20 times. As a reflection of head coach Ron Rivera’s more disciplined coaching philosophy, Washington has been near-perfect in pre-snap situations, only committing one false start and one offsides penalty, along with just one delay-of-game flag. Individually, safety Landon Collins has just two penalties (defensive holding, unnecessary roughness), and a smattering of players have one each.
–Until last week’s game in Cleveland, Washington had done a pretty good job taking care of the football. But five turnovers in the loss to the Browns (three interceptions, two fumbles) dropped WFT’s turnover ratio from plus-2 to minus-3, sending the team towards the bottom of the league table. The team’s seven total turnovers are tied for the league’s second-most. Washington has fumbled eight times, losing four of them, and has forced five fumbles, but with defensive end, Ryan Kerrigan getting the only recovery. Quarterback Dwayne Haskins has thrown three interceptions and lost two fumbles, including one on a strip-sack against the Browns.
–Through three games, the WFT is ranked 30th (third-worst) in total offense (25th rushing, 29th passing, 26th scoring at 20.7 points per game). Washington has the league’s sixth-worst possession average (27:20), the third-worst third-down percentage (34.1), and is averaging 18.7 first downs per game, the fifth-fewest in the league. Defensively, Washington is ranked sixth overall (22nd vs. rush, fifth vs. pass, tied for 18th scoring, allowing 27 points per game). Washington is allowing third-down conversions at a 37.7 percent pace, the league’s eighth-best number, as well as yielding 20 first downs per game, the seventh-fewest.
—Former Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera took over the same job at Washington after spending eight seasons and going to one Super Bowl with the Panthers. He is the 31st head coach in WFT’s history, bringing an 80-69-1 career mark (including postseason). Under Rivera, the Panthers won three NFC South Division titles and advanced to Super Bowl 50, where they lost to Denver. Rivera is a two-time Coach of the Year (2013, 2015) who took over a team that had gone 2-14 in 2011 and proceeded to take it to the playoffs four times in five years. In 2015, the Panthers became only the fourth team to start a season 14-0, ending that campaign at 15-1. Rivera is the third Latino head coach in NFL history, following Tom Fears of the Los Angeles Rams and Tom Flores of the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Rivera was a linebacker on the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl 20 championship team.
–Rivera’s 80 wins will go up against John Harbaugh’s 130 career wins in Sunday’s game. They are two of just nine active head coaches who have 80 or more career coaching wins. Coincidentally, they have worked under assistants under former Philadelphia head coach and current Kansas City mentor Andy Reid. Notable assistants on Rivera’s staff include defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio (Ravens linebacker coach, 1999-2001), offensive line coach John Matsko (Navy, 1985; Ravens, 2008-10), and wide receivers coach Jim Hostler (Ravens, 2008-13),
–Starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins was a collegiate standout at Ohio State whom the former Redskins selected in the first round of the 2019 draft (15th overall). A New Jersey native, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Haskins is a New Jersey native whose family moved to Potomac, Maryland, when he was in the ninth grade. He starred at Bullis Prep just outside Washington before heading to the Buckeye program, where he won the Sammy Baugh Trophy and was a Rose Bowl MVP. He has struggled with accuracy this year, completing 56.4 percent of his passes with four touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 75.7 passer rating. Haskins has been sacked ten times, and he has not completed a pass longer than 33 yards through the season’s first three games.
–WFT has gone through many running backs in recent years, including future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson and first-round pick Derrius Guice, who was let go after word came of an off-field incident. The team then turned to Antonio Gibson, a third-round pick (66th overall) from Memphis who has gotten the lion’s share of the carries thus far but hasn’t produced much, gaining 4.5 yards per carry, but not gaining more than 20 yards on any run. He has scored two of the team’s four rushing touchdowns. Peyton Barber has the other two, both coming in the Week One win over Philadelphia. Barber originally entered the league as an undrafted rookie with Tampa Bay in 2016.
–Without a doubt, the favorite target for Haskins in the passing game has been former Ohio State teammate Terry McLaurin, a 2019 third-round pick (76th overall). While at OSU, McLaurin averaged nearly 17 yards per catch and scored 19 times, and he currently leads this year’s WFT with 16 catches, a 16.8-yard average, and one score. Tight end Logan Thomas, who replaces the oft-injured Jordan Reed, has a dozen receptions and a touchdown, while Dontrelle Inman, who injured his wrist last week (X-rays negative), has two touchdowns among his seven catches. Steven Sims and Gibson have six receptions each, but Sims is averaging over 17 yards per catch.
–The WFT offensive line has done a rather average job in the running game and has allowed Haskins to get sacked ten times. However, the young and revamped line has done a mostly clean job penalty-wise, as it has not been flagged for many infractions. The left tackle is Geron Christian, the 74th overall pick in 2018, who blocked for current Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson at Louisville. Left guard Wes Martin is a 2019 fourth-round pick (131st overall) from Indiana, and center Chase Roullier is a 2017 sixth-rounder (199th overall) out of Wyoming. The right side is made up of the line’s two most experienced players, fifth-year guard Wes Schweitzer, late of the Atlanta Falcons, and seventh-year veteran Morgan Moses. They struggled with early-career injuries after being taken in the third round from Virginia but has been a solid mainstay in recent seasons.
–At this point, Washington’s defensive line serves as the cornerstone for what the franchise hopes will be a dominant defense in the future. The team’s last four first-round picks have been used up front, with 2019 first-rounder Montez Sweat (26th overall) from Mississippi State and 2020 top pick Chase Young (second overall) from Ohio State. However, Young (2.5 sacks, rookie leader) had to leave last week’s game against Cleveland with a groin injury, and his status for the Baltimore game is uncertain.
-Da’Ron Payne, the 2018 first-rounder from Alabama (13th overall), and Jonathan Allen, another Alabaman who led the 2017 draft class as the 17th overall pick, make up the inside tandem. Allen leads the line with 16 tackles and 1.5 of the team’s 13 quarterback sacks so far. Veterans Ryan Kerrigan (two sacks, fumble recovery) and Matt Ioannidis are valuable backups who rotate in quite frequently. Still, Ioannidis will miss the rest of the season with a torn biceps.
–A sure sign that Washington’s draft philosophy has been on target is that the team has dominant defensive linemen who enable linebackers to make tackles. Another way of saying this is that secondary players don’t lead the team in stops. NFL veteran and starting middle linebacker Jon Bostic and outside man Kevin Pierre-Louis, a free-agent pickup from the Chicago Bears, are Washington’s co-leaders in tackles (24). Bostic also has two sacks. In his last three games against Baltimore, Bostic has at least five tackles. Pierre-Louis’ opposite number on the other side is linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton, who has eight tackles, but six of them are solo stops. Hamilton is a 2018 sixth-round pick (197th overall) from Alabama. A notable backup is former Carolina Panthers 2005 first-round pick Thomas Davis, now in his 16th NFL season.
–Despite the young and talented front four, it is secondary that one would find Washington’s true defensive leader. He’s veteran safety Landon Collins, who has one of the team’s three interceptions and is fifth on the team in tackles with 14. Collins is a former New York Giant who was offered a lucrative free-agent deal to leave that team and stay in the NFC East. Collins last played against the Ravens in 2016, when he had 12 tackles, a sack, and two tackles for loss. Third-year player, Troy Apke, a fourth-round pick from Penn State, is third on the team with 17 tackles.
-The cornerback tandem was lured to Washington from other teams. They are ex-Kansas City Chiefs standout Kendall Fuller (Good Counsel HS) and former Philadelphia Eagle starter Ronald Darby (ten tackles). Fuller has five pass breakups in three games against the Ravens. Nickel corner Jimmy Moreland, in his second year from James Madison, has an interception and 13 total tackles.
–The Washington special-teams unit has entrusted its return duties to 2019 undrafted free agent Steven Sims, a prospective wide receiver from Kansas. The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Sims has so far returned ten punts with two fair catches at a below-average five yards per return with a long of 19. He has returned three kickoffs at a 14-yard, also one of the league’s lowest numbers. Washington’s coverage teams have been quite good, allowing 4.3 per punt return (sixth-best) and 15.5 yards per kick runback, the fourth-best number in the league.
–Veteran kicker Dustin Hopkins was a Lou Groza Award finalist while at Florida State. He’s in his seventh year in the league and on his third team. Like most kickers, he leads his team in scoring, but with just 14 points. He has missed one field goal and one extra point despite the low number of chances.
–Pro Bowl punter Tress Way is in his seventh year with WFT after entering the league with Chicago. Way has one touchback and seven coffin-corner kicks in 16 punts through three weeks. He is averaging 47.5 gross yards per kick and netting 44.4. Former Raven’s backup long snapper Nick Sundberg performs those duties for WFT.
Prediction
In both of Baltimore’s Super Bowl seasons, the team lost regular-season games at FedEx Field. And, just as surprisingly, these teams have split six-lifetime regular-season meetings with the visiting team having more than its share of success.
But this year isn’t any year. The Ravens have too much on the line to wallow in letdown status after losing to the Chiefs. Baltimore needs to beat every team that it should. So bet on the Ravens to be mentally even-keeled for their trip to DC.
Baltimore 34, Washington 13
