Baltimore will attempt to secure the all-time, pre-season consecutive wins record this Saturday at Washington.
Saturday, August 21, 2021: Just as in life, football is comprised of three basic elements–the past, present, and future. But it’s intriguing how often things come full circle when everything old becomes new again. Consider the curious case of the Baltimore Ravens’ lengthy and interesting, yet ultimately meaningless, preseason win streak.
The streak began on a hot August night at M&T Bank Stadium in 2016 when Baltimore turned back the visiting Carolina Panthers, 22-19. And on another hot August night in 2021 at Bank Of America Stadium in Charlotte, Baltimore beat the Panthers again. The 20-3 win enabled the Ravens to tie the NFL preseason win streak record in front of 68,061 fans.
Before Saturday’s game, the Ravens and Panthers took part in a pair of joint practices at the Panthers’ training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
With Saturday’s win, the Ravens are now 6-2 against Carolina in preseason games, winning the last two overall meetings and going undefeated in three games in Charlotte. The teams will meet during the 2022 regular season in Baltimore when the Ravens play the entire NFC South Division as part of the league’s schedule rotation. (Carolina and Atlanta will come to Charm City, while the Ravens will play at Tampa Bay and New Orleans.)
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 win streak has propelled the Ravens’ lifetime preseason record to 66-32, including a 32-17 road record and 20 wins in their last 23 August home games. Head coach John Harbaugh is now 40-12 in preseason contests.
The Ravens now need just one more preseason win to set a new NFL record for longest August win streak; the current record is jointly held by the Ravens and the Green Bay Packers between 1959-62, the first four years of Vince Lombardi’s legendary head-coaching reign.
“We are just trying to celebrate the moment,” safety Chuck Clark said. “Everybody just locked in, settled in, making plays… defense started getting (the Panthers) off the field.”
As with any preseason game, Saturday night’s game provided a glimpse of the Ravens’ possible depth. In recent years, starters have been used less and less in such games, with teams being increasingly concerned about how much quality there is from the middle to the bottom of the roster.
On defense, where the Ravens certainly have been healthier, a young, fast nucleus is slowly coming together, consisting of reserve defensive linemen like Justin Madabuike, Broderick Washington, and Justin Ellis, rookie pass rushers Odafe Oweh and Daelin Hayes, and starting inside backers Patrick Queen and Malik Harrison. The secondary is more experienced (and more expensive, if you ask the front office), but it helped bail out Baltimore earlier in this game; safety DeShon Elliott notched four tackles and a sack early in the game, including a fourth-and-1 goal-line stop to turn back the Panthers early.
As usual, preseason is a time for any roster’s younger players to make an impression on the coaching staff, which no one got to do in 2020 because the August game was canceled due to the pandemic. These days, with only three preseason contests, such players have one fewer opportunity to show what they can do.
Said Chuck Clark of the Ravens’ newcomers: Personally, I’m very impressed. We want to make them the best players they can be. The sky’s the limit for a lot of those guys. I feel like anybody can learn from anybody. A young guy can come in and teach me something. I can learn from those guys as they can learn from me.
Even though Carolina (0-2) got into Ravens territory four times in the first half, no touchdowns came from those chances. Joey Slye also missed a 37-yard field goal as the game was scoreless after one quarter but added a 41-yard kick to give the home team the first points of the night.
The Ravens (2-0) were able to drive the ball well early; quarterback Tyler Huntley (24-for-34, 187 yards, interception, 71.6 rating) completed 15 of 16 passes after a slow start. But a deflected interception and reserve tight end Josh Oliver’s fumble stopped their first two substantive possessions. Oliver did have a team-high seven catches for 50 yards. As a testimony to the team’s mostly-clean effort, Baltimore had just one penalty, an ironic false start by ex-Panthers offensive lineman Michael Schofield.
“It shows you just how much depth we have as a team,” Huntley said.
With a 29-yard field goal, Justin Tucker did tie the game after a good late-half drive to make it 3-3 at the break. The Ravens’ deeper roster took it from there, outgaining the Panthers by 201-18 over the final two quarters.
Running backs Tyson Williams (47 yards, ten carries) and Nate McCrary (64 yards, 15 carries, touchdown) gathered in several passes late in the first half, a big offseason talking point for the Baltimore backfield.
Another priority was for the receivers to get yards after the catch. Fourth-round pick Tylan Wallace did just that on a tackle-breaking 25-yard gain to set up McCrary’s short touchdown run early in the third to put the Ravens ahead for good. Williams later fought through traffic to score from 20 yards out and undrafted kicker Jake Verity added two field goals to enhance his trade value as the game wrapped up in a brisk two hours and 40 minutes.
This week more roster cuts will be made. Tuesday is the second of three deadlines for all teams to make roster cuts, albeit slight ones. The deadline requires them to get down to 80 players from the current roster limit of 85, which had to be reached earlier this week. Teams must then set their 53-man Week One roster by 4 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, August 31.
Following that second cutdown, the Ravens will attempt to continue the preseason win streak. If accomplished, it will be the team’s sixth straight unblemished August, and Baltimore will break Green Bay’s record. The road opponent is none other than The Washington Football Team. Kickoff is set for 6p., Saturday, August 28. Live local media coverage will be available through WBAL-TV and WIYY-FM.
