The 1972 Miami Dolphins, the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and the 21st century New England Patriots have all gone on runs that will live on forever in the annals of NFL history. The present day Baltimore Ravens have gone on a run that’s perhaps even more improbable.
It’s also meaningless.
The Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans 23-10 in a preseason game Thursday night that extended a mind-boggling streak: Baltimore has now won 21 straight exhibition games, dating all the way back to 2016.
It’s a curious badge of honor for any team in the modern NFL. That’s because the preseason has never felt more pointless.
The NFL’s exhibition season was once an anticipated tuneup for the regular season. But a series of evolutions have rendered this part of the calendar increasingly moot. Teams are increasingly conscious about keeping their best players fresh. Players stay in tip-top shape at private training facilities throughout the offseason. The notion of a superstar getting injured in a game worth absolutely nothing is the type of thing that can get a coach fired.
This has never been clearer than over the last several years. It’s now completely normal for coaches to keep their most important players sidelined for much, if not all, of the preseason. During the first year of the pandemic, in 2020, the quality of play didn’t seem to dip at all when exhibition games were canceled. When the NFL expanded its regular-season schedule to 17 games last year, it reduced the number of preseason games from four to three. In 2022, it isn’t scandalous that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is taking the next week-plus off for what the team dubbed personal reasons.
Then there’s the Ravens. At a time when these games seem to be more of a snore than ever, they’re on a preseason winning streak that’s unmatched in at least the last 30 years.
Baltimore, under coach John Harbaugh, has been one of the NFL’s most consistent teams. It won a Super Bowl after the 2012 season and has made the playoffs in nine of his 14 seasons in charge. The team was in the hunt for a playoff spot last year before falling short after superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson went down. (The franchise ended the regular season with a streak that it certainly wants to break as quickly as possibly: it lost its last six games of 2021.)
But the curious thing about the Ravens’ success in August is that it doesn’t rely on believing in the importance of preseason snaps more than other teams. Jackson didn’t play Thursday night against the Titans. He threw a grand total of four passes in exhibition games last year. Yet even while he played sparingly in the 2021 preseason, Baltimore won its three games by a combined score of 74-20.
The Ravens don’t just beat their preseason opponents. They blow them out.
Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Shemar Bridges, right, celebrates with wide receiver Raleigh Webb after scoring a touchdown.
Photo:
Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports
If anything, Baltimore’s success this time of year may be a testament to the strength of the team’s backups. The Ravens managed to remain competitive last season even without Jackson, their most important player, when they lost a series of nail-biters. And when reserves are in the game for both teams during exhibitions, they tend to prevail.
“It’s a really cool streak,” fullback Patrick Ricard said before the game. “I think it just proves the depth we have here.”
The Ravens have two more exhibition games left this year to try to extend their run, but the win they care most about might also be their easiest: They begin the regular season against the New York Jets.
Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com
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