The Ravens won their 19th consecutive pre-season game Saturday night, defeating the Carolina Panthers 20-3. It wasn’t pretty, but pre-season games seldom are. This ties an unofficial record set by Vince Lombardi’s Packers from 1959-62.
So what, you might ask. Ravens’ Coach John Harbaugh anticipated those skeptics after the game. He told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, “There’s going to be people that are going to say that doesn’t mean anything. There’s going to be people that are going to look at it and say, ‘Wow, that’s something.’ I’m of the belief that everything has meaning in life.”
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
I suppose if you win 19 in a row of anything you’ve earned the right to be a little philosophical about it.
Does winning 19 pre-season games from 2016 through 2021 actually have meaning, though, beyond the existential plane Harbaugh drifted into? I am here to conclusively, firmly, establish that the answer is…maybe.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio is firmly in the “no” camp; “As far as the broader NFL is concerned, it has no relevance whatsoever to the goal that every team has of qualifying for the postseason and eventually playing in the Super Bowl.”
The facts do NOT support a total dismissal of pre-season success, however. In 2019, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl after posting a losing (1-3) pre-season record, but they were the first championship team to accomplish that since the 2006 Colts who were also 1-3. Prior to that, the 2004 champs, the New England Patriots, also went 1-3 in pre-season, and further back the Dallas Cowboys won the 1995 championship with a 1-3 pre-season mark.
In summary, that means only 4 of the last 24 Super Bowl winners have turned around from a losing pre-season to a championship, remembering that there was no pre-season in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
To take that point further, only one team, the 1982 Washington Redskins, won the Super Bowl after posting a winless (0-4) preseason record. I followed that Redskin team closely, and if anyone has suggested at the beginning of the season they would be champions, especially after watching that debacle of a pre-season, they would have needed their heads examined. Of course, that was the shortened strike season so it was a perfect time for an anomaly.
This is also not the first time the Ravens have put together a long winning streak in August. From 1998-2000 they went 12-0 leading into the 2000 Super Bowl championship. While the 1998 teams’ 4-0 record (outscoring opponents 89-26) appeared to be a false read on a team that only posted a 6-10 mark in the regular season, it may have been the first glimmer of the team coming together into a unit that won the championship two years later.
Let’s go further back and look at the other team that won 19 pre-season games in a row, Vince Lombardi’s Packers. That streak began in Lombardi’s first season, and the next three seasons resulted in a Western division championship and loss in the league title game followed by two NFL championships. Lombardi’s overall preseason record was 42-8 (winning percentage of .840) that closely resembled his .745 regular season winning percentage, culminating in five league championships.
Comparing John Harbaugh’s Ravens, or frankly any team, to Lombardi’s Packers seems unfair, but it is interesting, nonetheless. Rather than the sudden turnaround the Packers enjoyed during their 19 game win streak, the Ravens’ have experienced a slower, steady build back into contender status.
The season before the Ravens’ streak began, 2015, was their worst under Harbaugh. The Ravens fell to a 5-11 record in a season where the team logo should have been replaced with a red cross to commemorate the avalanche of serious injuries the team endured. The Ravens were more competitive in 2016, finishing with an 8-8 record that could have been much more since six of their losses came by eight points or less. In 2017, there was slight improvement to 9-7 with five of the losses coming by eight points or less.
Incremental improvement continued in 2018, when they posted a 10-6 mark, four of those losses by eight points or less. More importantly, the Ravens made the transition into the Lamar Jackson era and ran off a 12-game winning streak to close out the 2019 season and finish 14-2. There was some slippage last season, but the team still managed a 11-5 record (the same as Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay), all but one loss coming by six points or less. The Ravens have also won all of their regular season openers during the streak.
Ok, that’s all well and good, but what’s the point? I had reached a conclusion before Saturday’s record-tying win, but QB Tyler Huntley, of all people, summed it up well after the game; “It’s a good feeling to have because you can see the type of culture we have as a team and organization. We strive to win every time we step on the field.”
Culture. That’s what I believe this is all about. Teams have cultures that support winning, and cultures that support losing. One of the biggest challenges, if not the single biggest, that Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski faced when taking over that job was changing the losing culture in the “Factory of Sadness.” New Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor faces the same challenge.
In 2016, it was vital for John Harbaugh to reestablish the winning culture the Ravens had built that carried them to their second Super Bowl championship. Although they have not broken through with major success in the post-season, they have at least returned as regular participants.
On the other side, after 2000 Brian Billick’s Ravens only had one winning record during the pre-season in his last seven years, a number which matched his total of post-Super Bowl playoff wins. After breaking apart the championship team after the 2001 season, the Ravens were never able to reestablish a culture that strong again under Billick, and pre-season results could have been an early hint of that.
In conclusion, it’s important to remember that winning is usually better than losing. Write that one down folks. Also important to keep in mind is that there are always exceptions to the rule. In 2008, the Detroit Lions went 4-0 in preseason…then proceeded to go 0-16 in the regular season. Amazingly, the Cleveland Browns pull off the same feat in 2017.
In any given season, just like on any given Sunday, weird things can happen. Write that one down too. But whey you see trends carried out over several seasons, then you probably have something to believe in.
So while no team has ever had a parade after a perfect preseason (in hindsight, maybe Detroit and Cleveland should have done that), when a team builds an August dynasty like the Ravens have, the trend does point toward a greater chance of celebrating in February.
Next week, I celebrate the upcoming 25th anniversary of the NFL’s return to Baltimore by looking back at the Ravens’ first regular season game vs. the Oakland Raiders. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @jimjfootball.
Until then, remember it’s good to look back as long as you live forward. Yeah, that’s it.
Jim Johnson spent most of his life in Maryland, growing up with the Orioles, the Colts, Terps, and later Ravens. He started his sports writing career as “The Courtmaster,” covering the Terps and ACC hoops and was a frequent guest on Bob Haynie’s old WNST show and other sports talk across the region. He is currently in his second run at BSL. After previously covering Maryland and Big Ten Football, he now writes about the NFL, primarily the action in the AFC North. Jim covers both current and historic stories, seeking perspective and having fun in the process.