As we’re working towards a primer about this preseason, it’s always good to go back and remember what we’ve learned from past preseasons. It’s easy to say there’s simply no narrative, or it’s only the preseason just stay healthy you can’t learn anything. And that might be true. Seems like there are always a lot of strong preseason opinions, but do the games help us settle any of those debates meaningfully? I went back and took a look at the last two preseasons just to see.
Discuss past preseasons, and what you remember here.
I’ll start with some notes thinking back. Damn, Kubiak’s run game was impressive from Day 1. Joe still looked out of place, not confident and rusty in 2014. And in 2013, gosh darn the depth was bad. For all the love Ozzie gets, this year’s roster and how tight every roster spot will be is such a stark contrast to 2013, it hurt my eyes looking back. Looking back, even though pre-season is irrelevant, it seems like the response and feel for the games even with backups in was predictive for our season. So far we’ve seen a really sharp Joe Flacco and what seems to be a better offense, but I’m going to be watching the defense and the running game in the larger picture based on going back to the last two preseason’s first two games.
Week 1 this year was somewhat similar to Week 1 last year. With preseason hype surrounding McPhee (could he stay healthy and play a flexible spot) similar buzz seemed to come through for Z. Smith this year. He played a lot of snaps and did so well. Kapron Lewis-Moore was the Carl Davis of last year though. Both guys got 3/4 of the reps for that team. Given the role we saw McPhee play last year, I think there are some good signs for both Smith and Davis getting reps. I thought the RB battle was interesting looking back to last year, as Pierce and Taliaferro split a lot of reps. Both looked good in the running scheme. Huge question marks revolved in the secondary starting in Week 1 of training camp and just never stopped last year. But the OL dominated. The running game though wasn’t as good this year, and I think there’s something to watch there. There’s some rust with the Zuttah/Wagner injuries, but that 2.7 average looks more like 2013 than 2014.
Two year ago we saw vintage Caldwell, lots of vertical routes, with check downs. A somewhat rusty looking Joe. And not a great looking OL to start the year. Talk about a set of names you’d be surprised by looking at the box score and news around then. Shiancoe, Clark, Stokley, Furstenburg, Allen, Rainey, Leach. Thinking back, it’s absolutely insane that the Ravens carried two fullbacks in 2013. There were omens in Week 1 things weren’t looking good. Tampa was a bad team and we mustered zippy in the first quarter despite an efficient performance from Joe. But the boxscore kind of lies there. The Ravens were 5 carries for 10 yards on the ground plus there were 2 check downs to Leach and another 3 to Rice/Pierce. In fact 5 of his 7 completions were check downs. The omens seemed to be there that the offense wasn’t together.
Week 2 last year was a weird one. It was the game where the Ravens offense didn’t touch the field until late in the 1st quarter and they seemed way out of rhythm. Joe didn’t look good until the last two passes he took which chunked off nearly 70 yards of his 110 total. But again the running game showed some serious life. Rice and Pierce looked great and Pierce solidified his role as the RB2 starter at that point. It’s interesting you got a good feel for signs of things to come. Simon and Franks were exposed. And not to be ignored, Monroe just looked out of sorts to start the year too. All those were somewhat predictive.
Week 2 in 2013, well…it went a lot like the year did. 2.3 YPC in that game. And this wasn’t a great Atlanta front seven. Besides one big 75+ yards TD From Smith on a slant, the offense looked back. So many check downs…good lord. And the Ravens didn’t even bring Flacco out in the 3rd quarter despite a bad 2nd quarter. When the BSL Stock up was Mellette, A. Brown and John Simon, that tells you what you needed to know about that team. Mike Randall noted Jackson’s ability but also his prediction that he’d be out half the year with an injury…
I’m keeping a close eye on the running game this week. Our depth seems to be pretty wounded on the OL but I don’t want to see shades of a damaged running game. And I also want to see how the game is generally called in the bigger picture with Trestman. We already saw some creativity and good work with Flacco. But if the last two preseasons first halves told us anything it was how good the running game was going to be and in general what our offensive game plan structure was going to look like.
Ravens Analyst
Jordan Kough is a graduate of University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He’s a long standing Ravens and Orioles fan of many years. He grew up just north of Baltimore and likes the statistical analysis of games as much as watching games themselves.