The Baltimore Ravens dominated their first preseason game of 2019, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars 29-0. While preseason wins don’t account for much, Baltimore learned quite a lot about their team in the lopsided victory.
They got valuable film not only of their own players but, after holding joint practices with Jacksonville during the week, plenty of film on some Jaguars they could be interested in. They knocked off some rust and put in a solid performance all around.
There were three major things we can take away from Baltimore’s preseason win over Jacksonville.
Lamar Jackson found his groove
Jackson wasn’t perfect on the night by any means, but for the first preseason game, he did what he needed to. Jackson didn’t run with the football, kept it from the defense and threw a touchdown pass. His 66.7% completion rate was also impressive, even if it was against Jacksonville’s backup defense.
Jackson didn’t need to throw three touchdown passes, stiff-arm a player and making some diving leap into the end zone. The Ravens just needed him to get into a rhythm, be reminded of the speed of the game and keep his wits about him, and Jackson did all of those things on Thursday night.
We’ll undoubtedly see more of the starter in the next two preseason games as Baltimore works on installing more of the offense. But for now, it was a solid continuation of the high praise he’s gotten from training camp practices.
Don Martindale is blitz-happy
It’s the preseason, and teams tend to keep schemes vanilla. Part of that is coordinators not wanting to give away any hints at what they’ll do when the games really count. Another big part is that the scheme is less important than players winning their individual matchups and getting used to the feel of the game again. But don’t tell Martindale that.
Baltimore’s defensive coordinator wasn’t afraid to dial up pressure on Jacksonville’s backups early and often. It created a lot of highlights, including linebacker Kenny Young leveling a Jaguars quarterback. But it showed just how effective the Ravens can be at manufacturing pressure in the face of questions surrounding their pass rush.
With two of Baltimore’s most productive pass rushers having left in free agency this offseason, it became a weak point on an otherwise outstanding-looking defense. But some reservations were quelled as the Ravens notched four sacks and were in the backfield all night long.
We’ll see if that can continue and, more importantly, whether the pass rush can be more consistent than last year. But for now, that’s a huge sigh of relief.
Ravens are stacked
While it’s easy to look at the box score and extrapolate that to the regular season, the preseason is more about which team has the most depth. Against the Jaguars, the Ravens clearly were the better team from top to bottom.
But what we really saw was that Baltimore might be one of the most stacked teams in this league. They have great depth at a number of key spots, including their secondary, the defensive line and running back. No matter when you tuned in to the game Thursday night, you saw players making big plays.
This has been the case for the Ravens for a few years and a big part of the reason they’ve won 14 straight games in the preseason dating back to 2016. But it’s especially exciting when you consider all the young depth they have on offense now.
Typically Baltimore has invested heavily in the NFL draft on defense and they’ve found the most success there. But the last two drafts have seen the Ravens spread their picks around both sides of the ball a little more evenly and the end results are promising. Guys like running back Justice Hill might not be a starter right this minute but he showed the potential to be an immediate impact and a guy who could take the reins in a few years. Wide receiver Miles Boykin was consistently getting open throughout the night, using his big frame to block defenders from making plays on the ball and getting behind cornerbacks for big completions.
All that depth will pay dividends as early as this season, but it’s promising for the future when you consider Baltimore is playing the long game by retooling their roster now. It’s impossible to predict where players will be at in a year or two, but the Ravens have serious talent all the way down their depth chart.
