The Baltimore Ravens have a little more skin in preseason games than most NFL teams and will look to win their 21st straight preseason matchup on Thursday.
We’ll be the first to admit that a preseason record is not a very impressive record, and it only appears in NFL record books with a giant asterisk.
Many teams opt to rest their key starters for fear of injury (as the Ravens themselves plan to do) and use the preseason mainly as a metric for grading player performances to make final roster cuts.
Results don’t matter — until they do. The Ravens carry a historic preseason streak into Thursday’s opener against the Tennessee Titans: the team has won 20 straight preseason games dating back to 2016.
Their active record bests the Vince Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers, who won 19 in a row from 1959 to 1962.
The official record for most consecutive preseason victories is unknown, but the Ravens boast the longest run as confirmed by the Elias Sports Bureau since 1995.
Heading into tonight’s preseason opener vs. the Titans, the Ravens have won 20 straight preseason games dating back to 2016. Their 20-game win steak has surpassed the Green Bay Packers' 19-game win streak from 1959 to 1962 as the longest preseason winning streak in NFL history.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 11, 2022
Ravens are determined to win their record-breaking 21st preseason game on Thursday
As ESPN’s Jamison Hensley reports, the Ravens don’t necessarily own this streak because the team tends to play its starters against opponents’ backups.
Rather, “it’s because bubble players for Baltimore have repeatedly proven they’re better than the other teams’ reserve players in the second half.”
For many third-, fourth-, and fifth-stringers, preseason games are all about pride and making the most out of one’s opportunities. As proven by their glimmering preseason record, the Ravens’ depth players may just happen to be more competitive than those of other teams and this 2022 squad likely bears no exception.
Heading into Thursday night’s game, the Ravens will bench Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews, and several other elite starters in an effort to reduce injury risk.
Head coach John Harbaugh said the team is chasing “execution over physicality,” and Baltimore really has no reason to risk players’ health especially given how many players are coming off serious injuries.
Yet it’s probably not a coincidence that since the Ravens’ preseason run started in 2016, the team has owned the league’s fourth-best record in the month of September (14-6).
The preseason isn’t just a lineup of silly, meaningless games for Baltimore. It’s a matter of pride, of upholding a certain standard and showing up to the games that don’t technically count.
Poke fun of the preseason record all you want, but the Ravens are going to keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last half-decade: Win.