OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Apparently, the first rule when it comes to the Baltimore Ravens’ preseason win streak is you don’t talk about the Baltimore Ravens’ preseason win streak.
The Ravens have won 23 straight preseason games, which is the longest mark in NFL history. The last time Baltimore lost in the preseason was 2015, when rookie first-round pick Zay Flowers was a freshman in high school.
As the Ravens open the preseason Saturday against the Philadelphia Eagles, coach John Harbaugh won’t be mentioning his team’s eight straight years of perfect summers to the players. (All preseason games were canceled in 2020.)
"It's like a no-hitter [in baseball]. It's like a hitting streak,” Harbaugh said. "It's unspoken until maybe after the game.”
The Ravens set the preseason mark in 2021, surpassing the 19-game streak of Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1962. The second-longest current preseason win streak is held by the Las Vegas Raiders and the Chicago Bears, who have won four in a row.
There are only two Ravens players who have been around for the entire unbeaten preseason run: kicker Justin Tucker and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley. Tucker said no players have talked about the streak. In fact, the first time it was mentioned this week was when a reporter asked him whether he knew the exact number of wins in a row for Baltimore.
Tucker correctly answered 23.
“I’ve said this last year, and the year before and probably the year before that, but it of course means something to us,” Tucker said. “It’s a reflection of our organization, our coaching staff and our young players working their tails off this time of year to put a good product on the field, and a product that we can all be proud of. More than anything, it speaks to the way our coaches develop us and the way they ensure our young guys buy into what we do around here.”
The Ravens aren’t trying to win so badly that they play their top players more than other teams. In fact, Baltimore’s two franchise quarterbacks during the streak -- Joe Flacco and Lamar Jackson -- have combined for seven starts during this preseason run. Lamar Jackson and the other "established starters" will not play Saturday, according to Harbaugh. Josh Johnson and Tyler Huntley will play quarterback for a majority of the game.
It really has been a team effort by the Ravens, who’ve had 42 players score a touchdown during their August dynasty. Still, the Ravens have heard others rib them for thinking the streak is special when the games don’t technically count.
“People have their opinions, and I get it,” Harbaugh said. "Different things are important to different people, and I know that the guys who played in those games, the guys that made the plays to win those games in the fourth quarter -- because most of those games were won in the fourth quarter with guys making plays -- they'll remember it. It's important to them for the rest of their life, and therefore it's important to me.”
Harbaugh added: "We have a lot of goals [and] a lot of things that we're trying to accomplish. It's not about that at all, not even about that per se. It's about becoming better as a football team, evaluating our players and each individual guy improving. So, that's what we're looking for."