The Ravens made their preseason debut at home last night against the Detroit Lions with a lot of questions coming off an uneven performance in the first preseason tilt against the Atlanta Falcons.
One of the questionable areas being the offensive line which didn’t do much in the way of protecting quarterback Joe Flacco on August 9th, as the Falcons sacked Flacco three times. One jarring sack in particular by Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon left the entire Baltimore area holding their collective breaths.
But last night in the Ravens 27-12 loss to the Lions, the offensive line stepped their game up, with a bit more familiarity as to who might be starting there come Week 1.
Matt Birk returned to the lineup at center to make his debut after rookie Gino Gradkowski started there last week. For the second game in a row, Michael Oher started at left tackle and rookie Kelechi Osemele started at right tackle and not Bryant McKinnie.
All things considered, the line did a fairly good job facing a Lions defensive front with Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril. The Lions got to Joe Flacco just once during his time on the field, coming in the second quarter and that sack wasn’t the fault of the line as running back Anthony Allen failed horribly at picking up a blitz from the Lion secondary.
The Ravens offensive line seemed to be in tune with each other throughout the first and second quarter, working in unison on blocking, pushing back a very formidable and physical front line of Detroit. They showed good awareness as the Lions threw different blitz looks at them.
But there are still issues to be ironed out, Michael Oher was flagged on a holding call that took the Ravens out of the red zone on a drive late in the first quarter.
Regardless, it was a better showing for a line that had a nightmare of a time dealing with the Falcons last week. But with one preseason game left for the starters to get their work in and Opening Night September 10th against the Cincinnati Bengals looming, there’s not much time left for them to get things right.
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Let Ozzie pick the starters , after all he’s the one who brought this terrble group in to protect Flacco,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,why do you think the Ravens are going to the sugar huddle and three step drops,,,,,,,,,,,,because this line can’t block or open holes for Rice,,,,,,,,,,,,,now it’s poor Joe and poor Ray………………way to go Ozzie………….