The Ravens defeated the Carolina Panthers, 17-12, in the first preseason game for both teams. Defense reigned as the final stat books counts a total of 12 sacks on the night.
Flacco looked sharp ending the night completing eight of his twelve pass attempts and throwing for a total of 120 passing yards and a touchdown. Zbikowski and Prince Miller both shined in the return game with long punt returns for 28 yards and 57 yards respectively.
Fabian Washington and Ray Rice were no goes tonight as Washington is still healing from a knee injury. Rice was just resting and is expected to see more action later in the preseason. Meanwhile, LeRon McClain held down the running game rumbling for 21 rushing yards on only four carries.
The secondary really neutralized the Panthers' wide receiving core that was without Steve Smith. Corners like Prince Miller, Cary Williams and Doug Dutch prevented Matt Moore and Jimmy Clausen from connecting deep with their core of young receivers. They took a long stride in the right direction tonight in convincing everyone that they can hold down the back end of this defense but still have improvements to make.
The most concerning thing I noticed was the lack of stable pass protection by the offensive line. All three quarterbacks has trouble staying upright. In one drive, Marc Bulger found himself running for his life in consecutive plays like he did during his time behind a shady offensive line in St. Louis.
The next preseason game is down the highway at Fedex Field in Landover, Maryland on Saturday, August 21. I will be looking to see the Ravens' pass rush continue its fierce efforts. Antwan Barnes was really flying around the edge and often disrupted the pocket but who else besides the starters can be depended upon to improve the pass rush that ranked only 18th in the league with 32 sacks last season?
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