The final time the Ravens performed in London was in 2017 in what was a blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium. Afterward, coach John Harbaugh mentioned he had little interest in going again anytime quickly.
Six years later, the Ravens and Harbaugh are headed again abroad.
The NFL unveiled its slate of 5 worldwide video games on Wednesday morning, and the Ravens will play the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 15 in a Week 6 matchup at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The recreation will kick off at 9:30 a.m. and be broadcast on the NFL Network.
“We look forward to taking on the Titans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,” Ravens president Sashi Brown mentioned in a press release. “It’s exciting to witness and play a role in the NFL’s rise in popularity across the globe. This is an incredible opportunity to play in front of and connect with Ravens fans in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe.”
The workforce’s full 2023 schedule, which additionally consists of three journeys to the West Coast to play the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers, will likely be launched at 8 p.m. Thursday.
This marks simply the second worldwide recreation within the Ravens’ 28-year existence. They hope it goes higher than their first.
In a blundering efficiency full of missed tackles and three turnovers, the Jaguars embarrassed the Ravens, 44-7, within the Week 3 matchup.
“We fell flat on our faces,” then-Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith mentioned.
“They out-executed us in every phase of the game,” added Ravens receiver Jeremy Maclin. “That’s what happens in the National Football League when you don’t come ready to play.”
Back then, Joe Flacco was the Ravens’ quarterback and didn’t full a cross or handle a primary down till almost 4 minutes to go within the second quarter. The Jaguars led 23-0 at halftime and didn’t look again.
Flacco accomplished 8 of 18 passes for simply 28 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns earlier than being yanked for Ryan Mallett, who accomplished 6 of 9 passes for 36 yards and the Ravens’ lone landing. Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, in the meantime, was 20-for-31 for 244 yards with 4 touchdowns.
Harbaugh didn’t maintain again in his feedback the day after the sport.
“Maybe I’ll get into trouble for saying this — don’t plan on going over there any time soon to play again,” he mentioned. “So, somebody else can have that job.”
He additionally appeared to take purpose on the NFL along with his criticism, significantly over the logistics concerned with taking part in a recreation abroad. The Ravens’ lodge was 45 minutes outdoors London and the workforce practiced for 2 days on the facility of a neighborhood rugby workforce.
“There were some certain things that came up that you look at it and you go, ‘That wasn’t ideal,’” Harbaugh mentioned then. “But we really had no way of knowing that. Some things we have no control over. We have no control where we stay, how far the bus ride is, how long it takes to get to the stadium. What impact it had are things we look at.”
The 37-point drubbing matched the most important margin of defeat in franchise historical past.
That wasn’t all.
As the nationwide anthem started to play earlier than the sport, about 25 Ravens and Jaguars gamers — together with former Ravens star and Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, who was working the sport as an analyst for Fox Sports — took a knee in protest in opposition to racial injustice and police brutality and in response to then-President Donald Trump’s inflammatory feedback earlier within the week about athletes protesting in the course of the anthem. It was the primary of a number of protests by gamers across the league that day.
But this journey ought to be markedly completely different from the final.
The Ravens enter this season on the excessive of getting lately re-signed quarterback Lamar Jackson to a five-year extension after two years of adverse negotiations and his request in March to be traded. With already one of many league’s greatest defenses and the addition of two-time All-Pro large receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in free company and wideout Zay Flowers within the draft, Baltimore has rapidly gone from a workforce with query marks to a possible Super Bowl contender.
As for the Titans, they’re coming off a 9-7 season and led by quarterback Ryan Tannehill and operating again Derrick Henry, although they might look to commerce each stars and enter a rebuild.
Like the Ravens, in addition they misplaced of their final recreation abroad, falling to the then-San Diego Chargers, 20-19, in 2018 when coach Mike Vrabel opted to strive a game-winning 2-point conversion with 31 seconds to play and quarterback Marcus Mariota’s cross to large receiver Taywan Taylor fell incomplete.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com