Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way so nobody quote-tweets me into oblivion: this was a preseason game where roughly every player you’d pay to watch stood on the sideline in a bucket hat. Kyler Murray was a tourist. Lamar was a tourist. This was the JV squad and the guys clinging to the bottom of the 90-man raft, and reading a Super Bowl into it is how you end up looking silly in October. So calm down.
Now that we’ve done our civic duty, here’s the fun part. Baltimore beat Minnesota 13-3, moved to 2-0 in games that don’t count, and has now surrendered a grand total of 10 points across two preseason weeks. Ten. The starters spent Wednesday and Thursday getting waterboarded by Brian Flores in the joint practices, and then the backups showed up Saturday and treated the Vikings offense like it owed them money. There’s something building on that side of the ball, and it goes a lot deeper than the names on the marquee.
The kid nobody drafted stole the whole show
Write down the name Ethan Burke, because the Ravens are about to have a very annoying roster decision on their hands. The UDFA rookie edge out of Texas turned in the kind of afternoon that gets a fringe guy a locker in September: a sack, a forced fumble stripping Jeshaun Jones clean, two passes defensed, two quarterback hits, and, because he apparently doesn’t know how to have a quiet day, he ran down a kick returner and shoved him out of bounds to save a special teams touchdown. That’s not a stat line. That’s a highlight reel with a résumé attached.
The math here is brutal in the best way. Burke is fighting for the fifth outside linebacker spot, and after Saturday he looks like he lapped Adisa Isaac to get there. When you’re undrafted, “solid” gets you cut and “unforgettable” gets you a job, and Burke picked the right one. Per PressBox Online he kept it boringly humble after, saying he just wants to keep doing what he’s doing and getting better, which is exactly what a guy says when he knows the tape did the talking for him.
Joe Fagnano is a genuine, certified find
Here is my favorite type of NFL story: the team that already has everything digging a useful player out of the couch cushions. Joe Fagnano, undrafted, went 15-of-20 for 123 yards and a touchdown with zero turnovers, and he did it with Flores pressure in his grill for most of the day because that’s what a Flores defense does to a backup quarterback. Over two preseason games he’s now 37-of-48 for 327 yards, two scores, and one pick. The touchdown was an 8-yard dart to a wide-open LaJohntay Wester, whose first career NFL receiving score prompted a completely reasonable celebration from a guy who’s been grinding for exactly that moment.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you Fagnano is the QB2 of the future off two August starts. But climbing the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield under duress, dropping a 27-yard strike on Devontez Walker with bodies around him? That’s real quarterbacking. The Ravens didn’t spend a pick on this and got a developmental piece anyway. That’s how the good ones stay good.
We came for a center and left with a shrug
Alright, the one thing everyone actually wanted answered. Danny Pinter tore his patellar tendon in the joint practices, which we covered, which stinks, and which blew the center job wide open. Saturday was supposed to be the interview. Instead everybody mumbled through their answers and nobody got the offer.
Jovaughn Gwyn drew the start and was fine. “Fine” is a quiet downgrade from the man who was pancaking Vikings into the TCO turf 72 hours earlier, but fine. Ethan Pocic checked in earlier than he did last week, logged around 31 snaps, and looked precisely like a 10th-year vet eight months removed from an Achilles tear: competent, careful, and impossible to get excited about. Corey Bullock got a cameo. So the tape gave us nothing.
The usage gave us something, though. Read that, not the box score. Pocic entering sooner and playing longer than a week ago isn’t the staff being indecisive, it’s the staff deliberately greasing the veteran’s hinges and building his snap count back up on a schedule. This competition is going to the final exit ramp before the Colts open the season, and my money says they want it to be Pocic if the Achilles cooperates.
