The Ravens closed out their preseason in dominant fashion Friday night, routing the Commanders 41-3 at M&T Bank Stadium with most of the regular starters held out or seeing only token snaps.
Tyler Huntley got things going early, going a perfect 4-for-4 on Baltimore's opening drive and capping it with a 25-yard touchdown to Chris Moore. Moore finished with three receptions for 54 yards and the score, which was sign of more success to come. "We have a standard that we set in this locker room and we lived up to it today," Moore said in an on-field postgame interview.
The night belonged again, in part, to Joe Fagnano, who continued building his case for a roster spot with maybe his best outing of the summer. The 25-year-old rookie from UConn by way of Maine finished 19-of-27 for 162 yards, with a 10-yard touchdown pass to LaJohntay Wester through the air and a 1-yard touchdown run of his own.
His poise in the pocket has been a running theme all preseason, and Friday only added to it — there's a real argument the Ravens have found a legitimate NFL backup, not just camp depth. "He has been really consistent," Ravens first-year coach Jesse Minter said. "He has played a certain way almost all three games."
Even the third quarterback got in on the scoring: Austin Reed found Cornelius Johnson for a 20-yard touchdown in relief, though an interception kept his night from being clean.
The ground game had its own quiet standout. Dontae McMillan needed only three carries to rack up 70 yards, and Jonathan Ward punched in a 2-yard rushing touchdown on his way to 53 yards on seven attempts. Adam Randall added another well-rounded showing, picking up 70 total yards from scrimmage between his rushing and receiving work.
Baltimore led 24-0 at the half and never let Washington threaten a comeback; the Commanders didn't get on the board until 5:59 remained in the third quarter on a 39-yard Drew Stevens field goal, and Reed's touchdown to Johnson late in the fourth padded the final margin to a 38-point rout — the largest margin of victory by any team across the entire NFL preseason.
One concern: Second-year kicker Tyler Loop had a shaky night by his own standards, going 2-for-4 on field goal attempts, though one of the makes was a 51-yarder in the first half. The misses are notable given the scar tissue Loop has with how last season ended, with a missed field goal against the Steelers that kept the Ravens out of the postseason.
"You want to see makes in games, and so, it is something we will continue to look at," Minter said of the kicking situation, and he didn't rule out bringing in competition at the spot before Week 1 of the regular season. "We will continue to look at what the best situation is there. He has had a good camp overall, but again, it comes down to making the kicks in the pressure situations in the game."
"What I have done in practice — the great ball striking that we have done — it has to carry over, and it has to be consistent," Loop said. "It sucks to miss, it does. But you have to learn from it; you have to move on, and I know the expectation. I [have] to make kicks. So, that is the world we are living in.”
Defensively, Ethan Burke shined again. The undrafted rookie outside linebacker out of Texas forced a fumble on Baltimore's very first defensive snap of the game, extending a pattern that's defined his entire preseason — he's now forced a fumble in more than one outing this summer, exactly the kind of disruptive, high-motor play that turns undrafted free agents into real roster considerations.
The rest of the unit backed him up, sacking Washington's quarterbacks three times and holding the Commanders to just 177 total yards; inside linebacker Dominic DeLuca led all tacklers with nine. Kaimon Rucker and Adisa Isaac each had six.
“I just feel like we went out there and just executed," defensive lineman Aeneas Peebles said. "I feel like we put a lot into this coming into the offseason and trying to be really detailed going into every single game and just trying to put Coach Minter’s vision on tape. I feel like when you take pride in something like that, good things happen.”
Up front, Jovaughn Gwyn got the start at center, continuing to build his own case in Baltimore's ongoing competition for the job.
The win puts a bow on a perfect preseason for Baltimore, which finishes 3-0 and outscored its three opponents by a combined 78-13. Most of it came without the players who'll actually matter most once games count — Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and the bulk of Baltimore's starters were either held out entirely or saw only limited action, with backups and roster hopefuls doing the heavy lifting.
That's very much by design this time of year; preseason scores rarely predict anything about the regular season, but a dominant showing from the players fighting for the back of the roster gives the coaching staff plenty of tape to sort through before cuts are finalized.
“In the preseason, you really want to play to your identity. You want to create a play style in all three phases. What are your standards? What are you accepting as playing for the Ravens?” Minter said. “The thing I’m really most proud of is all the guys out there play the way we want to play. And does that mean they are all going to be able to make the team? No. But, they have bought into how we want to play, and that has showed up in the games."
After it finalizes its roster, Baltimore will turn its full attention to the regular season, opening on the road against the Indianapolis Colts on September 13.