The Ravens and Commanders squared off for their first of two joint practices Tuesday and the competitive juices were flowing for both sides.
There were a couple skirmishes in the later portions of practice, and the second resulted in the teams separating for a bit to hear from their head coaches. Overall, Head Coach John Harbaugh said he was pleased with the work.
"That's the bottom line; we got a lot of work done," Harbaugh said. "Joint practices are a challenge, always, obviously, because you've got two teams out here, and there is a lot of pride. I thought it was a really good practice. We had a couple dust-ups, which you don't want to see, but it's not really unexpected. I thought they got handled pretty quickly."
Considering the Ravens' established starters do not play in preseason games, the joint practices are their time to sharpen themselves against another team before the regular season.
Tight end Mark Andrews always plays with an edge, and that was on display Tuesday when he seemed to take umbrage with a hit a Commanders defender put on him. Wide receiver Tylan Wallace and rookie Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes also briefly got into it at the end of a play.
"We want to be competitive and play inside the rules, and I thought today was a good day," Andrews said. "Obviously, [there was] a lot of competitiveness, a lot of chippiness, but [I have] a lot of respect for the organization and what they stand for."
Ravens defenders also got some physical thumps in as well, with cornerback Marlon Humphrey dispatching a lead blocker and defensive back Ar'Darius Washington pushing a tight end out of bounds.
"To me, this is actually kind of almost better than preseason," Humphrey said. "It gets really intense in these practices. … So, practices can always get chirpy, but I think it was really good that it didn't turn into a big, gigantic brawl. It got heated, and then it kind of died down, which shows a lot of maturity on both teams."
Here are other notes from Tuesday's joint practice:
- The first rep of 1-on-1 drills between Ravens receivers and Commanders defensive backs featured first-round rookies Zay Flowers and Forbes. Flowers cooked Forbes off the line of scrimmage and beat him deep by a couple steps for what would have been a long touchdown, setting off an eruption from Ravens fans in attendance.
- Flowers won his other two 1-on-1s as well, the first with a diving catch despite his shirt being pulled, and the second on a comeback in which Flowers nearly went parallel to the turf in his cutback.
- Andrews hauled in a bomb during 11-on-11s when Lamar Jackson stepped up and out of the pocket to lob a ball deep down the sideline to the tight end. With Kam Curl all over him, Andrews cradled in the pass with one hand.
- Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. took Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller deep for a big play from Lamar Jackson. Beckham also had a one handed-snag along the sideline.
- The Ravens had three other chances for deep completions during 7-on-7 drills. On the first, Flowers again beat his man deep but seemed to lose track of the ball and it dropped out of reach. Jackson underthrew the second for Beckham, who had a step and couldn't make the leaping play trying to reach back over the defender. Andrews broke open down the numbers on the third and Jackson overthrew him.
- The Commanders have a very strong defensive front four, but the Ravens' offensive line held up well, even without left tackle Ronnie Stanley practicing. Patrick Mekari took the left tackle reps with the first team and John Simpson was at left guard. Justice Hill, Gus Edwards, and Keaton Mitchell all had long outside runes off the left edge. Hill had a particularly strong practice, as he also hauled in a long pass on a wheel route.
- Outside linebacker Odafe Oweh had three "sacks" on the day against the Commanders' first-team offensive line. Oweh has been very strong in Ravens practices and it's good to see him continue that when going against another team.
- Undrafted rookie outside linebacker Malik Hamm also had an unblocked sack and got good pressure on the day. Undrafted cornerback Jeremy Lucien had a pair of pass breakups during 11-on-11 work.
- Newly signed veteran defensive back DeAndre Houston-Carter had a good pop to knock the ball loose on a short throw he closed on fast.
