It has been a long time since the Ravens opened a season with back-to-back losses.
Kicker Justin Tucker and defensive lineman Brent Urban are the only players on the current roster who were also in Baltimore when the Ravens lost to the Broncos and Raiders in the first two weeks of the season, so it’s unfamiliar territory for most of the club. John Harbaugh was the head coach of that team, though, and his advice to getting through the 0-2 start is for the team to keep plowing forward rather than shake things up.
“I’ve heard it said the NFL season is a race to improve, to become the best team you can over the course of the long haul,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “We had a disappointing game yesterday, we’re not happy about it. We want to play better, we want to play winning football, we didn’t. So we’ve got to keep pounding the rock, and the rock is going to crack. That’s our job to keep pounding, not get discouraged, not think all is for nothing. Continue to work and our reward will be out there in our future.”
That advice doesn’t always pan out. Harbaugh’s 2015 team lost six of their first seven games on the way to a 5-11 finish that is the team’s worst record since he joined the team. This year’s club will be hoping a Week Two loss to the Raiders is the end of the similarities between the two seasons.
