After four straight days of padded practices and with a 99-degree heat index in Owings Mills, the Ravens turned down the tempo of practice but turned up the heat from the defense.
The Ravens practiced third-down situations and against blitzes for much of Wednesday. Despite that, Lamar Jackson thrived, having perhaps his best day of training camp yet.
The most impressive play was when the defense showed a pre-snap blitz with Roquan Smith coming up to the line of scrimmage. Jackson made an adjustment, either changing protection or the play entirely. Jackson seemed to know there was a free safety blitzer coming, and delivered a deep strike to Zay Flowers, who was one-on-one against Kyle Hamilton.
The Ravens have talked a lot this summer about Jackson taking even more command of pre-snap checks, and it was a perfect example of him getting Baltimore’s offense into the right play to take advantage of the defense.
“We worked on a lot of third down, third-and-6-to-12 situations, so some of that stuff comes up, push the ball down field. Then we had a big blitz period where the offense hit numerous plays downfield,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said.
“So, that was important to see, and it was good to see [that] the ball was coming out quick and executing like we need to against that pressure. That’s a big step for us. I thought the guys did a great job with that.”