The NFL preseason's greatest winning streak ended on Monday.
The Baltimore Ravens lost to the Washington Commanders, 29-28, snapping their NFL-record run of 24 consecutive preseason victories on the strength of a Joey Slye 49-yard field goal.
"You're proud of it, of course, you appreciate it, but the thing that you're proud of is all those games are mostly just like that," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said after the game. "Preseason games that people want to write about, some of you in here, want to write about and say they don't mean anything because you never played the game. You were never out there in a preseason game. You never were fighting for a spot on a team.
"And yet you have the audacity to say that the effort that somebody puts into that to win and fight and win a game like that is meaningless. Tell me that was meaningless out there what you just saw. If you like football, is that a meaningless football game? I can't respect anybody that says that. Because the effort these guys put into it. That's why I'm so proud of these guys for the way they fought. Doesn't matter win or loss. It matters the way they went about their business tonight, and I'm proud of them for that and always will be."
Baltimore held a 28-20 lead with most of the fourth quarter to play, but Washington's Jake Fromm rallied the Commanders, leading a touchdown drive with just more than four minutes to play before driving his squad into position for Slye's game-winner.
While the Ravens played without most of their starters, the Commanders went with newly crowned QB1 Sam Howell for the duration of the first half. Howell threw two touchdowns passes.
Preseason or not, it was a celebrated win for the Commanders and their new ownership.
Monday's loss marks the first time John Harbaugh's squad has fallen in the preseason since Sept. 3, 2015, against the Atlanta Falcons.
In between losing those tilts, Baltimore was perfect through seven years (and one game) of preseason action.
Baltimore passed up Vince Lombardi's 1959-1962 Green Bay Packers' previous standard of 19 straight preseason wins in 2021.
During the Ravens' run of preseason success, they've gone to the playoffs in four of seven regular seasons with two AFC North titles. In the 2015 season that followed Baltimore's last preseason setback, the Ravens went 5-11 -- which marked the worst season in Harbaugh's career.
Now, it's the Las Vegas Raiders who own the longest preseason winning streak at the moment, having put together six consecutive victories.
Thusly, it'll be a very long time until any squad approaches Baltimore's preseason standard.
