On Saturday night, there was real football at M&T Bank Stadium for the first time in eight months. The team running out of the tunnel to the roar of the fans was a refreshing taste of normalcy. Though with reporters filling only a few of the more than 71,000 seats and the fan cheers being played through the speaker system, it was also a stark reminder of just how unusual this year has been and what fans should expect this season.
Though Baltimore has technically been holding training camp since the beginning of August, a long ramp-up period due to the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols has effectively meant the Ravens have only really practiced for less than two weeks. With Saturday’s practice at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore held what will be its last team scrimmage of training camp in the same spot it’ll host the rival Cleveland Browns in two more weeks. And just like Saturday’s scrimmage, Week 1 will have a sea of empty purple seats welcoming the teams into the regular season.
Though the Ravens have worked hard with local government officials to keep M&T Bank Stadium open to at least some fans this season, the team recently relented. Baltimore acknowledged that in spite of a recent proposal to limit attendance to just 7,500 people, no fans will be in the stands for “at least the initial part” of the regular season. With training camp not having the usual hustle and bustle from fans this offseason either, it’ll be a fitting start to the regular season.
To prepare for that reality, the Ravens did their best to simulate a “normal” gameday experience for the players. The stadium’s video boards and lights were turned on with crowd noise piped through the speaker system. The team went to the locker room after initial warmups before running back out onto the field through the tunnel to raucous applause and screams from imaginary fans.
However, all the pomp and circumstance couldn’t hide a still-rusty team. The offense struggled to get into a rhythm and several pre-snap penalties caused frustrations. While there were flashes from all sides of the ball, coach John Harbaugh acknowledged the team still has “plenty of work to do.” Running back Mark Ingram echoed Harbaugh’s sentiments, viewing the errors as a chance to learn where they need to improve before Week 1.
“Honestly, I think today was very needed for us – just to be able to see that we’re not all the way ready,” Ingram said after Saturday’s practice. “We still have strides to go to be the team that we want to be.”
The Ravens likely aren’t alone in being rusty this close to the regular season. All 32 NFL teams have been under the same league-wide protocols, limiting team interaction with the players and condensing an offseason of workouts into a handful of weeks. The start of the regular season is often a sloppy affair as players get used to yet another step up in intensity, but this year could be especially bad. The teams we see on the field for Week 1 will be shadows of the versions we’ll eventually see by midseason.
By now, most people have gotten tired of the term “the new normal.” But with the 2020 NFL season right around the corner, there’s yet another instance of things changing due to COVID-19. Though football is finally back, this will be anything but a normal season and we don’t even know how odd it’s going to get yet.
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