PLAYERS GET WEEKEND OFF; ANOTHER REF GAFFE

By Joe Platania

ST. LOUIS 31, BALTIMORE 17

Friday, the Ravens will have a day-after-game walk-through practice before head coach John Harbaugh meets the media around lunchtime to ostensibly talk about the final roster. The team will then be off Saturday and Sunday before beginning preparations for the regular-season opener against Cincinnati (7 p.m., Sept. 10; ESPN, WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM). ...

Thursday's game featured a gaffe from the replacement officials. During the third quarter, Ravens special-teamer Asa Jackson landed out of bounds with a ball that fell short on a 62-yard Rams field goal attempt. The play should have been called a touchback, but the Ravens were given the ball at the spot of the kick, 32 yards further upfield than it should have been awarded. ...

Although it might not carry much significance, it's a fact that going into Thursday's game, the Ravens were 10-6 during the preseason's final week (even though they played three games in 2001), including wins during two of the last three years. ... The game marked the third time during the last five years the Ravens and Rams have met during the preseason, all in the Gateway City. ...

Thursday night, the Ravens did not record a quarterback sack for the game's first three quarters until Ishmaa'ily Kitchen took down Rams third-stringer Austin Davis during the fourth. ... Baltimore finished the preseason campaign by scoring 108 points, the franchise's highest August total. It broke the record of 106 points, which the team scored during its 1996 debut preseason. ...

The Ravens had to jump on a plane after the game, because the final large-scale cut has to be made by 9 p.m. Friday as teams have to get down from 75 to 53 active-roster players. Following that deadline, all released players -- about 700 of them -- will be in limbo until noon on Saturday, when teams can begin constructing their eight-man practice squads. ...

If you're looking for an omen for the future, 35 of 46 Super Bowl champions had winning records during the preseason. The last 12 champions -- starting with the Ravens in 2000 -- were a combined 30-18 during the preseason. ... The AFC North was the league's only division in which all four teams had winning records going into the preseason's final weekend. ...

Heading into the regular season, the Ravens can claim the third-longest active winning streak in season openers, having taken their last four straight. New England has won its last eight Week One games and Green Bay has won five in a row. The longest active season-opening-game losing streaks belong to the Cleveland Browns (seven), St. Louis (five) and Carolina (three). ...

Two rule changes the players' union rejected have been enacted. The trading deadline will now fall on the Tuesday following Week Eight (Oct. 30) and teams can bring back one player per season from season-ending injured-reserve list. But the latter rule does not apply to players on the Physically Unable To Perform list, such as Terrell Suggs. ...

The last time Baltimore played at St. Louis during the regular season was a 37-7 blowout last year, which featured three Torrey Smith touchdowns during the first quarter. But in 2010, Baltimore's most recent preseason visit to the Gateway City before this year's matchup, the Ravens lost a penalty-filled August game to the Rams, 27-21, and the Ravens' Dannell Ellerbe was chastised for showboating during an interception runback. ...

Apparently, winning matters: going into Thursday's game, the Ravens had compiled a lifetime August record of 40-26. When the Ravens got their 40th preseason win against Jacksonville, it took them just one more preseason than the Baltimore Colts to record that many, even though the Colts played more preseason games each year back in an era of more preseason games. ...

The Ravens are loaded with ex-Rams players and coaches, such as running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery, part of the Rams' staff when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. Vince Newsome, director of pro personnel, played eight years there, and cornerback Danny Gorrer was a Ram in 2009. Tight end Billy Bajema and guard Tony Wragge were teammates last year. ...

The Rams won the opening coin toss and chose to receive. ... The visiting Ravens wore white jerseys and white pants, while the host Rams wore blue jerseys and white pants. ... The NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano, Marshall Faulk and Ross Tucker were all part of the Rams' broadcast crew. The network's first scheduled re-run of the game is set for 4 p.m. Saturday. ...

The Ravens sat down their ever-shortening injury list for this game: wide receiver Tommy Streeter (sprained foot), safety Sean Considine (concussion), linebackers Josh Bynes (cracked vertebrae) and Ricky Brown (unknown), guard Marshal Yanda (leg) and guard/tackle Jah Reid (calf). Tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta are practicing, but were also held out. ...

By contrast, the host Rams played some of their starters for the entire first half, and a few played during the third quarter. Those that sat out included the dean of the offensive line, sixth-year guard Harvey Dahl, tight end Lance Kendricks, defensive end Eugene Sims, defensive tackle Darrell Scott and safety Darian Stewart. ...

St. Louis linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar might be familiar to Maryland fans, having run back fumbles for scores during consecutive years against the Terps for Boston College . ... Rams third-round pick Janoris Jenkins is one of many NFL players that came from a town known as "The Muck" (Pahokee, Fla.), which is also the hometown of Ravens receiver Anquan Boldin. ...

Last year, the Rams had a below-average minus-5 turnover differential, partially because the team recovered only six opponents' fumbles all year. During the team's first three preseason games this year, it has already recovered four, each by a different player. ... Defensively, the Rams had 39 sacks during 16 games in 2011, but accumulated eight (by seven different players) this month. ...

In late July, the Rams signed former Ravens fullback Ovie Mughelli, whom Baltimore drafted during the fourth round of the 2003 draft. He later became the highest-paid fullback in the league when he defected to the Atlanta Falcons as an unrestricted free agent. Currently, Mughelli sits behind four-year NFL veteran Brit Miller on the depth chart. ...

For a second straight week, the Ravens faced one of the NFL's youngest teams. Only five St. Louis Rams players have more than eight years' experience in the league, but perhaps more telling is the fact that just two members of the team's 75-man roster joined the Rams before 2009, running back Steven Jackson (2004) and starting defensive end Chris Long (2008). ...

St. Louis head coach Jeff Fisher is well-known to Ravens fans, having helmed the Tennessee Titans during their pitched battles with Baltimore in the old AFC Central Division. The last time a Fisher-coached team played at home against the Ravens was in 2006, when Baltimore launched the greatest road comeback in its history (19 points) and beat the Titans, 27-26. ...

Rams right guard Bryan Mattison is an ex-Raven, who is the son of former Baltimore defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. ... Left guard Quinn Ojinnaka is a seventh-year pro, who is originally from Seabrook, Md. Undrafted rookie free agent safety Rodney McLeod, a backup to 10-year veteran Quintin Mikell, grew up in Oxon Hill and attended Boise State University. ...

Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel was a special-teams assistant with the Ravens from 2005-07. His father, Jim, was on the Ravens' staff as offensive coordinator under Brian Billick, who defeated him during Super Bowl XXXV, when he was the New York Giants' head coach. Billick eventually fired Fassel and took over the play-calling during the 2006 bye. ...

Former University of Maryland safety and assistant coach Dennard Wilson is now a Rams defensive quality control coach, having played his first season for head coach Ron Vanderlinden and his final three campaigns for Ralph Friedgen. During his sophomore season (2001), Maryland won the ACC title and competed in the Orange Bowl against Florida. ...

The game took three hours, six minutes to play. The Ravens' four preseason games, all handled by replacement officials, averaged 3:14 in length. ... All 32 teams wrapped up their preseason schedules by Thursday, and the AFC North was no exception. Cleveland entertained the Chicago Bears, the Cincinnati Bengals traveled to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh hosted the Carolina Panthers. ...

The head official was replacement referee David White. As of gametime, there had not been anything close to a settlement between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association, meaning that the replacements will work at least the first week of the regular season, just as they did in 2001. ... Kickoff temperature was a climate-controlled 72 degrees with comfortable conditions.

Posted Aug. 31, 2012