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Thursday night marked the final chance for a handful of bubble players to secure one of the remaining spots on the 53-man roster as the Ravens take on the St. Louis Rams in the preseason finale.
After announcing earlier in the week that starting quarterback Joe Flacco wouldn’t play in the fourth preseason game — marking the fifth straight year he’s sat out the final preseason contest — coach John Harbaugh was expected to rest most of his starters with the regular-season opener against the Denver Broncos only a week away. Backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor went through pre-game warmups at the Edward Jones Dome, which was a strong indication that he’s been cleared from the concussion suffered last week against the Carolina Panthers, but it remained unclear whether he’d play against the Rams.
Reports from St. Louis also indicated tight end Ed Dickson was going through pre-game warmups, but many others weren’t suited up to play, including running back Ray Rice, linebacker Terrell Suggs, defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, cornerback Lardarius Webb, right guard Marshal Yanda, and left tackle Bryant McKinnie. The Ravens hadn’t released a conclusive list of inactive players 30 minutes prior to the 8:00 p.m. kickoff.
The Ravens will be meeting the Rams for the fourth time ever in the preseason as St. Louis enters the game with a 3-0 all-time mark in the exhibition contests. Baltimore leads the all-time regular-season series by a 3-2 margin and won a 37-7 blowout in St. Louis in the teams’ last meeting in 2011.
Harbaugh is now 15-8 in preseason games with the Ravens holding a 42-28 overall mark in the preseason. Baltimore has won 14 of its last 19 preseason games.
