Ravens GM Eric DeCosta Will Focus on Final Stretch of Games When Schedule Released
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens have Super Bowl aspirations this season and they'll have more clarity about the upcoming season when the NFL officially releases the 2021 schedule on Wednesday, May 12 at 8 p.m.
Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta has a ritual when he finds out the dates and times of the upcoming games.
“I look at December games because I know those are going to be critically important and those can really impact your team,” DeCosta told Pro Football Talk. “Last year was a great example. Our schedule was very tough beginning of the year and our December schedule was pretty fortuitous. We ran the table.
"That was a great thing for us to get into the playoffs, momentum and all those kind of things. I think the December games are very, very big. We’ll look at the home and aways in December. I’ll look at that and we’ll see what it looks like.”
The NFL officially added the extra regular-season game this year and reduced the preseason from four to three games.
The Ravens will host the Rams in the extra game based on the formula set by the NFL that has the NFC West playing the AFC North. The Ravens and Rams were both second-place finishers in their divisions so they get matched up.
It adds another tough matchup to Baltimore's schedule that now has a half-dozen teams that made the playoffs in 2020:
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Cleveland Brown
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Green Bay Packers
- Indianapolis Colts
- Los Angeles Rams
The Ravens other games are against the Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers. None of those teams made the postseason.
Last year, Baltimore finished 11-5 and beat the Tennessee Titans 20-13 in the wild-card round of the AC players. The Ravens lost to the Buffalo Bills 17-3 in the divisional round.
Baltimore Ravens Schedule
Home: Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings
Away: Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Las Vegas Raiders, Miami Dolphins.
