Ravens, Commanders Downplay Regional Rivalry

The Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders don't play as often as they would probably like to.

Oct 4, 2020; Landover, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) is forced out of bounds by Washington Football Team outside linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis (54) during the second half at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images / Brad Mills-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders have been next-door neighbors for almost 30 years now, the two teams haven't developed the rivalry many might've expected.

Sure, they play each other almost every preseason, but due to being in different conferences, they've played just seven times in the regular season with Baltimore leading the series 4-3. There's also the fact that they've rarely been good at the same time, as while the Ravens have been contenders for much of the 21st Century, the Commanders have suffered under the terrible ownership of Dan Snyder until recently.

Ahead of Sunday's Battle of the Beltway, the Ravens acknowledged that it doesn't really feel like much of a rivalry, at least historically.

"Really for us, we're kind of in our cocoon – it's a football cocoon," head coach John Harbaugh told reporters Wednesday. "We are locked in on their football team and just trying to go out there and play our best football against a very, very good football team. So that's where our focus is."

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, who's in his first season in the nation's captial, echoed a similar sentiment earlier this week.

"For me, first kind of getting here and getting started, I didn't naturally think of that coming in because of the division and the history of what the NFC East has been," Quinn told reporters, per Washington Commanders On SI. "So that was probably the first thing I thought."

That said, this year's game has a different feeling to it. The Commanders are white-hot amidst a four-game win streak, and rookie sensation Jayden Daniels is taking the league by storm. Meanwhile, the Ravens have won three straight behind dominant performances from Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, and look like contenders once again after a slow start.

So while there may not be a historic rivalry between Baltimore and Washington, both fanbases are fired up for Sunday's game.

"It's obvious I can kind of be excited about it for the fans and for what it means for the region, and I appreciate that," Harbaugh said. "Especially when you get older, you start appreciating those things probably more and more as a coach, so it's really neat in that sense."

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