When training camp broke a year ago, the Ravens barely knew their head coach, much less their starting quarterback.
Now, after three weeks of scorching heat and hard-hitting practices, the team ends training camp today with a firm grasp of its identity and goal.
"We got our eye on something, and everybody sees that," linebacker Ray Lewis said. "When one guy wants to take a day off from practice, there's 10 to 15 guys picking him up and saying you can't. The vibe is different this year because everybody has this taste in their mouth."
Still, the Ravens know they have three weeks until the Sept. 13 season opener to improve and answer some lingering questions.
Runners-up to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC, the Ravens carried their momentum to McDaniel College this past month. Lewis, who has been with the Ravens since their inaugural season in 1996, said this was one of the best training camps in team history.
While other teams already have lost starters for the entire season, the Ravens actually added one since arriving in Westminster. Derrick Mason came back from retirement on the third day of camp, boosting a suspect group of wide receivers.
The team's vaunted defense showed no signs of regressing under new defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. The Ravens shut out the Washington Redskins in their preseason opener, which ended with Lewis handing the game ball to Mattison.
This is a different atmosphere from last year at this time, when John Harbaugh was still an unproven head coach and Joe Flacco was the third-string quarterback.
The Ravens hoped they would be "a really good team" last year. Now, as Harbaugh said during the final days of camp, they know they are.
"We don't look at it like we're good enough here, not good enough there, we need help here, we don't need help there," Harbaugh said. "We just want to make everything better. If we're the best Ravens we can be, we'll be plenty good enough."
The Ravens haven't raised only their play in camp. The volume has been ratcheted up a notch.
No longer is the Ravens' offense a verbal punching bag for a defense that prides itself on swagger.
"It's amazing the trash that Joe [Flacco] talks to Ed [Reed] and me now," Lewis said. "From a defensive standpoint, that's what we're talking about. We want them to come back at us."
