The Ravens closed the preseason by bludgeoning the Commanders 41-3 on Friday night, and if you missed it you didn't miss much suspense. Baltimore controlled the thing from the opening whistle, rolled up points in bunches, and ESPN's recap has the full box score if you want to relive every drive.

The score, though, wasn't the story. The story was Tyler Loop. And not in a good way.

Loop missed two field goals, and that's the kind of thing that makes me nervous for September. Kicking problems have a way of hiding in August and then standing in the doorway in December, if you catch my drift. Two misses in a preseason finale against a defense full of guys who will be selling insurance in three weeks. I can't tell you what the front office is thinking this week, because nobody outside that building knows. But I know what I'd be thinking if I worked there.

The rest of the night was all Ravens. The offense moved the ball at will against Washington's backups, the defense swarmed, and the final margin looked like something out of a college mismatch. Preseason finals can fool you though. I once watched a team go 4-0 in August and lose eleven games that counted, so I don't hand out trophies for exhibition blowouts. What you look for is young guys flashing, and Baltimore's depth looked like depth that can survive a season's worth of injuries.

For the Commanders, there's not much to say. You don't want to overreact to a game where most of your starters watched in caps and hoodies. Washington's brass already knows what this roster is. A 38-point preseason loss tells you about the bottom of the roster, the guys fighting for practice squad slots, and nothing more. Anyone reading grand conclusions into a preseason finale is chasing ghosts.

But back to Loop, because that's the thread that runs into September. The Ravens open the season with real expectations, and in my book a contender with a kicking question mark is a contender with a leak in the hull. I've said it before and I'll say it again: special teams losses are the quietest way to lose football games. Nobody writes songs about the missed 38-yarder. But ask any fan who has watched one sail wide in a big spot and they'll tell you it lingers.

Cutdown day is coming, and the waiver wire will be littered with kickers who lost jobs elsewhere. Some of them can ball. Dave Morgan, our analytics guy, would tell you two misses in a preseason game is a small sample and the underlying leg strength is fine. He might even be right. But kicking is the one job in football where confidence is the whole gig, and you can't measure a man's nerve with a spreadsheet.

So the Ravens head into the regular season with a blowout win on the ledger and a kicking situation to sort out. One of those means something. The other one, we'll find out soon enough.