OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- The Baltimore Ravens wrap up this year's training camp Tuesday, although the plan is for the players to carry these 14 practices with them throughout the season.
The Ravens believe the foundation of a perennial playoff team comes from the way coach John Harbaugh prepares them in the summer. It goes beyond three-hour practices in the sweltering heat. It's about the additional heat Harbaugh puts on his players.
Harbaugh preaches situational football. He wants his players as tough mentally as they are physically. That means a series of impromptu, high-pressure scenarios designed to test execution as well as poise.
On the third practice of camp, his players had endured 2 1/2 hours in the heat and were visibly tired. That's when Harbaugh called for a change of plans. He placed the ball at midfield and told the offense it had one last play to win the game.
"We are stressed in a number of very, very difficult situations early," offensive coordinator Marc Trestman said. "I think John is really mindful of the toughness and the backbone that a team has to have, and this is where you build the backbone."
Harbaugh's emphasis on various situations stems from his nine years working with punt and kickoff teams. Special teams practices are often more free-flowing, and he just expanded on that idea when he became a head coach in 2008.
Another reason why the Ravens have been to the playoffs in six of Harbaugh's seven seasons is his attention to detail. He wants to make sure every scenario is covered in camp, and his players know how to handle it.
In minicamp, Baltimore practiced against illegal formations after the "substitution trick" was used by the New England Patriots in last season's divisional playoff game. In this year's training camp, situations have ranged from third down-and-nine while backed up to your own goal line to fourth-and-20 (which possibly helped the Ravens convert the same situation in the preseason opener).
The Ravens even practiced the scenario in which they were ahead by two points with six seconds remaining and didn't want to punt. So, Joe Flacco had to scramble in the backfield to run down the clock before throwing the ball out of bounds as time expired.
As Harbaugh put it, this scenario might come up once every five years. But his team is prepared for it.
"The idea, basically, is that we want to train to win," Harbaugh said. "We want to train as game-like as we possibly can. We think that if you practice like you play, then you'll play like you practice."
The Ravens aren't the only team to stress situational football. But not all teams approach it the same way.
"The difference is we started in Day 1," said quarterback Matt Schaub, who has been in training camp with the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders. "I think it's great. It keeps you out of the deluge of first-day install, second-day install, just running plays. It really puts you in the game, mentally, as a whole football team."
Harbaugh does everything he can to make sure everyone has the right mindset. The practice jerseys are designed to look like the game-day ones, with their names printed on their backs. There is music blaring from a handful of speakers to simulate crowd noise. The team even hires local referees to work their practices.
The true test comes when Harbaugh challenges his players with a situation like fourth down or the red zone or the last two minutes of a half.
"It not only puts us through tests and how we're going to react to situations, it makes him think about how he's going to coach it," Flacco said. "The fact that we practice situational football, it gives us a better chance of handling it in the right way under pressure throughout the course of a game. Instead of going through the motions and running plays, we're trying to make it as realistic as possible."