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BALTIMORE – Baltimore Ravens center Matt Skura was benched after two straight games of bad clichés, a source confirmed on Sunday.
Patrick Mekari, who made five starts last season after Skura suffered a late-season knee injury, will start center for Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans.
Skura, who is in his third season as a starting center from Baltimore, took two costly bad shots in Sunday’s 23-17 loss to New England. A wild slam against running back Mark Ingram in the Wildcat roster kept the Ravens from converting on the fourth down, and another errant slam against Lamar Jackson came late in the game to stop a potentially winning practice.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh initially attributed the bad shots to the heavy rain in New England, but said a day later the issue needed to be addressed.
“Do the shots affect us? Absolutely; it was very expensive in the game,” Harbaugh said Monday. “It’s a tough business. It’s a tough situation, but Matt [Skura] knows he has to get those shots back there. No one feels worse than him. “
After the loss in New England, Skura said her family received “hateful and threatening” direct messages on social media.
“They don’t deserve to be examined for something they haven’t done,” Skura wrote on Instagram.
It was the second game Skura had struggled with his shots in gun training, where Jackson lined up four yards behind center. In a victory in Indianapolis on Nov. 8, Skura struggled to lift the ball off the ground to bring the ball back to Jackson. This was attributed to a cut to Skura’s thumb.
Skura, 27, has made a remarkable recovery this offseason after a devastating knee injury. He tore the ACL, PCL and MCL in his left knee last November and was back at training camp eight months later.
The injury has cost Skura, a former undrafted player, $ 1.1 million this year. As a restricted free agent, he received the offer of $ 2.1 million instead of $ 3.2 million because the Ravens knew no team would sign him on an offer sheet because ‘he was hurt. Skura will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Skura’s bench marks another change in a revamped Baltimore offensive line, which has two starters (left tackle Ronnie Stanley and right guard Tire Phillips) on the injured reserve. This is the fifth different starting combination for the offensive line in 10 games this season. Last year, the Ravens had two different starting lineups on the offensive line all season long.
The Ravens’ starting offensive line should look like this: Orlando Brown at left tackle, Bradley Bozeman, Mekari at center, Ben Powers at right guard, and DJ Fluker at right tackle. Only Bozeman has been at the same starting point since the start of the season.
The NFL Network was the first to report Skura’s bench.
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