The San Francisco 49ers play the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday in their 2014 NFL preseason opener. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET. Listen to the live radio broadcast below.
Baltimore fans may finally be able to see whether all the offseason hype about quarterback Joe Flacco's progression is fact or fiction. Flacco supposedly is more accurate, thriving in the system of new offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak.
"I'm a guy that likes to run the offense the way that the offense is supposed to be ran," Flacco told the team website. "I want what I'm supposed to do to be black or white - I'm supposed to do this and not supposed to do that. When you tell me that, I expect myself to go out there and do it that way."
Kubiak appears to have taken over the thinking for Flacco, allowing the signal caller to focus on playing - something, with all the pre-snap checks and reads in the offense of ex-offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell, he was unable to do last season.
"He's very tough on the quarterbacks," Flacco said of Kubiak. "He expects us to do everything perfect in practice so you give yourself the best shot of doing that in the game."
Newly signed tight end Owen Daniels, who played under Kubiak for the last eight years, knows what to expect on offense.
"His offense is very detailed - like down to the inches - almost in terms of where we need to be on certain routes, where we want to be in run blocking," said Daniels. "He knows this offense as well as anyone in the world, and he's able to communicate that."
Thursday also marks another meeting of the two Harbaugh brothers, John and Jim.
For San Francisco, the preseason will be about finding the players who are able to step up and fill in for the slew of injured starters.
