By
John Harvey
 |
| Lorenzo Taliaferro rushed for 71 yards in his NFL debut. |
BALTIMORE
– Lorenzo Taliaferro made his professional football debut Thursday
night for the Baltimore Ravens in an NFL preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The
former Bruton High standout gave coaches and fans at M&T Stadium plenty to
talk about following the 23-3 victory. Taliaferro rushed for a team-high 71
yards on 13carries against a 49ers team that reached the NFC Championship game
last January.
“It
was fun,” Taliaferro said. “It was great to actually hit someone.”
A
fourth-round draft pick of the Ravens in May, Taliaferro started the second
half for the Ravens and impressed coaches and commentators with his hard-nosed
running style. He gained seven yards on his first carry and never looked back.
“It’s always better when you’re live because a
guy my size, that’s all they speak about is, 'Can you get the ball downhill?
Can you go north and south?'" Taliaferro told the Baltimore sun. "And
you can’t really do that too much in practice with contact. So, it felt good to
just get it downhill.”
Taliaferro
also showed some quickness, breaking off a couple of runs of more than 10
yards. And unlike teammates Bernard Pierce and Justin Forsett, he did not fumble
the football.
The
6-foot-2, 230-pound back looked comfortable in new offensive coordinator Gary
Kubiak’s zone-blocking scheme. “It definitely fits my style,” Taliaferro told
the Baltimore Sun. “In college, it was zone, but it was out of the shotgun
because we were running spread so I’m used to the zone scheme.”
Taliaferro
also started on special teams for the Ravens. He played on kickoff return team
and had several key blocks.
Tracy
Harrod, Taliaferro’s coach at Bruton, was at the game Thursday night and left
impressed. “He ran hard in between the tackles,” Harrod said. “He took care of
the ball and he blocked well. It was a good game for him.”
Contact
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or @HarveySpots757 via Twitter.
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