Miami Gardens, Fla. — Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco won’t be returning to practice within the next week.

Coach John Harbaugh said after the Ravens’ 31-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night that the team is sticking to the timeline for the quarterback’s return from a back injury and that timeline does not have him practicing this coming week.

“We have a time frame on that. I think we talked about that, we announced that already. I don’t think that time frame is this week yet,” Harbaugh said. “We’re going to stick with the plan on that. I think it’s a pretty straight forward date that the doctors and back specialists gave us, so we’re going to stick to that.”

The Ravens have already announced that Flacco, who has yet to practice during training camp, won’t play in the preseason. However, they continue to maintain that he’ll be ready for the Sept. 10 regular-season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.

If Flacco doesn’t return to practice next week, that would mean that, at most, he’ll have just two weeks to prepare for the Bengals game.

With Flacco sidelined, Ryan Mallett has been starting at quarterback.

Several veterans return at Dolphins: Most of the Ravens’ veterans who were held out of last week’s game against the Washington Redskins returned to get their first preseason action Thursday against the Miami Dolphins. However, the offensive line still bore little resemblance to the group the Ravens hope to put out on the field in their Sept. 10 regular-season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.

With left tackle Ronnie Stanley sidelined with an undisclosed injury, right guard Marshal Yanda being held out as he continues his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery and left guard Alex Lewis out for the season because of shoulder surgery, the Ravens were again forced to start a makeshift offensive line.

James Hurst, who started at right tackle against the Redskins, moved to left tackle in place of Stanley. Recently-signed Austin Howard occupied the right tackle spot. Ryan Jensen remained at center with Matt Skura starting at right guard and Jarrod Pughsley getting the assignment at left guard. Rookie fifth-round selection Jermaine Eluemunor started at left guard last week, but he missed some practice time this week with an undisclosed injury, so the Ravens went with Pughsley.

The first-team offensive line struggled in the first half as Skura was called for two penalties and Hurst, Jensen and Howard got one each.

Otherwise, running back Danny Woodhead, wide receivers Mike Wallace and Jeremy Maclin and tight end Benjamin Watson got their first preseason action after being held out last week.

Faith in Tucker: Ravens kicker Justin Tucker is a victim of his own success. Even his head coach, Harbaugh, acknowledges that he’s guilty of taking the league’s all-time most accurate kicker for granted on occasion.

Tucker has been so good that it’s newsworthy when he does miss, even if it’s in practice. During training camp, Tucker has misfired on far more field-goal attempts than he has in previous summers. While just about all the misses have been from more than 40 yards, it’s still jarring to see Tucker, who made 38 of his 39 attempts last year, miss multiple times in a practice, which has happened this summer.

“We treat practices very seriously — just like for punters, kickers and all players who are practicing to get better. The results of Justin’s training camp, I think, are positive,” Ravens associate head coach and special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg said earlier this week.

Rosburg said that the kicking battery of Tucker, holder Sam Koch and long snapper Morgan Cox has been working hard to regain the timing that they had last year.

Tucker had another good game Thursday, converting on all three of his field-goal attempts from 57, 42 and 41 yards and making both of his extra-point tries. It was an impressive performance given the poor field conditions at Hard Rock Stadium.

Tucker also added a fumble recovery, pouncing on Senorise Perry’s fumble on a kickoff return late in the second quarter. The recovery book-ended two Tucker field goals.

End zone: The Ravens used defensive lineman Patrick Ricard at fullback on a couple of plays in the first half. … Tight end Maxx Williams had a nice game with two catches for 48 yards. … There were no developments on the Jeremy Zuttah front as the free-agent center is still pondering signing with the Ravens or Indianapolis Colts. Colts head coach Chuck Pagano announced Thursday that his starting center, Ryan Kelly, will need foot surgery and could miss some time during the regular season.

jeff.zrebiec@baltsun.com

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