The drive started with an acrobatic catch from Breshad Perriman, the second-year receiver making his first National Football League catch a memorable one. However, again, the Bills defense kept the Ravens offense to only 13 points and managed multiple times to stop the Ravens offense when they needed to.
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Baltimore’s defense held the Buffalo Bills to 160 yards of total offense in Sunday’s season opener. But they still kept giving it to McCoy, who still kept getting slammed: Seven carries for 19 yards. “That was my fault”, Bills Head Coach Rex Ryan said. He said it started with the “phenomenal job” done by secondary coaches Leslie Frazier, the former Minnesota head coach, and Chris Hewitt. The game remains there for the taking for the Bills. That defense played extremely well. With the Jets game on Thursday night, let’s hope they get it done quickly. The Ravens showed Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor plenty of looks, and the Bills had difficulty anticipating what was coming. The first catch of his career led to Justin Tucker’s 50-yard field goal in the first quarter. However, there are so many holes in the Bills pass protection I would be a hater to blame it all on Richie. He was 15 of 22 for only 111 yards and ran five times for 11 yards.
“He’s had a lot of success against us”, Harbaugh said of McCown. “That’s when most teams get exotic and are able to bring some heat and mix some different pressures up”.
“What he taught me personally is just how to play Ravens football”, Suggs said. That is it for wide receivers with catches. “Instead we doubled somebody else”.
The Ravens’ defense, maligned for the past few seasons for its failure to make game-changing plays, shut down the Bills in a 13-7 regular-season opening victory in front of an announced 71,104 at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Bills had an opportunity to even up the game in the third quarter, when Dan Carpenter missed a 49-yard field goal which would have tied the score at 10.
INJURY UPDATE: Bills starting LT Cory Glenn (ankle) and TE Jim Dray (ankle) both left with injuries in the second quarter and did not return. The Buffalo News reports Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander wore a firefighter’s helmet in recognition of the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that left almost 3,000 people dead. The Ravens did not report any injuries.
A leverage penalty on defensive tackle Jerel Worthy also helped the Ravens advance the ball half the distance to the goal on a key drive in the fourth quarter. A year ago we did not make enough plays.
WHERE’S WATKINS?: One reason Taylor was so successful a year ago was he utilized Sammy Watkins as a deep threat. The defense has given up 114 total yards in the first half but only 3 points. McCoy added four receptions for 12 yards.
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The offence struggled right out of the gate, finishing the first quarter with negative two rushing yards and a whopping four passing yards. “What’s a $2 steak nowadays?” “We didn’t get nothing going sideways”, McCoy said.
