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BALTIMORE -- Ravens wide receiver Breshad Perriman made a leaping 35-yard catch on a pass from Joe Flacco over Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore early in the season opener Sunday. Later in the half, Mike Wallace easily ran past safety Duke Williams and caught a pass in stride from Flacco for a 66-yard touchdown on a 3rd and 1.
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Baltimore's new-look offense showed flashes of explosiveness in a 13-7 victory over the Buffalo Bills. However, some careless penalties and poor timing were costly and ended some potential big drives.
In short, the offense is still a work in progress.
"I think we did a lot of good things," Flacco said. "But sometimes we find a way to make it tough on ourselves and play games like this week where you're squeaking out wins and fans are on the edge of their seats at the end of games."
Flacco, who was playing in his first regular-season game since last year's knee injury, completed 23 of 34 passes for 258 yards with a touchdown (99.9 rating). He endured four sacks, but was able to bounce back each time.
Wallace, who was signed in the offseason to provide a downfield threat, caught three passes for 91 yards. Perriman, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, saw his first action in a regular-season game since being taken in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
So, despite some of the stalled drives, Baltimore is confident the pieces are in place for a big season. They just need to execute better moving forward.
Wallace is confident the team will do just that.
"This is a great organization," Wallace said. "They know how to win. They know how to get things done, so it just feels right."
--When the Bills look at the film this week, the players and coaches will lament the careless penalties that helped lead to the loss.
"It's something we have to take care of," linebacker Preston Brown said. "Some of these mistakes just can't happen. Guys are learning. Guys are getting better. We have to eliminate those penalties. We can't win games if we can't do that."
Overall, Buffalo committed eight penalties for 89 yards. The total included personal-foul penalties by linebacker Jerry Hughes and cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman on the same drive in the third quarter.
"I've got to be a smarter football player," Hughes said.
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.
The Buffalo defense rebounded and eventually held Baltimore to a short field goal.
Still, the Bills are going to have clean up several mistakes before next week's AFC East showdown with the New York Jets.
"I don't know how many penalties we had but we too many," safety Corey Graham said. "We had some critical ones, I know that, especially with the personal fouls and they got the ball back. We just have to be smarter."
--The Bills had the league's top rushing attack last season, averaging 152 yards per game. That running attack will be crucial again this season, especially if the Bills want to end a 16-year playoff drought.
The running attack, however, was grounded against Baltimore, leading to a disappointing 13-7 loss. Buffalo lost more yards on penalties (89) than it gained on the ground (65).
Running back LeSean McCoy was held to just 58 yards on 16 carries, but he did manage to find the end zone. Overall, the Bills had just 160 yards of total offense.
"It was a bad day. We didn't get nothing going sideways," McCoy said. "We had one long drive and that was it."
--The Ravens want to be more aggressive on defense and force turnovers. That group delivered impressive performance against the Bills.
Baltimore kept quarterback Tyrod Taylor from getting comfortable in the pocket. Timmy Jernigan and Terrell Suggs each finished with a sack. Taylor completed just 15 of 22 passes for 111 yards and had virtually no success throwing the ball downfield.
"We just played together," Ravens safety Eric Weddle said. "One of our main focuses and goals was nothing over the top of us. It's definitely a good building block for the start of the season.
The Ravens also grounded Buffalo's running attack by aggressively pursuing the ball. It was a positive step all-around.
"We just told everybody to go out there and play the Ravens way," defensive Brandon Williams said. "There are some things we have to work on, but all in all, we had a great game. It was a great scheme."
--Ravens offensive coordinator Marc Trestman said establishing an effective ground attack will be vital this season.
If teams have to keep more players in the box, it should free up more space in opposing secondaries for Flacco to throw the ball downfield. Baltimore, however, ran the ball just 28 times for 83 yards against the Bills.
Running backs Justin Forsett and Terrance West essentially split the carries, but neither was able to get into much of a rhythm. Nonetheless, the two backs are perfectly happy to split carries.
Winning is the ultimate goal.
"We were both able to go out there and make some good runs, be consistent out there and help our team win," Forsett said. "I think (Trestman) did a great job of keeping the balance. I think the sky is the limit for us."
