BALTIMORE _ On the Buffalo Bills' eighth possession of the first half Sunday, a first down seemed finally within grasp, if only because nothing else was. They trailed 26-0, and they were 55 yards from the end zone, and they had five seconds to do something before entering halftime of a game that already was lost.
But the Bills could not get a first down. Or rather, the Ravens would not let them. A pass from quarterback Nathan Peterman to tight end Jason Croom led him to the sideline, and Croom stepped out 2 yards short of the sticks, ushered there by linebacker Patrick Onwuasor. In the Ravens' opening act of a crucial season, they introduced a defense that was equally terrifying and historic.
In a 47-3 win at M&T Bank Stadium that featured the Joe Flacco of Ravens fans' dreams, there was no more impressive performance than that by the Ravens defense. Especially in the first half: They held Buffalo to 33 total yards. Peterman turned in a microscopic 8.2 passer rating. Running back LeSean McCoy finished with 3 rushing yards. And the offense was held without a first down for the first time since 2001. The Ravens have allowed fewer yards in a first half only once; it was their Super Bowl XXXV team that did it in 2000.
Even more impressive, the Ravens did not let up. Peterman's passer rating actually worsened upon his return to the field, finishing at 0.0 after he finished 5-for-18 for 24 yards and two interceptions. Bills running backs totaled just 56 yards. And the offense was outgained 369-153.
The closest Buffalo got to heating up were the bursts of flames that accompanied the Ravens defense's pregame introductions. Their ensuing dominance was conventional _ this was a healthy group playing at home and in weather that had fans swaddled in ponchos and raincoats _ but their methods were in some ways atypical.
Slot cornerback Tavon Young had two sacks in the first quarter. With Jimmy Smith suspended, second-year rising star Marlon Humphrey and wily veteran Brandon Carr were the new lock-down cornerbacks. There were no early-season jitters from a unit that had folded late in its last meaningful appearance, a Week 17 loss last year to the Cincinnati Bengals that doomed the Ravens to their third straight postseason absence.
An airtight defense can get the Ravens to the playoffs, but the Flacco who showed up Sunday resembled the one who led the franchise to its last Super Bowl berth. He was the one who coaches and teammates, all preseason long, had said was capable of this.
The offense was not the picture of efficiency in Flacco's hands _ the Ravens had four three-and-outs over his two-plus quarters of work _ but the passing game did not look like it had been pieced together over the offseason. Wide receivers Willie Snead IV (four catches for 49 yards), John Brown (three catches for 44 yards) and Michael Crabtree (three catches for 38 yards) all marked their regular-season debut in Baltimore with a touchdown catch.
The Ravens did not even need much from rookie Lamar Jackson, the team's pick Sunday for Flacco's backup, not Robert Griffin III. Before coming in for mop-up duty midway through the third quarter, Jackson was mostly a decoy. He had a razzle-dazzle pass play fall incomplete and a read-option keeper go nowhere, but he was otherwise content to let the Ravens' offense _ and defense, of course _ go work.
Running back Alex Collins opened the scoring just over six minutes into the game, tackled across the goal line by teammate and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley on an 8-yard carry that capped the opening possession. Two possessions later, Flacco found Brown wide open in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard score. He had said he wasn't any more excited for this opener than any other, but his full-body spasm of excitement was notable for a Joe Cool celebration.
A pair of field goals in the second quarter from kicker Justin Tucker stretched the Ravens' lead to 20-0 with 4:20 remaining, and Crabtree's acrobatic, last-minute catch in the corner of the end zone, just managing to get two feet inbounds, gave Ravens fans little reason to return after halftime.
Those who did surely were disappointed by Buffalo's first play of the second half: a 12-yard gain by McCoy, the Bills' first down of the game. The drive ended there, and the Ravens got the ball back after Buffalo's implosion reached its special teams' stick of dynamite.
Punter Corey Bojorquez's fumble of a perfectly good snap led the Ravens to take over at the Bills' 14-yard line. Even after Snead's offensive pass interference wiped out an easy touchdown to tight end Nick Boyle, Flacco's next pass was a touchdown, too, a 13-yard slant to Snead.
Before long, the Ravens handed their quarterbacking duties to Jackson, and the Bills theirs to first-round pick Josh Allen. The strong-armed Buffalo rookie was better, but only marginally so, and how much could be attributed to the Ravens' interest and defensive substitutions was open to interpretation.
