01-02-2019, 04:02 AM
Following a victory worth savoring http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/m...-authentic , the Baltimore Ravens whisked through the film of their season-opening rout of Buffalo before turning their full attention toward a Thursday night matchup against AFC North rival Cincinnati."The games keep coming," coach John Harbaugh said after Monday's practice. "Not as quick as baseball or basketball, I guess. But this is close."The Ravens probably wish they could linger a little longer in the aftermath of their 47-3 trouncing of the Bills, mainly because just about everything went well.The offense got touchdowns from six different players, the defense didn't yield a first down until the third quarter and special teams contributed two field goals and a 51-yard punt return.Alas, all those good things were but a memory when the players took the field for Monday's practice."That game is behind us," strong safety Tony Jefferson said. "Although it's great to have momentum, it's over with. It's a new week. This is a division opponent; they know us very well and we know them very well."Yes, indeed. Baltimore opened the 2017 season with a 20-0 victory at Cincinnati, and the Bengals returned the favor in the finale with a 31-27 comeback win that knocked the Ravens out of playoff contention.Those thoughts will accompany the team to Cincinnati on Thursday night. But the Ravens aren't going to get caught up in last year, any more than they will be thinking about last Sunday."We played a young Buffalo team," linebacker Terrell Suggs said. "You don't take any win for granted, but it's one game. It's on to Cincinnati."One positive facet of the lopsided opener was that Harbaugh pulled his starters in the third quarter with the score 40-0. Quarterback Joe Flacco joked on the sideline while rookie Lamar Jackson took the offense through the motions, and most of the defensive starters were done before Buffalo finally got on the scoreboard.When you're playing two games in the span of five days, any respite is welcome. But Harbaugh didn't perceive that to be much of an advantage against a Bengals team that rallied with a 17-point fourth quarter to beat Indianapolis 34-23."You can't rest too many guys because it's not the preseason where you have your whole 90-man roster," Harbaugh noted. "There are still only 46 guys that are playing. A couple of guys got to sit down a little bit early, and that was probably somewhat helpful."Playing against two young quarterbacks, Baltimore's defensive backs picked off two passes and allowed only 11 completions for 98 yards. Harbaugh liked what he saw, but wasn't about to brand it a perfect game."You look at the good stuff and go, fine, but then you look at the things you need to get better at," he said. "Really, between the first game and the second game, even though it's a short week, it's still a great opportunity to improve because you finally know where you're at. And when you know where you're at http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/s...-authentic , you can kind of tell what you need to work on to get where you want to go. That's what we'll try to do this week and the next couple weeks."This week, it all begins with adjusting to a quick turnaround."Mentally, you've just got to get into the playbook as quick as you can because we're short on preparation," linebacker C.J. Mosley said. "Physically, you've just got to get training room and into the cold tub. There are no tricks to it from that standpoint."Cornerback Maurice Canady (thigh), running back Kenneth Dixon (knee), defensive tackle Willie Henry (abdomen) and tight end Hayden Hurst (foot) did not practice Monday.Canady and Dixon were hurt against the Bills, but have not been ruled out for Thursday. Confident and rosy-eyed as Josh Allen might be, the Buffalo Bills rookie quarterback understands he was going to take his fair share of lumps this season.Allen needed only to refer to the struggles Titans starter Marcus Mariota had in going 3-9 as a rookie in 2015."Sometimes you need to make those mistakes and you need to learn by trial and error, so that's what I'm doing now," Allen said, when asked about Mariota, as the Bills (1-3) get set to host Tennessee (3-1) on Sunday."We're getting better. I'm learning, I'm growing with every opportunity I get."It might not look that way yet for Allen, whose inconsistencies have been apparent since taking over midway through a 47-3 season-opening loss at Baltimore.After taking one step forward in a 27-6 win at Minnesota, the seventh player selected in the draft took several backward in being sacked seven times during a three-turnover outing (two interceptions and a fumble) in a 22-0 loss at Green Bay last weekend.The 22-year-old remains undeterred of the steep learning curve he faces while overseeing an offense with a patchwork line, a sputtering ground game and a mostly unproven group of receivers."It doesn't scare me," Allen said. "I know where I want to be, and I've got a long way to improve, a long way to grow. And I'm looking forward to the entire process."Mariota might not be a finished product 3陆 years since being selected with the No. 2 pick. And yet he's overcome the challenges of working under his third head coach, Mike Vrabel, and third coordinator, Matt LaFleur, to have the Titans off to their best start since 2013 while coming off a season in which he led Tennessee to its first playoff victory in 14 years.He earned his fourth AFC offensive player of the week honor Wednesday after rallying the Titans from a 17-3 third-quarter deficit for a 26-23 overtime win over the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Mariota capped his 11th career fourth-quarter/overtime game-winning drive with a 10-yard pass to Corey Davis with 5 seconds remaining.The Titans have won three straight, all by three-point margins http://www.billsfootballauthentics.com/s...-authentic , and Mariota has shaken off a season-opening hand injury to go 42 of 61 for 444 yards passing, with two touchdowns and an interception, along with a TD rushing.The production might not be eye-popping, which led to Mariota shrugging off a question of the Titans playing a boring brand of offense."People can have those opinions. We can't control that," Mariota said. "All we can do is just focus on how we get better every single day, and hopefully continue to win games."PRESSURING ALLENTennessee already has 12 sacks and 48 quarterback pressures with nine Titans having at least one sack. They intend to continue applying pressure against Allen, who has been sacked a league-most 18 times."Every time he comes out there, we got to make sure in the back of his mind he knows it's possible there's going to be a chance he's probably going to be hit," Titans defensive tackle Jurrell Casey said.STUCK IN NEUTRALThe Bills' once-prominent LeSean McCoy-led running attack has gone nowhere. McCoy, who missed one game with a rib injury, has 21 carries for 85 yards. "The coaches know I want to be involved," McCoy said. "We're just trying to figure it out. It's hard to get the ball a lot when we're getting penalties, we're getting first-and-15s, second-and-20s."Coach Sean McDermott can only sympathize with McCoy, saying: "I can understand why he's frustrated."TRAP GAMEThe Titans remember the previous time they went on the road while sitting atop the AFC South. Last December, they lost consecutive games at Arizona and San Francisco to cost themselves the division title and a home playoff game. "I do remember those, and we never want that to ever happen again," linebacker Brian Orakpo said.The Bills are the one team with a losing record Tennessee will face through the first two months this season, sandwiched between last week's win against Philadelphia and a visit on Oct. 14 from Baltimore (3-1).INJURIESThe Titans will be without starting safety Kenny Vaccaro (right elbow). So Kendrick Lewis is expected to start alongside All-Pro safety Kevin Byard. The Bills' depth at safety could be tested with starter Micah Hyde's status questionable with a groin injury and backup Rafael Bush nursing a shoulder injury.BAD BILLSTake away a four-quarter stretch spanning the second half of a 31-20 loss to the Chargers and the first half against Minnesota, and Buffalo has been outscored 106-9. The Bills haven't scored a TD in a span of 102 minutes and 14 seconds, since Allen's 1-yard run early in the second quarter against Vikings.AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.