Baltimore Ravens: 3 Winners and Losers vs. Cleveland Browns

The Baltimore Ravens escaped with a 25-20 win over the Cleveland Browns, but it was not pretty. Here are the winners and losers for this week.

It was as unimpressive a win as they get. The Baltimore Ravens were down 20 points on the road, but rallied to score 25 unanswered points and go 2-0 on the season.

It’s a complete 180 from last season’s debacle. They would have found a way to squander away that lead a year ago and almost did until C.J. Mosley made the game-winning interception. But at the end of the day, they are 2-0, and come December, no one is going to care how they won. They won a game they needed on the road.

Obviously, the start was not ideal. The Browns looked like the faster and more motivated team, while Baltimore looked sluggish. Ultimately, the game came down to two special teams plays: Tavon Young scoring on a defensive two-point conversion and someone got their hand on a field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Being down by 20 points is the bad. Scoring 25 points to win the game is the good. Here are our winners and losers for Week 2:

Winners:

Michael Pierce: The undrafted rookie continues to shine when given an opportunity, and he gave the Browns offensive line a fit on Sunday. The stat line does not show the story as Pierce was constantly in the backfield and hit Josh McCown on several drop backs. The Ravens defensive line is a deep group, but Pierce has earned his reps.

Mike Wallace: All he does is catch touchdowns. After scoring just twice last season with the Minnesota Vikings, he already has three touchdowns through two games. He did not break a long score in this game, but his number was called twice in the red zone and he delivered. Steve Smith leads the wide receivers in catches and targets, but Wallace is the top threat on the outside.

Dennis Pitta: The last time Pitta took the field against the Browns, many thought it would be his last game in the NFL. After a two-year battle to get back onto the field, he was the Ravens top target on offense, recording nine receptions for 102 yards. While Wallace has been racking up the touch wins, Pitta is clearly still Joe Flacco‘s top target in the passing game.

Losers:

Justin Forsett: You could include Terrance West here as well as the running game has done next to nothing in the first two weeks. The stats are nearly identical (Forsett: 24 carries, 78 yards / West: 23 carries, 74 yards), but Forsett got stopped on a fourth down play by simply outrunning his blockers. Kenneth Dixon is expected back soon and unless Forsett gets it together in the next few weeks, he will be the one losing carries.

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Shareece Wright: Corey Coleman had his way with Jimmy Smith as well, but a week after Wright was sensational, he reminded us why he was such a disaster last season. The rookie got behind Wright on the opening touchdown of the game, and then Wright whiffed on a tackle that allowed Isaiah Crowell to go 85 yards for a touchdown. If we are going to praise him for last week, we have to acknowledge this bad outing.

Marc Trestman: Forsett did not get the conversion on fourth down, but the play call did not help either. We saw the toss play several times and multiple handoffs out of the shotgun. The Ravens have been at their best when their backs are running out of power formations behind Kyle Juszczyk. Flacco has thrown 78 passes in two games which is not ideal for this offense. We are starting to see some of the similar issues Trestman had with the Chicago Bears: throwing the ball too much and getting too cute on the limited running plays.

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