Buffalo Sports
Browns befuddle Bills in Blizzard 8-0
By Art Wander
Dec 16, 2007, 17:39

DON’T GET ME STARTED still keeps hearing Marv Levy’s oft-quoted phrase – “Run and Stop the Run.” The old Warhorse, Jamal Lewis outgained the Young Stud, Marshawn Lynch, as the Cleveland Browns ended the Bills playoff hopes with an 8-0 victory. It was Buffalo’s first shutout loss in 5 years.

The Buffalo Bills “decently” ran the ball with Lynch gaining 82 yards on 21 carries BUT the Bills simply couldn’t stop Jamal Lewis who chugged, and sloshed with the pigskin 33 times for 163 yards.
Let’s not hear anything about the weather – both teams played in the Blizzard on the Lake so the elements had an effect on both teams. The Browns handled it a little better than the Bills. For example, when the Bills had the ball in long field goal range (about 48-49 yards, they opted not to bring in Lindell. On the other side, the Browns coach had the ball on the Bills 32 and went for the 49-yard field goal that Phil Dawson made for Cleveland’s 8th point of the day.

The special teams accounted for all of the Browns points. Dawsons’ two field goals and the Browns were given 2 gift points when the Bills long snapper surprised Moorman by snapping it well over his head forcing Mormon to kick the ball out of the end zone for the safety. Three points in the first quarter and five in the second ended all the scoring.

As it turned out, the Browns ended the Bills playoff hopes for this season. A Buffalo victory would have given them an edge for the final playoff berth BUT the offense couldn’t get the job done.

A subplot could be made with the appearances of young Quarterbacks who didn’t figure in the starting plans when the season began. It was Derek Anderson vs. rookie Trent Edwards of the Bills. They faced action in a game that had swirling snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph. In the first half, Anderson threw the ball 18 times to Edwards’ 9 times. In the second half, with Cleveland ahead 8-0, Edwards went to the air 24 more times while Anderson threw only 6 passes. Edwards did a fine job of moving them within scoring distance until yet “Another Strange Play” stopped the Bills cold at the Browns 10 – we’ll recall shortly.

On the day, Edwards was 13 of 33 for 124 yards (many coming in the waning moments of the game) while Anderson completed 9 of 24 for 137 yards.

Now let me impart my feelings as the game progressed. Frankly, the offensive coordinator of the Browns did a much better job than Buffalo’s Steve Fairchild. As the Bills plays were being called, I wondered whether Fairchild was thinking about recruiting for his next job as head coach at Colorado State University rather than finding a weakness in what has been a weak Cleveland defense.

It was almost evident – and predictable – that Fairchild would have Lynch running the ball. Certainly the Browns probably figured that out, too, because Cleveland was gearing to stop Lynch and the running game and saying, “Let the kid from California try to beat us with his arm.”

It seemed as if the Browns knew Fairchild was determined to keep handing the ball ff to Lynch who, to his credit, kept churning those legs. Lynch ripped of a 29-yarder in the first half. But the Browns were determined to stop Buffalo’s running game which, for the most part they did.

On the other side, the Bills defense couldn’t contain Jamal Lewis.

The game ended on yet another Fairchild strange play call. The Bills had the ball at the Browns 10pyard line. On 3rd and 5, Edwards pass was incomplete to Parish. That set up a 4th and 5 with 5-yards to go for a first – spike the ball and try to get it into the end zone.

Here comes Fairchild with his play calling that had the fans screaming, “What in all the hell was that about.” Operating out of the shotgun, Edwards hit what was a screen to the right to Jackson – behnd the line of scrimmange - that was bottled up and stopped for no gain – END OF THE BALL GAME – END OF BILLS PLAYOFF RUN.

That immediately brought to mind the Denver game where Fairchild called for a pass instead of running Lynch as the clock was running down. The incomplete pass, then, stopped the clock and the Broncs came back to win it on the last second OT game.

Throughout the season, many fans have complained about the play calling, but this last play of the Browns game was a doozy. 5 yards for a first – 10 from a TD and a short-behind-the-line pass saw no daylight for Jackson to burst through on fourth down.

It was yet a very conservative game plan by Fairchild. On the other side, the Browns came out firing the ball, starting with the first play of the game. Anderson managed to complete some nifty passes that led to a pair of field goals in the first half, loosening up the Bills defense. Then Anderson kept giving it to Lewis who broke tackles (or maybe it’s that the Bills tackling wasn’t sharp.) In any event Lewis had a field day while the Bills couldn’t do anything until the final drive of the game with less than 2 minutes left. They reached the 10 with a first down……but couldn’t punch it in.

After all, though, they didn’t do anything for 59 minutes with that conservative play calling that allowed the Bills 11 first downs to Cleveland’s 16. On those two field goal drives by the Browns, they managed to hit on 3rd down plays. Overall Cleveland went 4 out of 16 on 3rd downs and held the Bills to 3 of 16.

Practically everyone knew what the weather was going to be like and certainly would have prepared for it. Fans will be wondering what it would have been like if Edwards was allowed to do what he did on the final drive that carried Buffalo to within 10 yards of perhaps tying the game.

Oh well….the playoff hunt is over. If anything, Buffalo may have moved up a couple of notches in the April draft. It’s time for Marv Levy and Jauron begin the task of getting ready for the next season. Let’s hope they really bring in an offensive mind; a strategist who can take advantage of the talents of the fine talent on the team.

Avoid the guy that’s going to try to impose his system on players who could perform under a better system. Give me a guy like Martz who, when he was in St. Louis, utilized his fine receivers with the running and pass catching abilities of Marshall Faulk. It’s no longer a time to be as conservative as the Bills have been for most of the season on Don’t Get Me Started.



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