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Week 11 Game Recap: Cleveland Browns 29, Buffalo Bills 27
What you need to know
| Cleveland Browns |
QB Brady Quinn did not have a great game as the Bills got pretty good pressure on him and forced him to complete less then fifty percent of passes, and held him to 185 yards passing and no touchdowns. He did do a good job of protecting the ball and did not make any turnovers in the game. He certainly favored receivers WR Braylon Edwards and TE Kellen Winslow, as 26 of his 36 targets went to these two players. Quinn did show some scrambling ability as he ran for 18 yards in the game.
RB Jamal Lewis had 65 yards on 18 carries as the Bills did a good job containing Lewis most of the night. His best scoring opportunity came in the second quarter when he broke off a 16 yard run but, was pushed out of the bounds on the two yard line. WR Josh Cribbs ran the ball in on the next play. Backup RB Jerome Harrison broke a big 72 yard touchdown run in the second half for the game's biggest play.
WR Braylon Edwards had just his second hundred yard receiving game of the year when he hauled in eight passes for 104 yards. Edwards didn't score a touchdown and never had a real great scoring opportunity in the game. He was Quinn's favorite target as he finished with 16 targets in the game.
| Buffalo Bills |
Despite rushing for one touchdown and throwing for another, QB Trent Edwards did not look good in this game and played poorly. He threw three interceptions in the first quarter and seemed to lose some confidence. Ten of his sixteen completions went to RB Marshawn Lynch on short passes. Edwards had trouble finding receivers down the field and seemed to hang on to the ball too long. He only completed four passes to his wide receivers. He had a one yard touchdown run and an 18 yard touchdown pass to Lynch in the game.
RB Marshawn Lynch had his best game of the season as he topped hundred yards for the first time this season with 119 yards on the ground. Lynch was also the Bills, leading receiver as he had a game high ten catches, including a short dump off pass that he took 18 yards for a touchdown on a brilliant run through the Cleveland defense. Lynch almost scored a second touchdown on another impressive run for 28 yards but, he fell just short of the goal line, and QB Trent Edwards scored on a quarterback sneak on the next play.
The Bills leading receiver this season, WR Lee Evans, was all but invisible as he did not catch a pass or even get a target in the game. Rookie CB Leodis McKelvin had a 98 yard kick return in the fourth quarter for Buffalo.
What you ought to know
| QB Brady Quinn, Pass: 14 - 36 - 185 - 0 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - 18 - 0 |
Quinn didn't come out quite as sharp in this game as he failed to capitalize on three Buffalo interceptions in the first quarter, and only lead the team to six points off the turnovers. He faced a lot more pressure then he did last week, which was his first career start. The Bills usually don't blitz a lot but, did a lot more then usual in this game and played man-to-man mostly throughout the game. Quinn did heat up in the second quarter as he lead the Browns on a 95 yard touchdown drive and hooked up with WR Braylon Edwards three times for 48 yards on that drive. He finished the half six for 15 for 78 yards but had no turnovers, and did a good job of protecting the ball. Quinn didn't much in the second half but, did make some plays late in the game to get the Browns into field goal range. He didn't make any costly mistakes despite pretty good pressure by the Bills. He also added 18 yards rushing off of four carries.
| RB Jamal Lewis, Rush: 18 - 65 - 0 (1 targets) |
Lewis ran the ball pretty well in the first half and had his best run of half on a play down the right sideline for 16 yards to the Bills' two yard line before being run out of bounds in the second quarter. He did not get a chance to punch it in as Cleveland scored on the next play on a run to WR Josh Cribbs. He had 40 yards rushing on ten carries in the first half. He would add 25 more yards in the second half on eight carries and didn't have much room to run as the Bills did a pretty good job against Lewis, despite giving a big run to RB Jerome Harrison.
| RB Jerome Harrison, Rush: 3 - 80 - 1, Rec: 1 - 21 - 0 (1 targets) |
Harrison had the play of the game on the first play of the fourth quarter when broke a 72 yard touchdown off the left side of the line. He used his speed to out run the secondary and literally doubled the Browns rushing yard total to that point. Harrison only had more carry after that play but, did have a 21 yard pass reception. He had over 100 yards total offense in the game, not bad for a guy who only touched the ball four times in the game.
| WR Braylon Edwards, Rec: 8 - 104 - 0 (16 targets) |
Edwards got off to a slow start by dropping his league leading twelfth pass in the first quarter deep in Buffalo territory. He came back productive second quarter when he caught three balls for a total of 48 yards in a 95 yard touchdown drive early. He caught a 20 yard pass deep down the middle for his first catch of the game and then came back one play later with an 18 yard pass down the left side. He finished the first half with four catches for 53 yards. Edwards was Quinn's favorite target and despite man-to-man coverage most of the night, he was covered pretty well most of the night and struggled to get good separation from defenders. He finished with pretty nice game catching another four passes for 51 yards in the second half, but never really had a good scoring opportunity in the game.
| WR Josh Cribbs, Rush: 1 - 2 - 1 |
Cribbs scored on a two yard run when the Brown's ran a reverse to him near the goal and he was able to dive in for the touchdown.
| WR Donte Stallworth, Rush: 1 - -4 - 0 (3 targets) |
Stallworth had only one catch for negative four yards in the game as Stallworth seems to be an after thought in the offense. Almost all the passes go to WR Braylon Edwards and TE Kellen Winslow.
| TE Kellen Winslow, Rec: 3 - 40 - 0 (10 targets) |
Despite being targeted five times, Winslow only had one catch for 14 yards in the first half. He would get another five targets in the second half, but only caught two passes for 26 yards in the half. Buffalo did a good job of covering Winslow all game and limiting him to only three catches.
| PK Phil Dawson 5 - 5 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 17 points |
Dawson made a 30 yard kick in the first quarter. He had a 43 field goal in the third quarter and then nailed a game winning 56 yard kick with less then two minutes left.
| CLE Rush Defense |
DT Shaun Rogers is still a force in the middle and dominated at times in this game. The Bills had more success running away from Rogers or trapping him. The Buffalo running backs seemed to wear down the Browns in the second half of the game.
| CLE Pass Defense |
LB Kamerion Wimbley got his first career interception on a deflected pass on the first play of the game. LB Andra Davis got a pick on the next drive of the game for the Browns' defense. CB Brandon McDonald got Cleveland's third interception of the first quarter deep in Buffalo territory. The Browns pass defense did a good job containing QB Trent Edwards and the passing offense.
| QB Trent Edwards, Pass: 16 - 26 - 148 - 1 TD / 3 INT, Rush: 3 - 7 - 1 |
Edwards got off to a horrible start as he threw three interceptions in the first quarter as he went three for seven for 25 yards, and only led the offense to one first down. The Browns played a lot zone early in this game and Edwards tried to force the ball into some receivers he should not have. Edwards did lead the Bills down the field for a 70 yard touchdown drive in the second quarter and got an 18 yard touchdown pass to RB Marshawn Lynch to cap the drive. The pass was short dump pass in the flat and Lynch made a great run to get into the end zone. He finished the first half eight for 15 for 75 yards. Edwards seemed to hang on the ball too long and by time he tried to throw the ball to a receiver, the defense was able to react to the pass. He was indecisive and had trouble reading coverage, as he did have wide open receivers throughout the game. He did get a touchdown on one yard quarterback sneak after Lynch carried the ball to the goal line on a 28 yard run. Edwards longest pass of the game came to TE Robert Royal late in the game as the Bills tried to drive down the field on 22 yard reception down the middle of the field. Despite the win, Edwards looked unimpressive most of the game, and ten of his 16 receptions went to Lynch on short passes.
| RB Marshawn Lynch, Rush: 23 - 119 - 0, Rec: 10 - 58 - 1 (10 targets) |
Lynch got off to a slow start but, started to heat up as the game went on, and had his best game of the season, topping a hundred yards rushing for the first time this season. Lynch caught a short pass about two yards past the line of scrimmage and made a couple of great cutbacks and powered his way into the end zone. The 18 yard touchdown reception was all on Lynch's ability and poor Cleveland tackling, as he made several defenders miss and got some nice down the field blocks. Lynch only had 36 yards on 11 carries but, led the team in receptions and receiving yards at halftime with five receptions for 36 yards.
QB Trent Edwards threw to his check down receiver a lot in the game as he had trouble finding receivers down the field and was probably a little gun shy after tossing three picks in the first quarter. Lynch caught another five passes in the second half for 22 yards and 83 yards on the ground as the Browns run defense wore down in the second half. Lynch had a 28 yard run that almost lead to a second touchdown on a powerful run but, he fell just short of the goal line. Edwards punched the ball in on the next play with a quarterback sneak. Lynch led the Bills in receiving as ten of Edwards completions went to him.
| RB Fred Jackson, Rush: 12 - 60 - 0 |
Jackson had pair of big runs late in the second quarter on runs of 19 and 17 yards as he made some nice cutbacks and hit the open hole, something that Lynch doesn't always do as well. He seemed to hit the hole quicker then Lynch and he had some really nice runs late in the first half. Jackson led the Bills in rushing at halftime with 48 yards on only six carries. He would get six more carries for 22 yards in the second half as the Jackson and RB Marshawn Lynch combined for almost 180 yards on the ground.
| WR Steve Johnson, Rec: 3 - 41 - 0 (5 targets) |
The rookie Johnson led all Buffalo receivers not named Marshawn Lynch in receiving with three catches for 41 yards.
| WR Roscoe Parrish, Rec: 1 - 21 - 0 (3 targets) |
Parrish got a 21 yard catch early in the game when he found a hole in the zone defense and QB Trent Edwards made a nice throw to him. It was his only catch of the game.
| WR Lee Evans |
Evans was all but invisible in the first half as he didn't even have a target in the first half. QB Trent Edwards really struggled early in the game and stuck to short passes after his third interception in the first quarter and may have lost some confidence. Evans amazingly didn't get a look in the second half as well and was total non-factor in this game.
| TE Robert Royal, Rec: 1 - 22 - 0 (4 targets) |
Royal did not catch a pass in the first half. His first catch of the game came on a big catch for 22 yards over the middle late in the game as Buffalo tried to rally from a two point deficit.
| PK Rian Lindell 2 - 3 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 9 points |
Lindell hit a 26 yard field goal late in the first half. He made a 31 yard kick in the third quarter but missed a 47 yard kick that potentially could have won the game.
| BUF Rush Defense |
The Bills run defense actually didn't play that badly but, did give up a 72 yard touchdown run to Jerome Harrison that was a big reason the Bills lost this game.
| BUF Pass Defense |
Buffalo lost one of their best secondary players CB Jabari Green left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury but, it didn't seem to effect the pass defense too much as they did a pretty good job. They gave up couple of big drives including one at the end of the game that led to a game winning field goal.
