Browns Win Lake Erire Showdown
Nov 18, 2008
Author: DawgBones.com

After a whirl wind ten days in which the Cleveland Browns were labeled "quitters" the Browns did anything but in pulling out a 29-27 win in Buffalo over the Bills on Monday Night Football. The win puts the Browns at 4-6 on the season and drops the Bills to 5-5.

The Browns were flirting with history of the wrong kind when the Bills took the lead, 27-26, with just over two minutes to play in the game. It looked as if they would be the first team in NFL history to lose three straight games after leading by 13 or more points. Thankfully for the Browns there was still over two minutes to play and they had all three timeouts.

Second year QB Brady Quinn and the Browns got the ball on their 33 yard line and marched 28 yards in six plays and faced a 4th and 10 from the Bills 39 yard line. Head coach Romeo Crennel decided to send his veteran kicker Phil Dawson out to try an improbable go ahead field goal. Dawson did not disappoint and blasted his career long 56 yard field goal to give the Browns the lead with 1:39 to play. The kick gave the Browns a tenuous lead at best and left many wondering why the Browns attempted three straight passed on the Bills 39 rather than try and run the ball to get Dawson closer and run some clock. The Bills were still very much alive.

On the ensuing kickoff Dawson squibbed a kick that was returned by up man Fred Jackson to the Bills 44 yard line. The Browns had been burned earlier in the game by the Bills stellar kickoff return teams for a 98 yard Leodis McKelvin touchdown. The Bills had one timeout, 1:39 and were in great shape to pull out the win. Bills QB Trent Edwards drove his team to the Browns 34 by hitting TE Robert Royal for 22 yards. Inexplicably the Bills ran three straight times and to their credit the Browns used all their timeouts to force Bills kicker Rian Lindell to make a 47 yard field goal to take the lead. Lindell had plenty of leg, but gave Bills fans disappointment they have felt before. Wide right! Lost perhaps in all of this is the fact that even if he made the kick the game was not over. The Browns would have gotten the ball back with just over 30 seconds to go and no timeouts. Anything could have happened as we saw earlier in the game.

The Browns jumped out to a 13-0 second quarter lead by forcing three Edwards interceptions and putting together a 12 play 96 yard drive that culminated on a Joshua Cribbs two yard touchdown run. The Bills responded with ten unanswered points before the half to pull within three points.

The second half saw some big plays that included McKelvin's 98 yard kickoff return touchdown which came on the heels of a Browns 72 yard touchdown run by Jerome Harrison. Harrison took his second carry of the game off the left side and in a matter of moments he was in the Bills secondary and in the end zone to give the Browns a 23-13 lead. Harrison touched the ball four times in the game and tallied 101 yards and a touchdown. Looks like the NFL can expect to see more of the man called "The Ghost" and rightfully they should. Harrison gave the Browns offense a home run threat at the running back position they have not had all year.

The Browns defense forced four turnovers on the night, but still could not muster a pass rush and had one of the worst tackling games perhaps in team history. Once again the Browns had a QB in Edwards and an offense they had made one dimensional and once again they could not capitalize. Edwards clearly was rattled by his early turnovers and from that point on continued to just dump the ball off to his running back Marshawn Lynch and let him make plays. Once again with the lead and needing to make a stand the defense was unable to. They appeared so focused on not letting the big play over their heads, they held Bills WR Lee Evans without a catch on the night, they refused to bring a safety up to support the run. The Bills capitalized by getting Lynch his first 100 yard performance of the season and totaling 186 yards on the ground.

Regardless of how ugly it may have been the Browns got a much needed win and improved their road record to 3-3. They return home this week to play a much improved Texans team and know that however improbable it may be their season is still alive.

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