DANTE LASTING
Sports Editor
That one hurt.
The Buffalo Bills lost a close game this past weekend against the Cleveland Browns. What many people thought was a winnable game for Buffalo ended in a 19-16 loss to Cleveland.
The Bills got outplayed by a bad team on every side of the ball.
Offense went 5-13 on third down and could not make enough drives down the field. They only ran the ball 14 times in the whole game against the Browns 30th ranked rushing defense.
Defense could not stop the run again. Browns running back Nick Chubb had 20 carries for 116 yards, and that wasn’t the only weak spot in the game. While Tre’Davious was locking up Odell Beckham Jr. all game, the rest of the defense could not stop the Browns when it mattered the most.
Special teams were the biggest reason the Bills lost the game. Bills kicker Stephen Hauschka missed both of his field goals in this game. One was a 34-yard field goal at the end of the first half, and the other was a 53-yard field goal that would have sent the game into overtime.
This loss brings the Bills to 6-3, which is not terrible at all, but with the upcoming schedule, people have doubts that the Bills can’t win the games that they should. Also, as Buffalo seems to be in a bit of a slide, the rest of the AFC seems to be gaining momentum. Buffalo is currently the fifth seed in the AFC, but there are around five or six teams that are in contention for the two wild-card spots. The Bills need to fix the problems holding them back if they want to keep that spot and make it to the playoffs.
The Bills will travel to Miami this week to play the Dolphins, who are coming into a two-game win streak. The Dolphins have had some momentum in the past two weeks, and the Bills will need to play a complete game to beat them. The game is at 1 p.m. and is on CBS.