BY NICK ST. DENIS
The Buffalo Bills played OK through most of their Thursday night battle with the Cleveland Browns, but when they weren't OK, they paid for it.
Buffalo gave up scoring streaks of 17 and 20 points in the first and second half, respectively, en route to a deflating 37-24 loss.
"When you look at the game we gave up big plays," Bills coach Doug Marrone said after the game. "We gave up the big play on special teams, we gave up some big pass plays and we didn't make any big plays on offense.
"I think C.J.'s (Spiller) run was a big play that was good, but vertically, down the field we needed to make some plays and convert some of those third downs. We'd go ahead and put yardage up, but we've got to put more points than the other team up."
The Browns took their first lead of the night late in the second quarter via a 79-yard punt return by Travis Benjamin. Buffalo re-gained the lead in the third quarter, but Cleveland knotted it back up when Brandon Weeden hit Josh Gordon on a 37-yard touchdown pass. The Browns later connected on two field goals and scored on an interception return to seal it.
Gordon gained 86 yards on four receptions for a 21.5 average, and fellow Browns wideout Greg Little picked up 71 yards receiving on just three catches, including a 47-yarder, for a 23.7-yard avearge.
“Just two deep balls,” cornerback Leodis McKelvin said after the game. “If they don’t get those two deep balls then they have no passing yards. They’d have had no passing yards. That’s all we have to do.
"We worked with a short field for most of the game. We balled out in the secondary and they just got two deep balls on us and that’s it.”
Unfortunately for McKelvin & Co., those two deep balls count, too.
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