FOURTH QUARTER
Wide right
In the end, maybe the Bills needed 8 more yards. Rian Lindell is Mr. Automatic inside 40 yards. But the Bills left Lindell with that cursed number for Buffalo fans –47 yards. Wouldn’t you know it, the kick was wide right, just by about a foot beyond the upright with 38 seconds left. Lindell is now 7 of 10 from 40 to 49 yards. The Browns’ Phil Dawson, meanwhile, improved to 3 of 5 from 50 yards or more with his clutch, 56-yard kick for the eventual winning points with 1:39 remaining. Dawson made kicks from 52 andd 54 yards earlier this season.
Key play: Marshawn Lynch made what might have become the run of the night for the Bills when he kept his legs churning and ran for 28 yards down to the Cleveland 1 to set up the Bills’ final touchdown.
Second guess: The Bills played it conservative on their final drive when they got down to the Cleveland 34 after a 22-yard pass from Trent Edwards to Robert Royal. They ran three straight Lynch runs into the line that gained 2 yards apiece. The way Edwards’ night was going, should they have put the ball in his hands and let him throw downfield? Hmm. In hindsight, some sort of safe short pass would have been preferable to putting all the heat on Lindell.
