AFC East: Buffalo Bills Week Five Recap

Oct 3, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns running back Willis McGahee (26) is tackled by the Buffalo Bills defense during the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

The Thursday Night Football game saw the 2-2 Buffalo Bills invade the dogpound of the 2-2 upstart Cleveland Browns. This was easily the best Thursday night game of the year, as no one except myself thought it would be. So with that, lets look into the Browns and Bills Thursday showdown!

The first half of this game started out with the Buffalo Bills dominating the pace after former Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer go down on a weird tackle where his legs got tangled up. The Bills were flying around, getting a ton of great pressure on Brandon Weeden, really flustering him, and forcing a few sacks. Afterwards Weeden really started to settle in, as the Browns scored 17 unanswered points, including a brilliant return by Travis Benjamin making the score 17-10 at the half.

The second half started with some fire, and big plays, led by a CJ Spiller 54 yard touchdown burst, followed by a Fred Jackson one yard plunge on the next Bills drive. A real scary moment came on that drive when EJ Manuel took off scrambling, but when he went out-of-bounds, his knee was hit by a Browns players helmet. Manuel left the game, and was done for the rest of the night, replaced by undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel. With the score then 24-17 Bills, Brandon Weeden stepped up and made a big throw downfield to deep threat extraordinaire  Josh Gordon on a 37 yard pass to tie things up at 24. After a Buffalo punt, the Browns took advantage of great field position and got a field goal to put them up by three 27-24. With Tuel Time in full swing, the game ended in the only way it could, with Jeff Tuel throwing a game clinching pick six to TJ Ward to put the Browns up 37-24, and win them this game. No magical comeback for the rookie today. It’s safe to say that Bills fans are pleading EJ Manuel comes back soon.