GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NFL: BUFFALO (7-6) at CLEVELAND (8-5)

By Jeff Brewer
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Special teams were indeed special for theCleveland Browns.


Playing their most meaningful regular-season home game in fiveyears, the Browns defeated Buffalo, 8-0, in blizzard conditionson Sunday.


Phil Dawson punched through a 35-yard field goal and animprobable 49-yarder, while Jamal Lewis rushed for 163 yards on33 carries to lead Cleveland.


"When this organization set out nine years ago, it kind ofenvisioned this is what Cleveland Browns football is all about,"Dawson said. "A game late in the year, at home, with a chanceto go to the playoffs in just horrible weather and the Brownscoming out on top."


Cleveland was seeking to clinch a playoff berth for the firsttime since 2002 but were denied when Tennessee defeated KansasCity.


The Browns had to survive a late drive by the Bills, who moved60 yards to the 10-yard line and faced a fourth down with 16seconds to play.


The Bills attempted a screen pass, but safety Sean Jones brokethrough to take down Fred Jones and end it with three seconds toplay as Cleveland recorded its first shutout since November 20,2005.


"It worked earlier in that drive," Buffalo quarterback TrentEdwards said. "Obviously, the Browns thought we were going toput it into the end zone. It was there, but it was just amatter of blocking the guys up front and making others miss."

Two inches of snow blowing in gusting winds of up to 43 milesper hour seemed to bother the Bills (7-7) much more so than theBrowns.


The weather conditions also played a factor in another score forthe Browns.


With Cleveland leading. 3-0, a snap sailed over the head ofBills punter Brian Moorman. As the ball rolled into thesnow-covered end zone, Moorman kick it out of bounds for thesafety to give the Browns a 5-0 lead with 13:48 to play in thefirst half.


After Buffalo punted, Cleveland started on its own 7 and marched62 yards in 10 plays to the Bills 31.


Dawson's 49-yard field goal attempt was a low line drive whichskipped off the extension and fell through the uprights with1:22 left in the half.


"We knew we were going to need every point we could muster up,"Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson said.


The kick brought back memories of Dawson's bank-shot field goalwhich put the game against Baltimore on November 18 intoovertime - which the Browns won, 33-30.


"In my nine years here, this was by far the most difficult dayto kick a football," Dawson said.


"When I saw it go through I was elated," Cleveland coach RomeoCrennel said. "The importance of being up eight points in agame like this is huge."


The second half for Cleveland was all about field position andnot making a critical mistake.


"I think it shows we're maturing as a football team," Brownswide receiver Joe Jurevicius.


At 7:52 of the third quarter, Browns punter Dave Zastudildropped a 56-yard punt on the Buffalo 1-yard line.

The Browns were able to burn considerable clock behind Lewis,who racked up his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season andthe 34th of his career. In the process, Lewis became the eighthCleveland Brown player to crack 1,000 rushing yards.

"Jamal is just the type of back for this kind of weather,"Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas said. "He carried the pileand that's what he was doing the whole fourth quarter."

Cleveland had to survive one final bit of adversity when Moormandropped a 50-yard punt on the Browns 3 with 6:08 to play. Butthe sure-handed Lewis came to the rescue with runs of 13 andnine yards to give his team some breathing room.


"I was so excited when I woke up this morning," Lewis said. "Itold the running backs to get ready because we're going to runthe football."


The loss essentially eliminated the Bills from the playoffchase. Buffalo hasn't been to the playoffs since the 1999season.


"They made more plays than we did," Bills coach Dick Jauronsaid. "I thought our young guys performed pretty well in theseconditions and a lot of them have never been in it before. Thisis the worst (weather conditions) I can recall ever beinginvolved in."


"I didn't know football could be played (in weather) like this,"Buffalo defensive tackle Larry Tripplett said.


The last NFL game to end with an 8-0 score came on November 10,1929, when the Chicago Cardinals defeated the Minneapolis RedJackets.

 

NFL: BUFFALO at CLEVELAND

<div class="pre">NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
BUFFALO 0 0 0 0 0
CLEVELAND 3 5 0 0 8 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER:

8:09 CLE - FG, PHIL DAWSON 35 YD.
Drive: 9 plays, 41 yards in 4:15.
Key plays: Anderson 25-yard pass to Jurevicius on 3rd-and-7 to
Buffalo 30; Anderson 11-yard pass to Lewis to Buffalo 18. CLEVELAND 3-0.

2ND QUARTER:

1:12 CLE - SAFETY, BALL THROUGH END ZONE .
CLEVELAND 5-0.
13:38 CLE - FG, PHIL DAWSON 49 YD.
Drive: 10 plays, 62 yards in 2:44.
Key plays: Lewis 11-yard run to Cleveland 18; Anderson 25-yard pass
to Edwards to Cleveland 43; Anderson 9-yard pass to Jurevicius on
3rd-and-3 to Buffalo 41; Anderson 10-yard pass to Edwards to Buffalo 31.
CLEVELAND 8-0.

3RD QUARTER:

NONE

4TH QUARTER:

NONE

BUFFALO - CLEVELAND Final Statistics

TEAM STATISTICS BUFFALO CLEVELAND

FIRST DOWNS 11 16
Rushing 5 8
Passing 6 8
Penalty 0 0
THIRD DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-16-19% 4-14-29%
FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY 2-5-40% 0-1-0%
TOTAL NET YARDS 232 304
Total offensive plays 65 62
Average gain per play 3.6 4.9
NET YARDS RUSHING 108 174
Rushing attempts 32 37
Average gain per rush 3.4 4.7
Tackles for loss-yards 5-14 1-3
NET YARDS PASSING 124 130
Times sacked: Number-Yards 0-0 1-7
Gross passing yards 124 137
PASS ATTEMPTS-COMPLETIONS-HAD INTERCEPTED 33-13-0 24-9-0
Avg gain per pass play 3.8 5.2
KICKOFFS: Number-In End Zone-Touchbacks 2-0-0 3-0-0
PUNTS: Number and Average 7-35.9 7-33.1
Had blocked 0 0
Net punting average 33.3 32.4
TOTAL RETURN YARDAGE (Not including kickoffs) 18 5
Number-Yards: Punt Returns 2-18 2-5
Number-Yards: Kickoff Returns 3-50 1-26
Number-Yards: Interception Returns 0-0 0-0
PENALTIES: Number-Yards 2-15 2-15
FUMBLES: Number-Lost 1-0 1-0
TOUCHDOWNS 0 0
Rushing 0 0
Passing 0 0
Interceptions 0 0
Other (blocked kicks, etc.) 0 0
EXTRA POINTS: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
Kicking: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
Passing: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
Rushing: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
FIELD GOALS: Made-Attempts 0-0 2-2
FGs - PATs had blocked 0-0 0-0
RED ZONE EFFICIENCY 0-1-0% 0-1-0%
GOAL TO GO EFFICIENCY 0-0-0% 0-0-0%
SAFETIES 0 0
TIME OF POSSESSION 28:13 31:47


INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

BUFFALO CLEVELAND

RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
M LYNCH 21 82 3.9 29 0 J LEWIS 33 163 4.9 26 0
F JACKSON 7 16 2.3 5 0 J WRIGHT 3 11 3.7 10 0
T EDWARDS 1 12 12.0 12 0 D ANDERSON 1 0 0.0 0 0
B MOORMAN 2 4 2.0 4 0
J REED 1 -6 -6.0 0 0

PASSING CM-AT-YDS IN TD LG PASSING CM-AT-YDS IN TD LG
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
T EDWARDS 13-33-124 0 0 21 D ANDERSON 9-24-137 0 0 25

Sacked-Yards Lost: None Sacked-Yards Lost: D ANDERSON 1-7.

RECEIVING NO YDS AVG LG TD RECEIVING NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
L EVANS 4 36 9.0 20 0 B EDWARDS 4 64 16.0 25 0
F JACKSON 3 36 12.0 21 0 J JUREVICI 2 34 17.0 25 0
J REED 3 29 9.7 20 0 K WINSLOW 2 28 14.0 14 0
M GAINES 2 14 7.0 9 0 J LEWIS 1 11 11.0 11 0
R ROYAL 1 9 9.0 9 0

INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
Interceptions: None

PUNTING NO YDS AVG T I LG PUNTING NO YDS AVG T I LG
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
B MOORMAN 7 251 35.9 0 3 50 D ZASTUDIL 7 232 33.1 1 3 56

T = Touchbacks, I = Inside 20

PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
J LEONHARD 2 18 9.0 10 0 J CRIBBS 2 5 2.5 5 0

KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
J LEONHARD 2 32 16.0 17 0 J CRIBBS 1 26 26.0 26 0
T MCGEE 1 18 18.0 18 0

KICKING XP/XPA FG/FGA KICKING XP/XPA FG/FGA
---------------------------------- ----------------------------------
P DAWSON 0/0 2/2
Dist.: 35 49

O-D O-D
FUMBLES NO LOST FF REC FUMBLES NO LOST FF REC
------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
R NEILL 1 0 0 0-0 J CRIBBS 1 0 0 1-0

DEFENSE TK SO AS SK-YD DEFENSE TK SO AS SK-YD
------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
T MCGEE 6 6 0 0-0 L BODDEN 6 6 0 0-0
B SCOTT 5 5 0 0-0 A DAVIS 6 6 0 0-0
D WHITNER 5 5 0 0-0 S SMITH 6 4 2 0-0
R DENNEY 5 4 1 0-0 R SMITH 5 4 1 0-0
J DIGIORGIO 5 4 1 0-0 S JONES 5 4 1 0-0
A CROWELL 5 3 2 0-0 K WIMBLEY 5 2 3 0-0
A SCHOBEL 4 4 0 1-7 D JACKSON 4 2 2 0-0
K ELLISON 4 4 0 0-0 B POOL 3 3 0 0-0
J LEONHARD 3 3 0 0-0 E WRIGHT 3 3 0 0-0
J MCCARGO 3 3 0 0-0 E KELLEY 3 2 1 0-0
C KELSAY 3 2 1 0-0 B MCDONALD 2 2 0 0-0
A HARGROVE 3 0 3 0-0 O ROYE 2 1 1 0-0
L TRIPPLETT 2 2 0 0-0 C THOMPSON 2 1 1 0-0
K WILLIAMS 1 0 1 0-0 W MCGINEST 1 1 0 0-0
L WILLIAMS 1 1 0 0-0

Officials: Referee-Walt Coleman, Umpire-Jeff Rice, Head Linesman-Wayne
Mackie, Line Judge-Ron Phares, Field Judge-Steve Zimmer, Side
Judge-David Wyant, Back Judge-Richard Reels.

Att: 73,196 Time of Game: 2:57</div>

 

NFL: BUFFALO at CLEVELAND

<div class="pre">NFL BUFFALO AT CLEVELAND
NOTE: RESENDING BOX TO CORRECT TEAM FUMBLES FOR
CLEVELAND.</div>