Football returned to Orchard Park on Sunday and gave a much needed boost to a community hit so hard in the past two weeks. Gone were the hundreds of thousands of tons of snow that shut down the stadium and forced the Bills to their new home away from home, Ford Field in Detroit.

Sunday was an emotional day. Not only were first responders awarded game balls from last week’s victory over the NY Jets, but a rejuvenated Jim Kelly led the team onto the field wearing a Darryl Talley jersey as a reminder of the support Bills Nation is sending to Spiderman going through rough times. Facing an AFC team also in the playoff hunt, especially one holding the Bills’ first round draft pick next year, it seemed as if there would be no shortage of motivation for Buffalo to come out and play spirited football.

Spirited didn’t happen. Just as they did for the New England game seven weeks earlier, the Bills came out completely flat in front of a pumped up home crowd. On a windy day the Bills won the coin toss and deferred, allowing the defense to take the field first. After 5 plays and 20 yards, the Brows were forced to punt. The Bills followed with a 4 play, 17 yard drive with a punt.

The Browns’ second drive was hard to watch. A toothless Bills defense gave up a 15 play, 86 yard drive that advanced all the way to the Buffalo 4-yard line. The Bills gave up 7 first downs on the drive, including 4 consecutive plays that produced first downs. This is how the Bills were going to play at home in front of an excited full house? Luckily, the Browns were forced to kick a field goal and the score was 3-0 bad guys early.

The remainder of the half seesawed between two teams, with issues moving the ball taking turns doing nothing. Cleveland had a 71 yard drive that ended in a missed field goal, but the Bills offense did absolutely nothing. The Bills did manage to intercept Brian Hoyer in the second quarter, but a 53 yard field goal attempt by Dan Carpenter was blocked, sending the teams to the locker room with the same 3-0 score.

Considering the Bills were facing a Cleveland squad ranked 29th against the rush, and down a few key players in the secondary, it was very puzzling to understand why Buffalo has such a hard time moving the ball. The first half stats were terrible – the Bills ran only 26 plays – 7 runs for a paltry 2.9 average and 19 passes for 80 yards. The Bills had twice as many penalty yards (40) as they had rushing yards (20). Kyle Orton had a first half rating of 43.8. The Browns held the ball more than 6 minutes longer than the Bills and amassed a hundred yards more offense than the men in blue. Statistically it was one-sided and it became clear to me that this was going to be a very long and unhappy afternoon. Orton looked bad and I suspected we might get another look at E.J. Manuel before too long – it was that bad.

Here’s where things got weird. We’ve all seen these games where the Bills just show zero punch – nothing goes right and the game just slips away. Hoping the Bills make some sort of adjustment at halftime to turn the game around seemed very optimistic. Luckily, in the second half, Cleveland would “out-Buffalo” the Buffalo Bills and find a way to lose.

Buffalo began the second half by going 3 and out. Not the normal 3 and out, but the extra painful way – by turning the ball over. The Browns got the ball at the Buffalo 30, took a sack and opted to punt. Fred Jackson muffed the punt but for the first time all afternoon the Bills started to move the ball. The Bills drove to the Cleveland 37 and Doug Marrone actually opted to go for it on 4th down. Instead of a run or short pass, Orton went for broke and squeezed the ball into Robert Woods at the 3-yard line. The Bills finally got on the board on the next play with a touchdown pass to Chris Hogan .

On the first play of Cleveland’s ensuing drive they coughed up the ball when Jerry Hughes forced a fumble, picked it up and ran for another Bills touchdown. In the span of 10 seconds, the Bills had put up two touchdowns and started to pull away.

The Browns completely fell apart in the second half. In the third quarter the Browns had -7 yards of offense with zero first downs. Buffalo tacked on 4 field goals to put the game away. The lone bright spot for Cleveland when Hoyer was pulled in favor of Johnny Manziel. Johnny Football scored his first NFL touchdown by scampering for 10 yards in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late.

It’s hard to imagine the Bills, after a terrible first half, could come back and win the game, mostly on account of miscues and mistakes made by Cleveland. Usually it’s the other way around – how many times have we helplessly watched as the Bills took a statistically strong start and then gave the game away to their opponent? How many times have the Bills found a way to lose a game they probably should have won? This time the Bills were in control as an opponent let it slip away – it was weird to see another team “out-Buffalo” the Bills.

So the Bills escaped with a much needed win. Fans are happy, as they should be after any win. There is talk of playoffs, but the scenarios are ugly and unwelcoming towards the Bills. And now comes the December we all dreaded when the schedule came out – Denver, Green Bay and New England. These aren’t teams lead by Brian Hoyer with a hotshot rookie backup, but rather contests against squads with 3 of the best quarterback in the league and possibly all-time.

Buffalo won’t be able to start flat like they did on Sunday and expect to be in the game when it matters. Likewise, Buffalo won’t be able to hang out and count on their opponent to give the game away. If Buffalo wants to continue to hold onto their razor-thin playoff hopes they will need to find a way to play David to some Goliaths – the odds will be long and the challenge extremely difficult.

I’m hoping to see some good games in December. Of course I’ll be rooting for the Bills to win, but if they can’t I’d at least like to see them go down swinging, giving it their all and taking chances – what do they have to lose? I’d like to see Buffalo belong on the same fields as teams who will be top seeds in the playoffs and know that next year (it’s always next year, huh?) the Bills really could make the postseason – as we approach this holiday season of giving it would be a great gift for those who deserve so much.