Special teams solid play helps lead the way to victory.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:Kyle Orton struggled with his accuracy all day long. He had a third down pass knocked down on the Bills first series. Stared down Sammy Watkins in the end zone as Jim Leonard picked him off. Had another interception on a poor pass by Joe Haden. Moved around the pocket well on his bomb to Woods and on another pass play. Struggled trying to throw over the back shoulder of his receivers and on slant patterns. Finished 17 of 31 for 190 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.
Grade D: He struggled with a 57.2 QB rating but did enough to win.
Fred Jackson had a lot of hard yards in the second half to help take precious time off the clock. Finished with 70 yards on 21 carries for a pedestrian 3.3 yards per carry.
Bryce Brown had 11 yards on 3 carries.
Boobie Dixon had 25 yards on 6 carries.
Grade C: Picked up enough hard yards but still a long way to go for this unit.
Sammy Watkins couldn't get anything going against Haden. He had three catches for just 11 yards.
Robert Woods caught the first pass of the game for a 13 yard gain and a first down. Made a two great catches including a huge leaping grab where he stretched all out for it. He also made a nice catch on the bomb that setup the first touchdown. He had four catches for 71 yards.
Chris Hogan couldn't haul in two passes to his back shoulder in the first quarter. The first one was difficult the second one could have been caught. Had the lone offensive touchdown of the game for Buffalo. He had just two catches for eight yards.
Scott Chandler had three short catches for just a paltry two yards.
MarQueis Gray caught a screen pass and rumbled 30 yard near the end of the 1st quarter than added a 41 yard catch and run that helped clinch the game.
Grade C: The short passing game was largely ineffective.
Cordy Glenn was beaten for a sack but Orton held on to the ball too long.
Grade C: Orton had time to throw and his one sack wasn't the unit's fault. They need to get a push in the running game as they averaged just 3.5 yards per carry against a weak run defense.
Mario Williams got pressure on a pass play forcing Hoyer to throw it away during the Browns first series but was quiet most of the game.
Jerry Hughes recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown despite being held.
Marcell Dareus was called for offsides to get the Browns out of a hole on their second possession. He had three tackles and was bothered by a groin injury in the game.
Kyle Williams got good push up the middle to force Hoyer out of the pocket on the first series. Had a big sack in the third quarter to knock the Browns out of field goal range and force a punt. Had what was called a sack and forced fumble that was recovered for a Bills touchdown. The play was reversed on a horrendous call by the refs.
Manny Lawson forced a fumble in the red zone but West had his elbow down so it was overturned.
Corbin Bryant knocked down a bobbled pass.
Grade C+: Didn't get much push in this game.
Brandon Spikes had five tackles and was in good position to stop Gordon short of a first down.
Nigel Bradham had a great open field tackle for a four yard loss on a running play. He sacked Hoyer to force a punt late in the first half. He dropped a sure interception in the final minutes of the first half. He finished with a game high 12 tackles.
Preston Brown had an open field tackle for a one yard gain on a 2nd and 6 play in the first quarter. Was covering Miles Austin and was burned deep for a 30 yard gain in the 2nd quarter. Had 11 tackles in the game.
Grade B+: Another solid game from a very good unit.
Stephon Gilmore was beaten by Miles Austin on slant pattern to give the Browns their first 1st down of the game and beaten by him again on their 2nd series for a first down grab.Had five tackles.
Corey Graham broke up a third down pass to Austin to force a punt late in the first quarter. Was called for a defensive holding penalty in the 2nd quarter.
Nickell Robey had two tackles and should have had a touchdown when he recovered an apparent fumble in the end zone. It was overturned on review.
Aaron Williams was called for an awful taunting penalty to give the Browns a first down on their second series. He had nine tackles.
Da'Norris Searcy picked off a pass late in the first half and then got another one in the second half. He dropped a third and stepped in front of another but it went right by him, so he could have had four picks in all. Finished with three pass breakups.
Grade B+: Did a solid job in pass coverage with little pressure up front.
Colton Schmidt had a great first punt. It went 49 yards before bouncing out of bounds at the 5 yard line. He then followed that with a 54 yard punt that had no return. He had five punts with a 45.8 yard average and a whopping 42 yard net. Three of the five punts went inside the 20.
Dan Carpenter had a 53 yard field goal blocked as the first half ended. Lee Smith was beaten around the end. He then hit four kicks in the 4th quater from 49, 34, 34, and 35 yards outs. First time in team history they had four field goals in a quarter.
Marcus Thigpen was back returning kicks and puts in his first game as a Bill. He had a nice 19 yard return of the first punt of the game zig zagging his way to a nice gain. He averaged 11.8 yards on four punt returns.
Fred Jackson fumbled his only punt return but recovered it.
Coverage Units allowed just 19 yards on three punt returns. 2 kickoff returns went for 25 and 19 yards giving them an average drive start on kickoffs their 19 yard line.
Grade A+: Great play by this unit had them win the field position battle.
Doug Marrone terrible clock management and play calling in the final minute of the first half after the interception by Searcy. They made the right adjustments and took control of the game in the second half. Really had the team come together despite the wacky issues of the past few weeks.
Nathaniel Hackett struggled in this game as the play calls were head scratching and the execution was very poor.
Jim Schwartz had his defense ready to play. They gave up decent yardage in the first half but they made adjustments holding them to just 124 second half yards and most of those were in garbage time.
Grade B: When was the last time the Bills were 7-5? It was 2000.
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