Finally, we have a victory to review in our Buffalo Bills re-watch.
It wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but the Bills got the proverbial monkey off of their back by downing the Detroit Lions 14-12 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Week 10 of the 2010 NFL regular season. The Bills dealt with injury and got a lot of help from a very sloppy Lions performance, but in the NFL, a win is a win.
Week 10, first half: Bills lead Lions 7-3 at halftime - NOTES
- Kyle Williams runs over Dominic Raiola, tripping up Jahvid Best for a negative gain. Raiola winds up flat on his back on the play.
- Reggie Torbor left singled up on Nate Burleson on third down; Shaun Hill finds Burleson for an easy first down.
Week 10, first half: Bills lead Lions 7-3 at halftime - NOTES (cont.)
- Chris Kelsay slips by Brandon Pettigrew to the inside, tackles Best for no gain.
- Corey Williams gives Andy Levitre the slip on a spin move, hitting Ryan Fitzpatrick as he steps into the pocket to deliver. Ball is forced to Stevie Johnson in triple coverage.
- Fitzpatrick hit by a stunting Williams again as he throws. This time he connects, hitting Donald Jones with a pretty throw for a first down.
- Levitre can't get to Turk McBride on a pull before he hits C.J. Spiller in the backfield. Spiller breaks the tackle, maintains his balance, then bounces left for a gain of 14. Fitzpatrick and Johnson threw big blocks downfield on the run, with Fitzpatrick leveling Louis Delmas at the second level.
- Levitre pulls on a play-action fake. Fitzpatrick overthrows an open Lee Evans on a would-be touchdown. Evans beat Delmas deep on the play.
- Fitzpatrick and Jones can't connect on a well-conceived shovel pass. Eric Wood was out in front of the play as a pulling blocker.
- Lawrence Jackson runs right around Mansfield Wrotto to sack Fitzpatrick and force a Bills punt.
- Brian Moorman buries a punt at the Lions' three-yard line. Best punt I've seen from him by a country mile in this re-watch.
- Donte Whitner and Bryan Scott come free on a blitz. Whitner leaves his feet as Hill throws, getting a piece of the ball in the process. Incomplete pass leads to a Lions punt.
- Wood and Wrotto create a seam for Fred Jackson, who picks up six on a dive for a first down.
- Kyle Vanden Bosch reads a screen well, but Jackson puts the slip on him. He can't pick up more yardage, though, as Demetrius Bell gets turned around in space and can't get a hat on anyone.
- Jones cracks a safety in the box, sealing the edge on an off-tackle run for Jackson. First down.
- Levitre decks Williams as the latter is penalized for an encroachment. Williams lands on Fitzpatrick, injuring his finger in the process. (Fitzpatrick would continue to play.)
- Levitre pulls on a play-action fake. Fitzpatrick overthrows again, this time throwing toward Johnson, who was open in the end zone. Difficult throw even if it's on target.
- Chan Gailey passes up a 29-yard field goal to go for it on 4th & 1 in a scoreless game (still first quarter). Jackson fumbles and recovers, but didn't have necessary yardage. Turnover on downs. Bell got beat pretty badly on the play, as he quickly gave up leverage.
- Against a Bills blitz, Brandon Pettigrew runs a slip screen to perfection, hurdling Jairus Byrd for additional yardage to end the play.
- Byrd brought on a run blitz, swings around and brings Best down from behind. Gain of two.
- Hill telegraphs a pass and throws wide of the target. Whitner jumps the route and tips the pass into the air, and Dwan Edwards hauls it in for the interception.
- Spiller tackled for loss on a well-defended weak-side trap. Bills didn't have enough blockers on that side, Lions weren't fooled, and David Martin couldn't sustain his block.
- Evans makes a nice catch on a purposely low Fitzpatrick throw (slant pattern). Ndamukong Suh lines up in the middle linebacker spot, Geoff Hangartner doesn't pick him up on the pass rush. Suh runs through Fitzpatrick like a mack truck.
- Fitzpatrick connects with Evans on a pretty fly pattern to get the Bills deep into Lions territory. Evans beat Chris Houston on the play.
- Jones with another crack in the box, this time on a linebacker. Jackson squirms down to the half-yard line. On the next play, Corey McIntyre leads Jackson into the end zone. 7-0 Bills.
- Kyle called for a hold - latched onto left guard and center, prevented Raiola from reaching Reggie Torbor, who shot the gap and stopped the Lions runner for a loss. Good call by the refs.
- Williams responds by blowing up the next play, destroying a running lane and allowing Kelsay to record a tackle for loss on Best.
- Bills blitz five. Calvin Johnson takes Reggie Corner with him deep, giving Kevin Smith lots of room underneath. Smith makes Drayton Florence miss and gets the edge, picking up big yardage.
- Kelsay draws a hold on Gosder Cherilus, negating a Lions first down.
- Williams sniffs out a screen, mirroring Best and bringing him down behind the line of scrimmage to force a punt.
- Spiller rips off a 29-yard punt return, bouncing the play outside to the left and picking up the yardage on speed alone. This was his last play of the game, as he left with a hamstring issue.
- Wood whiffs on a pull, and Jackson is stuffed for no gain. No other Bills lineman got sufficient push, anyway.
- Johnson drops a fastball from Fitzpatrick. Ball was placed a bit wide, but Johnson got his hands on it.
- Gailey dials up a well-timed screen pass, but the execution is helter-skelter. Jackson catches the ball in front of Wood, makes the defender that Wood would've blocked miss, then fumbles as he fights for first down yardage. Lions recover.
- Megatron singled up on Leodis McKelvin. Runs a short route, makes McKelvin miss and easily picks up first down yardage.
- Megatron picks up another first down in front of Paul Posluszny. Bills were running a zone, and got no pressure from the front four. Johnson settled into a hole, and Posluszny brought him down as soon as the catch was made.
- Kelsay draws another hold, this time on Jeff Backus. Kelsay having himself one hell of a half of football.
- Whitner makes a great open-field stop on Megatron, who fumbles trying to stretch for additional yardage. Best recovers.
- Florence plays nice contain as Best tries to get the edge, forcing him out of bounds for a loss of yardage.
- Scott and Byrd come off the edge on an overload zone blitz. Scott left free and sacks Hill to end a drive.
- McKelvin replaces Spiller as the team's punt returner, and muffs his first opportunity out of bounds. Jackson would come in to field the next punt.
- Jackson puts a wicked slip move on Vanden Bosch, picks up six yards. KVB unblocked on the play.
- Jones can't make a tough catch on third down. Fitzpatrick ignored an open-enough David Nelson beyond the sticks to take a shot down the field with Jones against single coverage.
- After three straight Bills runs from their own one-yard line, Stefan Logan returns a Moorman punt 25 yards to the Bills' 30 just shy of halftime.
- Been more impressed with Antonio Coleman as a pass rusher than Arthur Moats in this half. Coleman a bit more powerful.
- Posluszny can't handle Smith in space, and the back picks up an easy first down on a short pass.
- Moats tips a pass high into the air. Three Bills collide and knock each other over like bowling pins trying to essentially fair catch the ball. Buffalo Bills football, ladies and gentlemen.
- Whitner buries Best on a shovel pass after the rookie made Posluszny miss in the hole.
- McKelvin nearly makes an acrobatic interception on a terrible Hill fade to Megatron. Trapped the ball against the turf. Lions kick a 25-yard field goal on the next play to cut Bills halftime lead to 7-3.