Plays That Defined 2022: Cleveland Browns at Buffalo Bills

The 2022 season is in the books but there’s one little thing missing. Illustrations. Let’s pretend the 2022 season is an actual book, with each game a chapter. It’s up to us to find one play or “illustration” for each that best shows us the theme of that chapter. Make sense? I hope so because we’re about to take a look at some plays and vote. Let’s find an illustration for...

Chapter 10: Cleveland Browns at Buffalo Bills (sorta)

Sure it was just two games, but following the overtime defeat to the Minnesota Vikings, the Buffalo Bills were having themselves a losing streak. In comes the Browns and a 3-6 record to hopefully set the Bills right. Making matters weirder, due to insane weather conditions the Bills were hosting the game in Detroit. Could Buffalo overcome yet another adversity?

Cleveland struck first. And third. With a 10-3 lead over the Bills in the second quarter, some heroics near the half allowed Buffalo to pull ahead by three at the break. They never looked back after that. The defense clamped down even further in the second half, allowing two garbage-time scores. The offense scored at a steady pace and the Bills were back, baby!

Matt Milano’s fumble recovery (Q2; 8:23)

The defense allowed 23 points, but 13 were after the game was in hand. The Browns’ best drive was their first. After that the Bills mostly had their number. This was the only turnover of the day for either side but one of many stopped drives by Buffalo’s defense.

Tyler Bass’ 56-yard field goal (Q3; 9:48)

I had to be specific on the field goal because Tyler Bass had six of them. Bass scored 19 of Buffalo’s 31 points (6 FGs, and an XP). This is his longest, but arguably this was a Tyler Bass game.

Devin Singletary’s touchdown (Q3; 4:11)

Josh Allen didn’t have a bad day passing the ball. It was more that the running game was firing on all cylinders and Buffalo was able to control the flow of the game while taking some of the burden off their star quarterback. Arguably, there might be better runs from Devin Singletary — who averaged 4.78 yards per carry on an efficient day. But a touchdown is a touchdown.

James Cook’s long run (Q3; 0:14)

Did I mention that the Bills leaned on the run game? After Singletary’s touchdown run they gave the ball to James Cook five times in a row, including this 29-yard gain. The only passing play on the drive was an incomplete on 3rd & 7, forcing a (what else?) field goal attempt from Tyler Bass.

Onside kick attempt (Q4; 0:19)

Technically the game wasn’t over yet and the Browns were down by eight, which also means this was technically a one-score game. With 19 seconds left, Cleveland needed to recover this, drive the rest of the field with no timeouts, and then also score a two-point conversion. Three statistically unlikely events aka “miracles” in 19 seconds to try to tie the game. Obviously that didn’t happen.