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The Buffalo Bills defeated the Cleveland Browns by a score of 11-10 in Thursday night's nationally-televised preseason game.
Tyrod Taylor made the start at quarterback for the Bills, and was their lone bright spot on an otherwise dreadful evening for a unit that was missing five running backs and, after Chris Hogan was carted off with an ankle injury, five wide receivers. In his extended audition for the starting job, Taylor led the Bills with 41 rushing yards on four carries, and completed 7-of-10 passes for 65 yards. Dan Carpenter missed a 46-yard field goal after Taylor took an ugly sack, but otherwise, Taylor put up a solid performance with little to no help from the running game.
Whether or not Taylor did enough to permanently surpass Matt Cassel in the race for the starting job remains to be seen, but it seems more likely that the Bills will take at least one more preseason game (and the rest of training camp) to make that decision.
Playing without anything close to resembling a running game or quality blocking in the second half, EJ Manuel did what he could to keep his name in the conversation at quarterback, as well. He overcame some early adversity to lead the Bills on a game-winning touchdown drive with under two minutes remaining in the game, finding rookie Andre Davis on a 14-yard touchdown pass on fourth and goal, then following it up with a connection to Bronson Hill for the game-winning two-point conversion. It was an impressive performance to cap a strong week for Manuel, who has been given also-ran status in the competition for weeks now, but who may merit some last-minute consideration now.
Defensively, Buffalo's top unit had a strong outing, sacking Josh McCown three times and intercepting him twice, with rookie cornerback Ronald Darby handling both of those turnovers. Johnny Manziel capped off an 11-play, 96-yard drive at the start of the fourth quarter with a 21-yard touchdown pass to rookie Shane Wynn for a go-ahead score.
We'll have much more on this game throughout the day tomorrow. In the meantime, what did you think of the performances you saw this evening, particularly from the two quarterbacks?