Defense has tightened in the red zone
While the defense struggled all day stopping the run, they did turn in one of the most impressive displays of goal line defense you will ever see during the first half of Sunday’s game.
Whenever the Bills and Browns meet, something bizarre always seems to happen. Usually, it’s something that highlights the ineptitude of one (if not both) of the two teams. In this Bills-Browns meeting, that moment happened on 11 plays down near the Buffalo goal line.
On the Browns’ second drive of the game, they moved down to a first-and-goal at the Buffalo one-yard line, poised to take a two-score lead. What happened next was nothing short of remarkable.
The Browns ran eight consecutive plays from the Buffalo one- or two-yard line. They scored on none of them. There were even two pass interference penalties to extend the Cleveland drive. Still, the Browns could not score.
You can argue that the sequence was more about the ineptitude of the Browns and some bizarre play calls, such as a fade from the one-yard line and multiple tosses to Nick Chubb, but it doesn’t happen without an incredible effort from the Buffalo defense.
The Bills refused to allow the Browns an easy touchdown. This was evident by the two heads-up plays made by Jordan Poyer and Tre’Davious White on Odell Beckham. They made sure Beckham had no chance to catch a pair of throws to the end zone from Baker Mayfield, even if it meant taking a penalty. They dared the officials to throw the flag, which they did both times, but they ensured there would be no touchdown while Cleveland only moved the ball a half yard closer to the end zone. White, who had a sensational game shadowing Beckham, made another big-time play during the sequence when he knocked the ball out of Beckham’s arms on a fade throw to the right side.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo goal-line defense stiffened and yielded nothing to Nick Chubb. The Browns ran Chubb five times from the one- or two-yard line during the sequence for a total of -2 yards. It was a team effort by the Bills as Poyer, Matt Milano, Lorenzo Alexander, Shaq Lawson, Tremaine Edmunds, and newly-acquired Corey Liuget all assisted on tackles to stop Chubb short of the goal line. The Browns assisted in this effort by inexplicably calling tosses to Chubb over and over again, trying to get him out wide. But the Bills’ defense closed down running lanes each time.
The goal-line stand was an historic effort by the Buffalo defense. In fact, no NFL team had been stopped short of the end zone on six plays from the two-yard-line or closer on the same drive since the Jets were turned away six times by the Cowboys in a December 1993 game. The Bills turned away the Browns on EIGHT plays from inside the two. But they weren’t done yet.
In the second quarter, the Bills defense once again shut the door on the Browns at the goal line. The Bills had taken a 7-6 lead, but the Browns moved to a first-and-goal at the Buffalo 3. A quick throw to Jarvis Landry put the ball at the one-yard line before Chubb again was turned away on a run off the right end. On third-and-goal, the Browns elected to pass, but a shovel pass attempt to Chubb fell incomplete.
The Browns lined up to go for it again on fourth down, but guard Chris Hubbard moved early and was flagged for a false start. Once that happened, Freddie Kitchens sent out the field goal unit.
In total, the Browns had 11 plays in the first half from inside the Buffalo three-yard line. The Bills’ defense turned all 11 away. You won’t see better goal line defense than that. It was a humongous step forward for a defense that has had problems in the red zone this season.
This goal line effort came one week after the Bills held the Washington Redskins out of the end zone on both their trips into the Buffalo red zone. While Cleveland did find the end zone twice in this game on drives into the red zone, including the final scoring drive of the game, the Bills have to be encouraged with how they played defense near the goal line in this game and perhaps have solved an issue that had been plaguing them in recent weeks.