The Buffalo Bills lost their most important game of the year today to Cleveland by the ridiculous score of 8 - 0. The game was entertaining in a train-wreck sort of way, but overall I was extremely disappointed in much of the Bills’ performance.

-If I was running the Buffalo Bills, I would have told Steve Fairchild to call Colorado for a ride back to Buffalo after that fiasco. The Bills were extraordinarily predictable on offense, and completely ineffective. I don’t have all of the good stats available at my fingertips, but I think Marshawn Lynch or Fred Jackson ran the same play on about 12 consecutive first downs - for an average of about an inch per run. Besides that, there were a ton of very questionable calls and strategies.

Welcome back to The Tailgate, where every week during Bills season we discuss the upcoming match up, plus I get to tell you interesting things like what I’ll be eating and how many beers I may consume. Thrilling, is it not? I am also pleased to note that this is BfloBlog’s third season of blogging about the Bills, and if I have learned anything, it’s that I am not good at predicting the outcome of Buffalo Bills games.

Prep Time: Does anyone have a time machine so we can go back to week one, so we can head to Vegas and bet the mortgage on the odds of the Bills and Browns having a game with playoff implications in December? Here’s the thing that bugs me the most, though. Why does it have to be Bills/Browns? I don’t know about you guys, but I feel a kinship with Clevelanders. Similar type of cities, similar type of frustrated fan bases, and I generally root for Cleveland teams to do well. I hate 30 other NFL franchises (well, maybe not the Texans - they still have a team, right?) So why does a game to decide what is likely to be the final wild card spot have to be between these two teams? The NFL, like life, can be a cruel mistress.

Load the Cooler: Golly Bob Howdy, them Browns have a nice offense. They have taken a bunch of comeback kids - guys who have suffered injuries, or been given up for dead - and turned them into the league’s ninth-best offense. Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow, Jamal Lewis, and the QB, Derek Anderson, have all had to battle through some adversity. And setting aside that Kellen Winslow usually manages to come off like a giant douche, it’s a pretty darn likable team they have there. I think the matchup of Winslow on Bills safety Donte Whitner will be huge. If Whitner can limit Winslow, the Bills will be in better shape, but they will then leave themselves exposed to the Browns running game. Actually, what the Bills should pray for is a big blast of snow to cut down the Browns passing attack, leaving each team to battle it out on the ground. With the forecast looking like that may happen, I am really looking forward to this game.