Bills Win, Lose Spiller To Injury

The good news – the Bills beat the Browns 24-14, but the really bad news is they lost their star running back C-J Spiller to a shoulder injury. It looked like the Bills were going to win in a rout when they scored on their first two possessions to go up 14-0. But after Spiller was hurt in the first half the Bills lost momentum and the Browns rallied.

They pulled to within 17-14 late in the third quarter, but Ryan Fitzpatrick found Stevie Johnson for a 9-yard touchdown to cap a 68-yard drive to up the lead to 10 and the Bills held off the Browns the rest of the way.

Fitzpatrick finished with 208 yards passing and three touchdowns. He found rookie T J Graham for a 9-yard touchdown to open the scoring, then on the next series tossed a short pass to Spiller who turned it into a 32-yard touchdown. Spiller finished with only 16 yards rushing on four carries before he was hurt. The early diagnosis is a sprained shoulder and coach Chan Gailey says he’ll miss next week’s game with the Patriots, but says it doesn’t look like a long-term injury.

It’s the Bills first win on the road since last year’s opening day victory at Kansas City. The Bills improve to 2-1 and now comes the hard part – games against New England next week followed by games out west in San Francisco and Arizona. Even with Spiller and Fred Jackson in the lineup it was a tall order. Without them it’s even more difficult.