The Buffalo Bills didn't make it look easy. And it could've been so much worse when Josh Allen limped off at the end of the first half with a right foot injury.
This certainly set up as a trap game spot. The Bills had put up a massive comeback victory a week ago against the Patriots. The lowly Browns? It was going to be hard to get quite as energized for this one.
But in the end, a win is a win, especially this time of year. The score, 23-20, is less relevant than the fact that a victory gets added to the record, and a loss doesn't.
The Bills are 11-4, and if the Texans lose in the late afternoon window Sunday, or the Colts lose on Monday night, Buffalo will have officially clinched a playoff spot.
Even if those results don't happen, the Bills will have a ton of ways to clinch in the two weeks remaining in the season. They've also kept themselves alive in the AFC East race, with the Patriots (11-3) playing Sunday night against the Ravens.
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Clearly, this was an odd football game.
Even with a couple tip-drill interceptions of Shedeur Sanders, the Bills couldn't put the Browns away. Buffalo went for a couple fourth downs and didn't convert. Allen got dinged up on a play when he ran all over the place and nearly took a safety. The Browns had a near-safety in the final two minutes, too.
The Bills will want to play better than this in the week ahead, but they did enough.
James Cook put up the day's highlight, a weaving 44-yard touchdown run to open the Bills' scoring.
Ty Johnson got into the end zone, and then Cook did again.
Cook finished with 7.3 yards per carry (16 runs, 117 yards) and those two scores.
The Bills stuck with the run game, preventing Allen from having a huge day, and they did that in part to minimize the impact of superstar pass rusher Myles Garrett. It worked, as he just had a half-sack and didn't set the new NFL record.
There are certainly concerns to be had: New kicker Michael Badgley struggled, missing an extra point and getting a flag on a kickoff. The wide receivers rarely got open. The defense gave up solid running most of the day to the Browns.
But a win is a win, a clinch is on the doorstep, and the Bills avoided injury disaster to get one step closer to their biggest goals.
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