Will another wobbly performance lead to a different quarterback starting next Sunday in Cincinnati? Watch video
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Jake Delhomme may have played his last game of the season if Colt McCoy is healthy enough to start Sunday against the Bengals.
McCoy was back in uniform and served as the third quarterback after missing the previous two games with a high left ankle sprain. He returned to practice on a limited basis Friday and has been moving well.
Delhomme completed 12-of-20 attempts Sunday for 86 yards with one sack, one lost fumble and one interception for a 49.2 rating. Both of his turnovers came when his arm was hit in the fourth quarter. The first time, linebacker Arthur Moats got around Joe Thomas and knocked the ball out of Delhomme's hand for a strip-sack. The Bills recovered and converted it into the field goal.
The second time, Delhomme was hit by blitzing safety Bryan Scott as Delhomme was trying to throw deep to Mohamed Massaquoi. The ball fluttered 20 yards downfield and was picked off by cornerback Leodis McKelvin. The pick came near midfield with 3:51 left and the Browns facing a 13-6 deficit.
"We had a third down and they pressured," said Delhomme. "Mohamed's pressed up and beats the guy off the line. I'm not sure which guy hit my arm, but certainly it wasn't where I wanted it to go. It did affect it because right when he hit it, it was 'alright, that's going straight up in the air.'"
Delhomme lamented failing to score a touchdown on the game's first series, when the Browns were stopped at the Bills' 1. The Browns converted only two third downs.
"That was the story of the day," said Delhomme. "Third down we were not good, and in the red area, we had field goals."
Proud of his big play: Moats reveled in beating Thomas on the strip-sack, which was first ruled an incompletion and then reversed after a Bills' challenge.
As he was being interviewed, one of Moats' teammates yelled, "You beat a Pro Bowler. You know that, don't you?"
"After watching film of him, I thought there were some things I could do against him," Moats said. "I knew he was very athletic, but I still felt like I could get something on him, and it turned out I did. I gave him a stutter inside and he bit on it, then it was an outside-hand knockdown. I was able to flip my hips and get by him."
Missed opportunity: Tight end Robert Royal, who played three seasons for the Bills, failed to grab a third-down pass from Delhomme that whistled through his hands at the Buffalo 43 with 6:32 left.
Last season, Royal dropped two passes here in his first game back since being signed by the Browns.
"It's one of those things where you want to try to make a play for your team," said Royal. "I wanted to try to help get us in position to win the game and it didn't work out. Of course it's my former team and former teammates so obviously you want to make a play to help your team win. I don't know what it is about coming back here. Maybe they've got something on me."
More angst: Defensive back Mike Adams recounted Ryan Fitzpatrick's 11-yard TD pass to rookie Dave Nelson on a post. "He got the best of me. He got me. I seen the dig route all week and he shook me on that dig and went straight ahead."
Where's Watson? Tight end Ben Watson, who caught 10 passes last week, had one for eight yards.
"We tried to throw him a few today," said Delhomme. "They brought limited pressure, not a whole bunch, kinda just playing back. He's in our read the majority of the time. Just for whatever reason it didn't happen."
What weather? It rained all game, but the snow and ice never came. "The weather wasn't a factor at all," said Joe Haden. "It was 1,000 times better than everybody expected."
Botched trick play: Josh Cribbs had the third of three Browns fumbles on a single third-quarter drive after a botched reverse. But he reached around three Bills and recovered the ball.
"It was a miscommuniated play," he said. "Jake was giving me a dummy call. I was in motion, so I stopped motion and he hiked the ball. It was just a miscommunication between the quarterback and the receiver.
"It was a designed end around, but they were kind of sniffing out the play like, 'Hey, Cribbs is in the game.' So he was giving me a dummy call and I stopped motioning and probably should have kept coming around."
Bumps and bruises: Linebacker David Bowens left with a head injury after making the initial contact on a fourth-quarter third down running play that held the Bills to a field goal. Linebacker Matt Roth apparently ran into him and he was face-down on the field for a brief time before walking off. ... Cornerback Sheldon Brown said he suffered a rotator cuff injury making a TD-saving tackle earlier in the drive, but he came back in. He said he'll undergo an MRI Monday. ... Linebacker Marcus Benard got up slowly after a kickoff return and may have aggravated his shoulder.
Extra points: Seneca Wallace ran two Wildcat plays, handing off both times to Hillis. The first went for 25 yards. ... Bedford native and Bills receiver Lee Evans left in the first half with an ankle injury and didn't return. ... Benard recorded a sack to increase his team-leading total to 7.5 on the season. He has 11 sacks in 18 career games. ... The Browns have scored two field goals in the last 10 times they've gotten takeaways. ... Linebacker Chris Gocong recorded a career-high 10 tackles, including one sack and a forced fumble. He has a team-leading three forced fumbles for the season.
Staff writer Dennis Manoloff contributed to this report.