Nashville, TN (WGR550) -- The Buffalo Bills came out of their bye week with a 41-17 loss at the hands of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday afternoon at LP Field. Titans’ running back Chris Johnson had his way with the Buffalo defense, gashing the team for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground and 100 yards receiving on 9 catches.
The Bills defense forced a 3-and-out by Tennessee on the first drive of the game, and the Buffalo offense struck on their first chance to take an early 7-0 lead out of the wildcat formation. Fred Jackson tossed a 27-yard touchdown pass to Lee Evans to cap off a 10 play, 63-yard possession.
Johnson answered right back for the Titans to tie the game 7-7 midway through the opening quarter. The running back racked up 60 yards on the next drive, topped off by a 28-yard TD run. Nate Washington’s 14-yard TD reception gave the Titans a 14-7 lead in the first. QB Vince Young took advantage of a short field to give his team the lead.
Titans’ kicker Rob Bironas knocked home a 38-yard field goal to extend the Tennessee lead to 17-7 part way through the second quarter. Back-to-back passing plays from Trent Edwards brought the Bills within 3 points on the Titans. A 46-yard play to Terrell Owens put Buffalo in the red zone, and an 8-yard toss to Evans put six more points on the board. Rian Lindell converted the extra point to make the score 17-14 Tennessee.
Rookie CB Jairus Byrd snatched his eighth interception of the season to give the Bills the football back near midfield. Bironas tried a 60-yard field goal with :01 to go in the half, but it was well short and sent the Titans to the locker room with a 3 point lead.
Lindell tied the game 17-17 in the third quarter with a 25-yard field goal. That would be the only score in a less than eventful third. The Buffalo offense held the ball for 12 plays and 6:43 of the quarter. Tennessee scored on a 12 play drive of their own that started at the end of the third and carried over into the fourth quarter. Johnson scored his second TD of the game to give the Titans a 24-17 lead. The 1-yard scamper capped the 5-plus-minute drive.
Bironas blasted home a 51-yard field goal to give Tennessee a 10 point lead with just over three minutes to go in the game, 27-17. Edwards’ first interception of the game was run back for TD and sealed the win for the Titans. Vincent Fuller snared the pass and ran in 26-yards into the end zone for the score. Ryan Fitzpatrick took over at quarterback on the next Bills’ possession. Roderick Hood had a pick-six against Fitzpatrick to tack onto the Tennessee win 41-17.
Edwards completed 18 of his 28 passes for 185 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Ryan Fitzpatrick was 2-7 passing for 6 yards and 1 INT in relief work. Jackson rushed the ball 8 times for 48 yards and had 1 TD pass. Owens led the way receiving with 85 yards on 3 receptions. Evans had the 2 Buffalo TD receptions, along with 50 yards.
Young threw for 210 yards on 17 comopletions, with 1 TD and 1INT for Tennessee. Johnson led the Titans in rushing and receiving with 232 combined yards on the ground and through the air with 2 TDs.
The loss has set the Bills back to 3-6 on the season. The team heads to Jacksonville next Sunday to face the Jaguars at 1 o’clock.
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Photo courtesy of The AP.
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