Bills Stun Packers, Remain In Playoff Race

Aaron Rodgers is regarded by many as the best quarterback in the NFL, perhaps one of the greatest ever. His resume this season entering Sunday afternoon was impeccable--- 3,652 passing yards, a 66.3% completion rate with 35 touchdowns against just three interceptions and a ridiculous 119.0 quarterback passer rating.

However, he was no match for the Buffalo Bills defense.

Home underdogs with any playoff hopes on the line at Ralph Wilson Stadium, a Bills defense already impressive most the season took things to another level Sunday, stymieing Rodgers and his potent Green Bay Packers attack all afternoon as the Bills upset the Packers, 21-13 to improve to 8-6 with two road games remaining.

It’s too bad the Bills couldn’t get a pair of games against each team in the NFC North. With their victory Sunday Buffalo finished a perfect 4-0 this season against the division.

By far, their win against Green Bay, who entered on a five-game winning streak was most improbable.

Rodgers completed just 17-of-42 passes for 185 yards and threw two second half interceptions, both to Bacarri Rambo, only seeing extended action because of injuries to safeties Da’Norris Searcy and Duke Williams, who suffered a possible concussion Sunday.

“Obviously, they (Bills defense) played at a very high level.” head coach Doug Marrone said. “We were able to go in and, early on, we took away some of the stop-nines they were trying to run and get them to the second read.”

Released a few months ago by Washington, Rambo made the most of his first real Bills opportunity in a crucial spot for his team.

''It's a huge, huge confidence boost,'' Rambo told reporters after the game., ''It's going to allow me to play even faster and build confidence in myself that, hey, I can do this. I belong in this league.''As poorly as Rodgers played, the Packers offensive woes weren’t all on him.  Jordy Nelson dropped a perfectly thrown ball deep that would’ve been a 94-yard touchdown and given the Packers a third quarter lead.

Down 19-13 the Packers had one last chance to pull the game out with the ball on their own 10 and 1:51 left on the clock. But on their first play the Bills defense came up huge a final time.  As Rodgers was about to throw a pass he had the ball stripped by Mario Williams.  The ball rolled into the end zone and was recovered by Eddie Lacy and immediately ruled a safety as the possessing team cannot advance a fumble inside the final two minutes.

“It was frustrating,” Rodgers told reporters. “They did a good job on defense, kind of slowed us down a little bit. We had some opportunities and didn’t execute very well on them.

It’s a good thing the defense played up to and even exceeded their lofty expectations, because the offense was positively dreadful yet again.  As he has more often than not in recent weeks since taking over for E.J. Manuel, Kyle Orton couldn’t get anything going offensively.  He completed 14-of-27 passes for 158 yards but was intercepted once, sacked three times and missed, often badly on several throws to open receivers.

The struggle is real.

"We’ll just keep on getting better,” Orton said. “I think that’s the only focus that you can have.  Feel good that we got the win, but realize there are a lot more things we can do to get better.  It’s a battle every week of execution.  The good offenses just execute play in and play out.  We’ll work our butts off to get to that point.”

The Bills lone touchdown didn’t come on offense, but a first quarter 75-yard punt return by Marcus Thigpen when Buffalo was down early, 3-0.

“We needed a spark and once he kicked the ball it fell kind of short and I saw our guys had some big blocks and some big holes on the left side of the field and I just took it and ran for it.” Thigpen said.

The only scoring offense the Bills mustered was four Dan Carpenter field goals.

Fred Jackson was effective running the ball for Buffalo, rushing for 71 yards on 20 carries.  Sammy Watkins was targeted in the passing game six times but managed just one catch for 28 yards. On a positive note the reception eclipsed Lee Evans’ rookie receiving yardage mark of 844.

Jackson called the victory his biggest since he joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2006.

“Yeah, it’s right now,” he said. “We’re still fighting for a chance to get in the playoffs. We need every one of them, we’ll go next week into Oakland and that will be big for us. We’ve just got to keep fighting and keep focusing on every team.”

Like everyone else on the offense, Jackson can thank a defense having a magical year.

In the last two weeks the Bills have now held Rodgers and Peyton Manning to a combined 31-of-62 passing for 358 yards, four interceptions and no touchdowns.

"I think it’s a testament to what we do defensively, to Jim Schwartz and it’s a testament to our players." Kyle Williams said.

Even after the upset win Buffalo currently sits in ninth place in the AFC and a longshot to make the playoffs, but if they can defeat the 2-12 Oakland Raiders on the road next week they’ll at least have a shot going into the finale at New England.

If nothing else, it’s meaningful football for Buffalo right around Christmas time.

Folks, that hasn’t happened in quite a while.