Good Enough, For Now

There were two truly big plays in Buffalo's 19-14 win over Miami on Thursday night.

Missed the first -- I was heading back from the concession stand with beer for the We Want Marangi coverage team when Leodis McKelvin darted through the Dolphins' punt-coverage team and 79 yards up the sideline for the game's first points, putting the Bills ahead for good just 90 seconds into the game.

The sell-out crowd, already in a frenzy after several hours of pre-game preparation and a rather spectacular tribute to American veterans, replete with fireworks and card-waving, escalated from rowdy din to savage roar. It was clear something very big had happened, and I was left to catch what would be Buffalo's lone touchdown on the replay board on the way back to our seats.

The noise level remained intense for most of the night, as Buffalo's defense finally came through with the sort of dominant performance anticipated through the offseason, but realized only during early wins against Kansas City and Cleveland.

Jairus Byrd capped the night with the second, a remarkably athletic interception of Miami rookie Ryan Tannehill with 1:54 left in regulation. Byrd's play quelled the palpable fear that the Bills would do what they have done best for most of 2012 -- find a way to blow it.

We split after Byrd's diving catch, in an effort to evade the post-game traffic snarl. The Bills being the Bills, they quickly returned the ball to the Dolphins, who mounted a final, desperate drive. We learned of Bryan Scott's subsequent interception with 41 seconds left from the remaining crowd, which let out one last cathartic, relieved ovation.

After Buffalo had lost two of its previous three games in stomach-churning fashion with seconds remaining, leaving before the very end probably showed excessive confidence by WWM. But for one of the few times this season, the Bills justified the feeling.

From our vantage point in the lower bowl, the assemblage seemed pretty well-behaved for a night game. Clearly, this was not the situation elsewhere. Police later reported making 24 arrests, about five times the normal level for a Sunday afternoon game.

Then there was the 26-year-old Palmyra man who went missing after being ejected by stadium security and was found dead early Thursday in a creek behind the stadium.

And a friend of We Want Marangi endured a shocking assault, we learned on Saturday.

She and her party had decided it was time to head for home around halftime. A man in the group said she was delivering a stream of high-end taunts to a group of Dolphins fans, invoking Dan Marino's Isotoner glove commercials from the 1980s and Mercury Morris' substance-abuse issues from the previous decade when a guy in a Miami jersey, who appeared heavily intoxicated, walked up and punched her in the face.

He fled, her companion said, and she declined medical treatment, despite a bleeding nose and what would become a black eye.

As they were walking to their car, the man who told WWM about the incident saw the aqua-clad assailant following them. With no authority types around, he said he administered some parking-lot justice, leaving the woman-puncher in a pile on the gravel.

The on-field action left a much better aftertaste. The Bills delivered the sort of performance they will need to repeat again and again over the next two months -- dominance by the defensive front, big plays from the secondary, and something approximating competence from the offense.

The opinion of our coverage team was hardly unanimous on this last point.

"Their offense is pathetic," said Gary, WWM's lead attorney on Thursday. "They did nothing in the second half."

It did appear that Buffalo's offense spent most of the second half trying to run out the clock, rather than attempting to build on a 19-7 lead. When Miami inevitably cut the lead to five points, another Tennessee moment appeared imminent.

But the Bills did move the ball consistently during the first two quarters, at least until they got near the goal line. Once there, Ryan Fitzpatrick's inaccuracy and Chan Gailey's strange obsession with Tashard Choice helped limit them to four Rian Lindell field goals.

For the first time this year, though, the Bills closed the deal -- not because the other guys missed a field goal or otherwise provided a lucky break, but due to heady, athletic plays by Byrd and Scott.

Buffalo heads into their next game, a week from today in Indianapolis, at 4-6. If the surprising Colts get slapped around, as expected, in New England later this afternoon, they'll be 6-4. A Bills win would draw them, somehow, within one game of the AFC's sixth and final playoff seed with five winnable contests remaining.

With Ben Roethlisberger out for at least a month, Pittsburgh is hardly a lock for the other wild-card berth, either.

Again, Gary is here to puncture any excessively inflated optimism, pointing out that any playoff scenarios for the Bills require a team that has yet to put together three straight good performances to perform consistently for the next six weeks.

Still, the win, workmanlike though it may have been, keeps the possibility alive. For another week, at least.

WWM MVP: Byrd made four tackles, broke up two passes, recovered a fumble and provided the single biggest play other than McKelvin's touchdown.

THERE YOU ARE: Mario Williams and Shawne Merriman, whose compensation has far exceeded their contributions during their time in Buffalo, each recorded a sack in the same game for the first time. If the Bills are going to make any kind of run, it can't be the last.

REGGIE'S REALLY BAD NIGHT: With defensive tackles Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus, as well as end Kyle Moore (who also sacked Tannehill), helping Williams and Merriman dominate the line of scrimmage, Dolphins running back Reggie Bush gained all of zero yards on the ground during the first three quarters, finishing with 20 yards on 10 carries.

While Bush's crack about the aesthetics of Buffalo's women-folk dominated chatter leading up to the game, we didn't witness any attempts to refute him. Of course, with the 30-something temperatures forcing multi-layered fashion choices, taking the high road was perfectly understandable.

SPILLER'S SPOTLIGHT: With Fred Jackson sidelined by a concussion, C.J. Spiller again thrived as the featured back, running for 91 yards on a career-high 22 carries and catching four passes for 39 more.

Gailey's insistence on lifting him for Choice in some passing situations makes sense, given Spiller's tendency to whiff or get bum-rushed when kept in to protect Fitzpatrick. But not figuring a way to use the most dangerous player at his disposal elsewhere on third downs or near the goal line does not.

WHAT TO WATCH TODAY: The Bills have Sunday off, but both the Colts-Patriots game at 4:25 p.m. and tonight's AFC North showdown between Baltimore and the Steelers have big implications for any hopes of a postseason push.