ORCHARD PARK - Given a day’s reflection, if anything, the Bills’ 29-27 loss to the Browns on Monday night looks even worse.

Start with the fact this was Cleveland ... 3-and-6 Cleveland, which was saved from a seventh defeat and a third straight blown second-half double-digit lead by Rian Lindell’s missed 47-yard field goal in the closing seconds.

In other words, Buffalo didn’t exactly lose to the Titans.

OF MOST CONCERN, as the Bills lost their fourth straight game and fifth in six starts, was the continued unraveling of second-year quarterback Trent Edwards.

On Monday night, in the post-game interview session, Edwards was very much the beaten man.

Gone were the quick smile, the measured answers, the boyish charm.

Edwards’ body language said, “How did something that started so well go so bad?”

He was clearly in shock over having thrown three interceptions in Buffalo’s first four possessions. And it wasn’t super athletic plays by the Browns defenders ... Edwards threw right to them.

But of more concern was his explanation for not throwing the ball downfield or even once connecting with Bills’ elite wideout Lee Evans.

Forget the fact that, this season, Cleveland permitted opposing teams’ top wide receivers catches averaging 94 yards a game.

Edwards maintained that the reason he threw 10 - that’s 10 - check-down, dump-off passes to running back Marshawn Lynch was that the Browns were rushing only three and dropping eight into coverage.

He said that, “with only three or four receivers out, it’s hard to find holes in that defense.”

Welcome to the NFL, my friend.

Teams see it every week and the best ones find ways to beat it.

Are we really to believe the Bills’ staff was outcoached by Romeo Crennel and his crew?

It was obvious, after the third pick, Edwards was very reluctant to throw the ball downfield. And clearly pressure wasn’t the issue. He had more time to throw Monday night than at almost any time this season.

Gone was the quick-decision, one-two-three-and-out passing progression he showed over the first six games.

And even coach Dick Jauron, when asked about Edwards mental state coming off four struggling games, admitted, “It’s got to affect you when things start to side a little bit and go downhill.”

BUT JAURON had his own part in this devastating loss.

Despite all his struggles, Edwards had the Bills with a first down at the Browns’ 34-yard line with 1:03 to play and a timeout left.

Did the Bills keep pushing?

Of course not.

Three predictable inside runs by Lynch produced five yards and that 47-yard fields goal attempt with 43 seconds to play.

Jauron didn’t address that curious strategy and Edwards defended, “I was just doing what they told me.”

But running back Fred Jackson offered a discouraging look into the Bills’ thinking.

“We were trying to get Rian to the 35-yard-line (for a 52-yarder) ... that’s his mark and we were inside that,” he said. “We felt we just had to maintain possession and get as much (extra) as we could. We know that he’s automatic from that distance. It just didn’t go through, but our mark is always the 35-yard line ... and we were there.”

Yeah, but how about getting him to, say the 20, for an infinitely easier 37-yarder?

For his part, Lindell, a class act, put the blame on himself.

“I’ve just got to make it,” he said. “That’s my job to pick up the slack the offense leaves.”

But on Monday night the offense left too much. And it’s hard not to conclude that the reason is offensive coordinator Turk Schonert had so little confidence in his imploding quarterback, that he decided not to throw again, once the Bills got inside Cleveland’s 35, and hope that Lindell would save their collective bacon.

Instead he missed a kick, just wide right, that was hardly a chip shot.

Scott Norwood knows all about that.

And so do the Bills.

“You hope that he makes it,” said cornerback Terrence McGee. “But that’s not the easiest (kick) in the world. Sometimes you make it and sometimes you don’t.”

And Monday night, with the season effectively on the line, the Bills didn’t.

(Chuck Pollock, the Times Herald sports editor, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)

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