Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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It just don't get much bigger than this one Browns fans.  The 7-6 Bills, in town, to play the 8-5 Browns with a playoff spot on the line.  In a snowstorm!  A win for the Browns could clinch a playoff berth, and at worst puts the Browns in prime position for one heading into their final two games at Cincy and here against the Niners.  Jesse Lamovsky previews the big game.

Time: Sunday, December 16, 1:00 PM 

Location: Cleveland Browns Stadium 

Network, Announcers: CBS- Gus "Ha-HA!" Johnson and former special-teams demon Steve Tasker, who won't be biased toward the Bills or anything. 

Line: Browns by five-and-a-half 

Team W/L Records: Cleveland is 8-5; Buffalo is 7-6 

Coaches: Romeo Crennel is 18-27 in his third season with the Browns; Dick Jauron is 14-16 in his second season with the Bills, 50-65 overall. 

Last Week for the Browns: Played just well enough to beat the Jets and their field goal-and-onside kick-lovin' coach, 24-18. 

Last Week for the Bills: Scored a season high in points and got 100-yard performances out of not one but two backs in a 38-17 rout of everyone's favorite punching bags, the Dolphins. 

All-Time Series: Browns lead 8-5, including the thrilling 34-30 win over the Bills in the ‘89 AFC playoffs. 

Last Meeting: December 12, 2004- Making a spirited and ultimately unsuccessful playoff push, the Bills rode a 105-yard, two-touchdown performance by Willis McGahee and a dominant defensive effort to a 37-7 pasting of the woeful Browns. Cleveland's offense, "led" by rookie Luke McCown, wound up with an all-time franchise-low 29 total yards, including minus-12 through the air.  

Out or Questionable for Buffalo: DE Copeland Bryan (knee), S George Wilson (ribs), and LB Coy Wire (neck) are out; DE Chris Kelsay (ankle) is questionable 

Out or Questionable for Cleveland: LB Antwan Peek (ankle) is doubtful; WR Joe Jurevicius (knee) is questionable 

What to watch for the Bills: Is it the mirrors? A casual glance at Buffalo's statistical outliers, without foreknowledge of its won-loss record, might lead an observer to believe that this team is in the hunt not for a playoff spot, but for the first overall pick in next spring's Draft. The Bills are 29^th in the league in total offense and total defense, rank no higher than 16^th in rushing and passing offense or rushing and passing defense, and have been outscored by 69 points on the season. To be fair, all of that disparity and then some have come in their two losses to the Patriots, in which they were flattened by a combined score of 94-17. Still, Buffalo also has lopsided defeats to the Steelers (26-3) and Jaguars (36-14) on its resume, in addition to the New England routs.  

Yet for all of these unhealthy numbers, here are the Bills, perched just over the .500 mark and still in the thick of the playoff race as the snow flies. Marshawn Lynch has proven himself the best first-year back not named "Adrian Peterson", Trent Edwards has done a credible job under center, and even Lee "Fantasy Poison" Evans has made some big plays lately. Plus, the defense has been pretty good, the 56 points hung on them a month ago by Tom Brady and Co. notwithstanding, of course.  

So who are these Bills? Are they a bad team at heart, grown fat off the enfeebled Jets and Dolphins and ruthlessly exposed by every powerhouse on their schedule? Are they an improving young group with a particularly nasty set of growing pains behind it? Or are they an improving young group that is still a bad team at heart? 

What to watch for the Browns: Can they close? The 2007 Browns have succeeded where they were expected to fail. But it hasn't been easy. Of Cleveland's eight wins this season, only two can be defined as decisive- the home triumphs over Baltimore and Houston. For the most part, the Browns have struggled when it comes to putting teams away. The inferior Jets and basket-case Ravens almost turned double-digit Browns leads into losses; even feeble Miami scored a season-high 31 points against Cleveland's funky defense and cut a 24-3 deficit to 27-24 in the third quarter. 

Like Shelley Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross, the Browns need to put that coffee down. It's for closers. 

And if there was ever a week in which closing would be a virtue, it's this one. This Sunday's game might be the biggest for the Browns since 1999. It's an opportunity for them to put a hammerlock on a playoff bid, and do it against an opponent that will have plenty to play for in its own right. It'll be at home in CBS in front of a victory-famished Cleveland crowd that has been waiting for years for a game like this. Can the Browns take control of the moment? Can they close? 

Good past regular-season win over the Bills: November 26, 1972: Cleveland 27, Buffalo 10- O.J. Simpson went over 1,000 yards and the Bills jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but the Browns roared back to win their sixth straight and the first-ever regular-season meeting between the Lake Erie rivals. Cleveland tied the game 10-10 on a Don Cockroft field goal and a Mike Phipps scoring pass to Leroy Kelly, took the lead on a Ken Brown touchdown plunge, and put the game on ice when defensive end Nick Roman picked off a Dennis Shaw pass and lumbered 36 yards for a touchdown.  

Bad Past Loss to the Bills: October 3, 1995: Buffalo 22, Cleveland 19- the beginning of the end for the star-crossed '95 Browns came on a Monday Night at home against the Bills, when Steve Christie nailed a 33-yard field goal with five seconds left to break a 19-19 tie. The game itself was unmemorable, but Bill Belichick's post-game remarks were not. Peeved by Marv Levy's allegations that several Browns, had faked injuries in order to slow down Buffalo's no-huddle offense, Coach Mumbles offered a cutting assessment of Levy's coaching acumen on the offensive side of the ball. "We're talking about a guy who ran the Wing-T in the NFL" said Belichick, referring to Levy's running the archaic formation while in Kansas City in the late ‘70s. "That was brilliant." Zing! 

Next Week for Both Teams: Cleveland travels to Cincinnati; Buffalo hosts the New York Giants 

Trivia: On August 8, 1961, the Bills became the only American professional team to lose to a Canadian Football League club, when they were defeated in an exhibition game by the Hamilton Tiger Cats, 38-21. Perhaps not surprisingly, this would be the last meeting ever between American and Canadian teams.