Spiller Shines as Bills beat Bengals

ORCHARD PARK, NY (WIVB) - Spiller is a thriller.  Bills fans found that out Saturday night at Ralph Wilson.  The Bills rookie running back dazzled the crowd with two touchdowns as the Bills beat the Bengals 35-20.  Buffalo's preseason record improves to 2-1.

Spiller started slowly, with minus-7 yards on his second carry and minus-11 yards on his third carry.  But that's part of Spiillers game. He'll lose yards, but make up for that with big plays.  Spiller did that later in the first half.

"Our line just had to get adjusted to how they were playing them and once they did that kind of made our job easier, opening up running lanes and giving Trent time to throw the ball. Like I said that’s all we need. You saw that we can be explosive," said Spiller.

He scored on a 1 yard run in the second quarter and a 20 yard run that put the Bills up 21-14.  Spiller took an inside handoff from Trent Edwards and ran wide to the left. He made a move around a defender at the ten, and followed the sideline into the end zone.

"I just saw that it was wide open, our offensive line did a great job blocking and I always know I’m going to have to beat the safety, so I just gave him a move and the receiver, Lee, did a great job out there blocking on Pacman and it just made it easy."
 

The Bengals returned the opening kickoff 51 yards, and capped off the drive with a Carson Palmer to Jermaine Gresham 9 yard TD.  Buffalo answered later with a Trent Edwards to Roscoe Parrish 12 yard TD.  Parrish, who appears to finally be a part of the offense, had 4 catches for 56 yards. 

Palmer's pass to Chad Ochocino for a 6 yard TD put the Bengals up 14-7.  That drive included 12 and 7 yard passes to Terrell Owens, making his return to Buffalo.  T.O. had three catches for 35 yards.

The Bills defense stiffened, forced three straight punts, and that's when Spiller's two scores put the Bills in front. 

Spiller played the entire first half.  He ran 12 times for 52 yards.  He caught two passes for 32 yards. 

Edwards played the entire first half, leading six series.  The Bills scored on three of them, punting the other three times.  Edwards finished 13-17 for 153 yards, a touchdown and a 122.9 QB rating.

In a sign of the competition at #2 quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick entered the game at the beginning of the third quarter.  He threw a third quarter TD pass to rookie David Nelson. Fitzpatrick played into the fourth quarter, completing six of nine passes for 77 yards and the TD.  Brian Brohm played in the fourth quarter, and attempted just one pass.

The Bills starting defense played into the third quarter.  They were on the field for eight series, allowing two touchdowns and a field goal.  Cedric Benson did gain 50 yards on the defense, averaging six yards per carry.

George Wilson had eight tackles.  Andra Davis had seven tackles.  Dwan Edwards had a sack, and Aaron Maybin had two sacks.

Reggie Corner intercepted Bengals third string QB Jordan Palmer in the fourth quarter, and returned it for a 20 yard touchdown.  That clinched the final score.

The Bills end the preseason on Thursday in Detroit against the Lions.