Bills’ Discord Is Music to the Ears of Browns

CLEVELAND —  All anybody here seems to want to talk about is an anticipated showdown for the AFC championship next week between the Cleveland Browns and the Denver Broncos, who twice in the last three years kept the Browns out of the Super Bowl.

Up first for the Browns, however, are the embattled Buffalo Bills, their opponents today in an AFC playoff game at Municipal Stadium.

The underdog Bills (9-7) staggered into the postseason, losing three consecutive games before closing the season with a 37-0 rout of the New York Jets.

Quarterback Jim Kelly, whose abrasiveness was tolerated when the Bills were at their best, has been criticized by the fans, the media and his teammates.

And in an even more surprising development, Kelly has raised questions about his confidence, once thought to be unshakable.

In-fighting among the Bills started in the second week of the season, when Kelly exchanged words with a receiver who was later released, and heated up three weeks later, when Kelly suffered a separated left shoulder in a 37-14 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

At a news conference the next day, Kelly blamed the injury on a missed block by tackle Howard Ballard. Angering his teammates further, Kelly also said that Ballard was the weak link in the Bills’ offensive line.

Two weeks later, while watching a videotape of a 34-3 victory over the Jets, assistant coaches Nick Nicolau and Tom Bresnahan got into a fistfight. Nicolau reportedly punched Bresnahan, opening a cut on his chin, and also drove Bresnahan’s head through a plasterboard wall, opening a cut on his forehead.

Kelly returned after being sidelined for three games, leading the Bills to a 24-7 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12 that established the Bills among the elite in the AFC.

All seemed well, or well enough.

But after Kelly played poorly the next week in a 17-16 loss at Seattle, running back Thurman Thomas told a cable television audience that quarterback was the Bills’ weak link.

Then, after Kelly saw three of his passes intercepted the next week in a 22-19 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Kelly was asked if his confidence had been shaken.

“You might say that,” he said.

The next day, he was pulled aside for a pep talk by Coach Marv Levy, who had always defended Kelly’s brashness, calling it more than mere bravado.

Kelly threw three more interceptions in a 21-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, but none in the romp over the Jets.

Asked this week about the bickering among the Bills, Levy said: “That’s behind us, and I’m not talking about it anymore.”

Meanwhile, the Browns (9-6-1) endured hard times of their own.

Or some did, anyway.

Quarterback Bernie Kosar has weathered his most trying season, being asked to lead an offense that was without Kevin Mack, the Browns’ leading rusher in each of the previous five seasons, for all but the last four games.

When Kosar was pulled in the fourth quarter of a 21-0 loss to the Bengals in Week 13, the Browns had scored 37 points in four games.

In a poll conducted the next week by a Buffalo TV station, only 51% of the record 28,500 respondents said they favored Kosar as the Browns’ quarterback over his backup, journeyman Mike Pagel.

Kosar, who has led the Browns into the playoffs in each of his five NFL seasons, was angered by the lack of support from the fans and also was troubled by Coach Bud Carson’s refusal to support him publicly. Carson didn’t announce his starter for the next week’s game against the Colts until moments before the kickoff.

Carson later claimed he was only trying to keep the Colts guessing and that Kosar’s job never was in jeopardy.

Whatever the reasoning, Kosar threw for 353 yards against the Colts. But the Browns lost, 23-17, when Mike Prior intercepted a pass by Kosar in overtime and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown.

Winless in four games, the Browns then closed the season with victories over the Minnesota Vikings, 23-17 in overtime, and the Houston Oilers, 24-20.

Mack, jailed for a drug conviction during most of the season, then suffered a knee injury. He gained 27 of his 62 yards in the game-winning drive against the Oilers, scoring on a four-yard run with 39 seconds left.

Once again, the Browns were AFC Central champions.

Only a more troubled team stands between them and another AFC title game.