Playoffs? Did someone say playoffs? Wasn't there a lot of fanciful talk about hosting a playoff game, maybe even a first-round bye? What happened to all that talk? What happened to that team? And my God, what in the world has happened to Trent Edwards?

One month sure has made a difference. In four weeks, the Bills have gone from the darlings of the sport to a full-blown disaster, a team in free fall. It's no longer a question of whether they'll make the playoffs, or even whether they'll finish .500, but when they'll win a game again.

After this, it's hard to be confident. Playing before a national audience on Monday Night Football, the Bills had a chance to get their season on track at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Instead, they put on another wretched performance, losing to a mediocre Browns team, 29-27.

Forget it, folks. They're not a playoff team. They're not even an average Football team at the moment. They're a bad team, a 5-5 team whose confidence and swagger have essentially vanished.

A good team would have blown them out of the stadium Monday night. But this was the Browns, who were vastly overrated coming into the season and were a reeling, bickering mess. Edwards handed them the game on a platter in the first quarter, throwing three interceptions.

The Browns should have led by two touchdowns at the half. But they squandered some great scoring chances and limped into the half with a 13-10 lead, giving the Bills hope. Of course, the Bills were also incapable of capitalizing on their good fortune.

The more optimistic fans were hoping the Bills would use the national stage to rediscover the magic of September, when Edwards rallied the team to three fourth-quarter victories and became the flavor of the month in NFL circles.

But it's clear now that Edwards' early-season heroics were masking a team with some fundamental flaws. The Bills don't dominate the line of scrimmage. They don't make the big stops in the fourth quarter: Witness Jerome Harrison's 72-yard TD dash on the first play of the period. They don't rush the passer well. They don't have a reliable second receiver or downfield passing game.

And now Edwards, whose play was inspiringMVPtalk early in the year, has become a total mess. Edwards was horrendous. He threw three interceptions in the first quarter alone, bringing back memories of Tony Romo here in the Monday Night game a year ago.

Edwards did something rare: He took his own home crowd out of the game. The Buffalo fans, who began flocking to Orchard Park more than five hours before gametime, began booing when Edwards threw his second interception on his third throw of the night.

After the second pick-Edwards' seventh in four games-fans were averting their eyes in horror. Some were calling for J.P. Losman to go into the game. By now, you can bet the suits at ESPN were wondering why in the world they would expose the nation to this Buffalo offense.

The Bills coaches didn't help, either. They're back to being timid when they should be aggressive, and cute when they should be careful. Late in the first quarter, the Bills had a third-and-one deep in their own territory. Edwards had already thrown two picks. So what do they do?

They come out with an empty backfield and four wide receivers, advertising their intention to throw. Then, evidently startled by this curious strategy, they had to call timeout. Given time to reconsider, they came out in the same formation.

Edwards dropped back, locked onto his receiver and threw his third interception into the waiting arms of Brandon McDonald. Dick Jauron talked about trust during the week. What does it say when the coaches don't trust the offense to get a yard on third-and-one-and advertise it with an empty backfield?

Later in the half, the Bills had to waste another timeout on defense because they had 12 men on the field. It hurt them at the end of the half, when Edwards failed to throw the ball away and was forced to burn the third timeout after a scramble.

So instead of a touchdown that would have given them a halftime lead, the Bills settled for a Rian Lindell field goal and a three-point deficit.

To their credit, the Bills stayed in the game. They finally had some success running the ball-though Marshawn Lynch was stopped for a loss of a yard on a third-and-one late in the third quarter with the Browns leading, 16-10.

After Harrison's long TD run made it 23-13 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Leodis McKelvin returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown to make it 23-20.

e-mail: jsullivan@buffnews.com