ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Mike Pettine’s old defense threw his new team for a loss.

The Buffalo Bills scored two touchdowns in a span of 10 seconds — one on defense — and forced the Cleveland Browns offense to go backward for much of the second half in a 26-10 victory Sunday.

“It wasn’t a good day at the office,” said Pettine, who is in his first year as the Browns’ head coach after coordinating the Bills defense last season. “It’s good to see them doing well. It just wasn’t good seeing them do well today.”

Now under the leadership of Jim Schwartz, the Bills defense held the Browns to minus-3 yards of offense, forced two turnovers, and scored a touchdown over the first five drives of the second half. Cleveland had gained 191 yards in building a 3-0 halftime lead, but fell behind 20-3 early in the fourth quarter.

“We proved today that we are the better defense,” Bills safety Aaron Williams said. “Point blank, period.”

The Bills have won two straight to improve to 7-5 for the first time since the 2000 season when they finished 8-8 and began a 14-year playoff drought, currently the longest in the NFL.

“Coach Schwartz always talks about defense sets the pace,” said Bills safety DaNorris Searcy, who had two interceptions. “We always want to come out firing. We always want to get the crowd into it, have our offense get behind us. Once we got rolling, the offense got rolling too.”

The Browns (7-5) failed in their attempt to win eight of their first 12 games for the first time since 1994 and turned the offense over to rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel with 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Pettine declined to name a starting quarterback for next week, saying he had to evaluate the film first.

“We’re not going to overreact when we win and we’re certainly not going to overreact when we lose,” Pettine said.

What the Browns said

“I’m very disappointed for us to waste, for a good part of the game, a solid defensive effort. It was a bad feeling at halftime knowing that as well as we played and shut them out, we only had a field goal to show for it.” – Coach Mike Pettine

What the Bills said

“We wanted to come out and win for the fans. They weren’t able to be with us on Monday night, so to have a game back in the Ralph where we get that win for them was good.” – S Da’Norris Searcy

What we learned about the Bills:

1. They are back in the playoffs race. Two weeks ago, the Bills were 5-5 after two straight losses and questions were being raised about the job security of coach Doug Marrone and quarterback Kyle Orton. Now they are one game back in the wild-card race.

2. Buffalo invested heavily in the offense during the offseason and has an offensive-minded head coach, but is being led by its defense. The Bills held the Browns to just three points in the first half, and went into halftime lamenting their mistakes. In the third quarter, the Browns had negative yardage, and the Bills rode their defensive dominance to a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

–DE Jerry Hughes made the play of the game, stripping Browns RB Terrance West and returning the fumble 18 yards for a touchdown to give the Bills a 14-3 lead just 10 seconds after they trailed 3-0. “It was obviously, really a turning point in the game,” DT Kyle Williams said.

–K Dan Carpenter became the first Bills kicker to make four field goals in one quarter by converting all of his attempts in the fourth. His 11 points gave him 101 for the season, making him the first Bill to score 100 points in back-to-back seasons since Rian Lindell in 2008-09.

–TE Marqueis Gray, a former Browns player signed by the Bills earlier in the week, had receptions of 41 and 30 yards. “Awesome job for him,” QB Kyle Orton said. “We called his number twice and he made two really big plays.”

What we learned about the Browns:

1. There is now a quarterback controversy in Cleveland. After throwing his sixth interception in the past three games, QB Brian Hoyer was benched in favor of high-profile rookie Johnny Manziel, who directed the Browns’ only touchdown drive. Coach Mike Pettine said he won’t name next week’s starter until Wednesday.

2. The running game is not picking up the slack. Rookie RB Isaiah Crowell gained just 29 yards on 17 carries. Terrance West was more productive, with 37 yards on seven rushes, but his fumble proved to be the game’s pivotal play.

–QB Johnny Manziel stepped in with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter and led the Browns to their only touchdown. He completed 3-of-4 passes for 54 yards and rushed for 13 yards on two carries on his opening series, ending it with a 10-yard scoring run. “I think Manziel did a good job man,” Browns cornerback Joe Haden said. “He’s just not expecting to play and came out there and drove down and got seven. That’s really special. I think he did a good job.”

–WR Josh Gordon had another strong outing with seven receptions for 75 yards. He did most of his damage in the first half, catching just one pass in the second half. Gordon now has 15 receptions for 195 yards in two games since serving a 10-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

–CB Joe Haden made a couple big plays for the Browns, blocking a 54-yard field goal attempt at the end of the first half, then making an interception early in the second half that gave the Browns a drive start at the Buffalo 30. However, a sack by Bills DT Kyle Williams knocked the Browns out of scoring range, and the Bills scored their go-ahead touchdown on the next series.