Jacksonville 18, Buffalo 15
Bills' game effort grounded by penalties, miscues
Story tools:
Share this story:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Buffalo Bills played another valiant-in-defeat game Sunday.
It was the kind of loss that brings a head coach respect early in his tenure but ridicule later on.
So it was after the Bills' 18-15 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bills showed their support for interim coach Perry Fewell — and themselves — by nearly pulling a mild upset.
"I think everybody played hard," defensive tackle Spencer Johnson said. "We were down in numbers today. Guys stepped up and did a heckuva job."
"We were fighting like crazy to get it, and we really wanted to come out and win for him and win for ourselves," said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
"It wasn't about me, it was about us," Fewell said. "We wanted to win for each other."
The would-be heroes for the Bills were many.
Receiver Terrell Owens caught nine passes for 197 yards and scored on a 98-yard reception, the longest in Bills history.
Linebacker Paul Posluszny played perhaps his best game as a Bill, making tackles all over the field and forcing a fumble.
Defensive tackle Kyle Williams led a hard-charging defensive line that contained the sixth- ranked running team in the league.
And Fitzpatrick, inserted into the lineup at quarterback after the benching of Trent Edwards, passed for 297 yards, the most for the Bills in three years.
"When your coach is fired, there are two ways you can go," said Jacksonville star Maurice Jones-Drew. "They went the positive route. We fought hard, they fought hard."
Too bad for the Bills (3-7) it wasn't enough.
The Bills had two touchdowns called back by penalty. They gave up a 12-play, 68-yard drive for the winning touchdown in the final seven minutes. And their offensive line deficiencies kept them from marching to a potential tying field goal try at the end, even though they only needed a 30-yard drive to do it.
"The big thing for us is we need to finish the fourth quarter," guard Andy Levitre said. "That's something we've been struggling to do throughout the season."
Both touchdown-killing penalties were good calls.
The first came in the first quarter after an interception by safety George Wilson set up the Bills' offense at the Jacksonville 9-yard line.
On first down Fred Jackson ran around right end on a sweep for a touchdown. But rookie tight end Shawn Nelson, lined up a couple yards outside the tackle, was flagged for a 15-yard chop block foul. The Bills had to settle for a field goal.
"If I'm detached from the line and coming down to make the block, then it's a penalty," Nelson said. "You can do it if you're inside blocking to the outside. It's a mental mistake. I have to be aware of those type of situations."
The second big foul came with the Bills clinging to a 15-10 lead early in the fourth quarter. On first down from his own 47, Fitzpatrick was flushed out of the pocket and threw a bomb to Lee Evans, who leaped over a Jags defender to make a spectacular catch in the end zone.
However, left tackle Jonathan Scott was flagged for getting his hand into the facemask of a Jaguars defensive end.
Scott was playing left tackle because Levitre, who started the game at that spot, shifted back to guard due to a knee injury to Seth McKinney.
In the fourth quarter, the Bills' offensive line was further depleted when rookie right guard Eric Wood went out with a broken leg. That pushed Kirk Chambers to shift from right tackle to guard, and put rookie Jamon Meredith at right tackle.
"It was a tough situation with the numbers and a couple guys getting hurt," said Fitzpatrick, who spelled out the Bills' offensive mind-set in the fourth quarter. "First and second down run, try to eat some clock, and then trust your quarterback to make a play on third down, and a couple of those we came up short on third down."
The Jaguars (6-4) didn't come up short on their winning drive.
A pivotal play came on second-and-12 from the Buffalo 14 with 2:36 left. The Bills were scrambling before the snap — Wilson made a late shift to the right side of the defense to adjust to the Jags' motion — and Jones-Drew ran 10 yards off right guard to the Buffalo 4.
"We were in a coverage check," Fewell said. "[The defense] checked the coverage. Really we didn't have to rotate the safeties, but we rotated."
On third-and-goal from the 3, David Garrard threw a 3-yard TD pass to Mike Sims-Walker in the left corner of the end zone. Sims-Walker was on the outside of a bunch formation on the right and came all the way across the field. Bills cornerback Reggie Corner was in coverage but got bumped by Jags receiver Torry Holt as he was crossing the field with Sims-Walker.
"I was all over it, but at the end I got my shoulder bumped," Corner said. "It's no excuse. They made the play. I just gotta have better vision on it, that's all. It wasn't even a crazy pick, but it was just enough."
The Bills got to the Jags' 46 with 35 seconds left, but Fitzpatrick was hurried by all-out Jags blitzes and failed to connect on his last two throws.
Thus was negated a game defensive effort by the Bills, who held Jones-Drew to 66 yards and a 2.6-yard average.
"It has been an emotional week for all of us, and this was an emotional loss for us," Fewell said. "I thought our guys fought their hind end off. They battled down to the wire. We didn't get it done, and we've got to circle the wagons and come back next week."
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments