AFC CHAMPIONSHIP: BENGALS 21, BILLS 10 : Bills Take Loss Out on Each Other After Game

There was a rumble in the Jungle after all Sunday.

Unfortunately for the Buffalo Bills, it came in their locker room after the final gun had sounded on their season.

It ended with teammate against teammate in a verbal confrontation that vented some of the pent-up emotion accumulated on a long and frustrating afternoon at Riverfront Stadium, known as the Jungle because of the wild habits of its untamed fans.

The postgame scene, reconstructed from the accounts of several Bills, went like this:

Buffalo Coach Marv Levy had asked his team to gather around in the locker room for some final words after the Cincinnati Bengals had beaten the Bills, 21-10, in the AFC championship game.

Offensive tackle Joe Devlin, a 12-year veteran, felt his teammates weren’t responding quickly enough and said so.

Cornerback Erroll Tucker thought it was none of Devlin’s business and said so.

No blows were struck, but there was plenty of yelling and screaming.

“I was in the trainer’s room,” linebacker Ray Bentley said. “I heard the shouting, but I didn’t want any part of it.”

It was only too fitting a way for the season to end, because it was a year of finger-pointing for the Bills, despite the fact this franchise won its first division title in eight years.

Bill running back Robb Riddick pointed his finger at Jim Kelly earlier in the season, unhappy the quarterback wasn’t throwing enough to his backs.

A vocal group of fans also pointed their collective fingers at Kelly during a regular season in which he threw 17 interceptions and just 15 touchdown passes.

He threw another interception in the Bills’ playoff opener against the Houston Oilers a week ago, then threw 3 more Sunday against the Bengals along with his first scoring pass of the postseason.

Yet emerging from the sound and fury of his own locker room, Kelly refused to be drawn into any controversy.

“I’m not going to start pointing fingers at anybody,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to say Jim Kelly started pointing fingers.

“We didn’t throw as much as I’d have liked to today, but you can’t win just by throwing the ball. Jim Kelly can do only one thing. We couldn’t get the running game going today.”

No argument there. The Bills rushed just 17 times for 45 yards. Cincinnati got off 50 plays on the ground for 175 yards.

The series that served as a microcosm of Buffalo’s offense Sunday came in the third quarter after a Bengal punt died at the Bills’ 1-yard line.

First down: Handoff to Jamie Mueller for a yard.

Second down: Handoff to Mueller for another yard.

Third down: Handoff to Thurman Thomas for 2 yards.

Fourth down: Punt.

Three yards and a cloud of despair. But not much else to do on a day when 70 of the 100 plays run through the first three quarters started in Buffalo territory.

“It seemed like we were on the 2 or 3-yard line all day, running that two-tight-end offense,” Kelly said. “I’m not criticizing our offensive game plan, but they knew what we were going to do.

“You run the ball three times in a row and I guess everybody could say you were conservative, but it’s easy to second-guess afterward. The thing is, it’s hard to score from your own 10-yard line. We wanted to open it up, but just did not get the chance.”

Riddick also avoided any pointing afterward.

“All I do is get the playbook and go out and follow orders,” he said. “We just didn’t get on track with our running game. There was nothing you could pinpoint. They did a good job preparing for us.”

The view from the offensive line was much the same.

“The Bengals’ defensive line kind of surprised us,” said Bill guard Jim Ritcher, who spent a frustrating afternoon trying to create the daylight that never materialized. “They seemed stronger than the last time we played them. We felt like we moved the ball real well on them the last time we played here.”

The Bills lost a game to the 5-11 Tampa Bay Buccaneers late in the season that cost them home-field advantage for this one, but Levy refused to look back Sunday.

“This was our game today,” he said. “To say we would have won in Rich Stadium is a crock. We had our chance today.”

Some of the anger in the Buffalo locker room was directed at the officials because of a third-quarter incident in which cornerback Derrick Burroughs was thrown out of the game for throwing a punch at Bengal receiver Tim McGee on a crucial Cincinnati drive. The play wiped out a 3-yard loss and gave the Bengals first and goal at the 4. From there, they scored and took a 21-10 lead.

“I’m glad the refs decided to take control of the game,” said Bill defensive back Kirby Jackson, “but why wait until that point to say, ‘OK, I’m fed up.’ Why not say, ‘Look, this is the last time. Next time, I’m throwing flags. After that, I’m throwing people out of the game.’ ”

Kelly departed the scene on a defiant note: “We have a young team and you haven’t seen the last of us.”

Levy departed on a soothing note: “I have some very disappointed guys in the other room. And I am not going to say any words after being with these guys every day since the first of July. I am not going to stand here and say this guy did this bad and that guy did that. I told them I loved them. And I do.”

Even if they had a little trouble loving each other at the end of a bitter afternoon.