Bills Tally Up a Victory, 19-10 : AFC:Offense can’t find the end zone, but Darryl Talley’s interception return for a touchdown leads win over the Jets.

Darryl Talley’s 61-yard interception return in the third quarter gave the Bills their only touchdown as they beat the New York Jets, 19-10, Sunday, after more than a half of uncharacteristic self-destruction. It was the first time the Buffalo offense didn’t score a touchdown since losing, 20-3, to the Raiders on Oct. 11, 1992.

“I’ve coached for 43 years and I’ve never had an ugly win,” Coach Marv Levy said. “The way I look at it, our defense came up big after some unfortunate occurrences by our offense.”

Buffalo (5-1) held the ball for over 37 minutes, gained 413 yards and didn’t punt until five minutes were left in the game, but struggled until Talley picked off Boomer Esiason’s pass in the flat and ran untouched to the end zone. That came one play after James Hasty’s interception had given the Jets the ball.

“The good thing about our offense was that it kept moving up and down the field,” said Bruce Smith, who pressured Esiason on Talley’s touchdown and later got his first interception ever--including high school and college--to end the Jets’ last threat and set up a 30-yard field goal by Steve Christie.

Christie kicked four field goals on the day.

The Jets (2-4) lost for the third straight time and 11th in their last 12 meetings with Buffalo. On three possessions late in the fourth quarter, they ran four plays and had three turnovers.

“It was another week when our defense made big plays and I did not make big plays,” said Esiason, who completed 14 of 25 passes for 189 yards, with two interceptions.

He played well at the start, taking the Jets on an 80-yard, 16-play drive off the opening kickoff, with Brad Baxter going in from the one.

From then on, it was all Buffalo.

Despite the offensive output, which included 117 yards in 27 carries from Thurman Thomas, the Bills couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. On four drives inside the 20 in the first half, all they could manage were Christie’s field goals of 36 and 33 yards.

Then came Talley’s play 6:32 into the third quarter.

Hasty had just intercepted a pass by Jim Kelly, who was 22 of 35 for 224 yards, and returned it 22 yards to the Bills’ 39. But on the first play, Esiason tried to pass to James Thornton in the flat off a play fake but Talley picked the ball off one-handed.

“It was the only play in the film we’d seen that they hadn’t run yet,” Talley said.