Jaguars Have Ways, Means to Stun Bills

Realistically, the Bills knew their season could end short of the Super Bowl. They knew they had turned from the Buffalo Bills of old into the old Buffalo Bills.

But they never expected it to end the way it did Saturday in a 30-27 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in an AFC wild-card playoff game.

Not at Rich Stadium, where they had never lost a postseason game.

Not to a second-year team making its first playoff appearance.

Not with quarterback Jim Kelly in the locker room, having trouble remembering where he was after suffering a concussion, and defensive end Bruce Smith struggling against Tony Boselli and a determined Jacksonville offensive line.

End of an era?

“I don’t want to call it the end of a era,” Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin said. “I’d rather talk about the beginning of an era.”

And who could argue?

The team that was considered a pushover when the season began has instead pushed over a longtime AFC powerhouse to advance into the second round of postseason play.

Many will say it came down to a slip and a tip. They will call the Jaguars lucky. They will talk about Atlanta Falcon kicker Morten Andersen losing his footing and missing a 30-yard field goal a week ago to send Jacksonville into the postseason.

And they will point to Mike Hollis’ game-winning field goal Saturday, a 45-yarder with 3:07 to play that tipped the top of the right upright and caromed through.

Don’t you believe it.

The Jaguars may have gotten a lucky bounce Saturday, but ultimately they earned this victory through sheer power.

The power that enabled their offense to generate 184 rushing yards against a team that had given up an average of 104.3 yards in the regular season.

And the power that enabled the Jaguar defense to overwhelm Kelly and eventually knock him out of the game.

The most powerful figure on the field was unquestionably Jacksonville running back Natrone Means, whose success story is as amazing as that of his team. He was cut by the San Diego Chargers, supposedly because of attitude problems.

He came to Jacksonville looking for redemption, but found himself sitting on the bench after suffering a thumb injury before the season. He finally made his way into the starting lineup when James Stewart sprained a toe in late November.

And finally, Saturday, in the national spotlight, Means found his redemption, rushing for career highs in carries (31) and yards (175).

And was his effort all the sweeter because of his sour parting with the Chargers?

“I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t,” Means acknowledged. “When it happened, I was shocked, and then angered and then frustrated. But it doesn’t do any good to harp on the past. Besides, my frustration didn’t last long. Within an hour after it happened [his release by the Chargers], there were 20 teams calling me.”

Coughlin went into Saturday’s game knowing he was going to have to call on Means quite a bit if his Jaguars were to have any success on a field where Buffalo was 9-0 in the postseason.

But at the start of the game, to the delight of the crowd of 70,213, Coughlin was busy trying to call plays that would simply keep his quarterback alive in the face of a furious Buffalo pass rush.

“I wouldn’t say I was panicked,” Jacksonville quarterback Mark Brunell said of his team’s shaky start, “but I was concerned.’

Especially when Buffalo jumped out to an early lead on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Kelly to Thurman Thomas, the offense looking the way it did when they went to four consecutive Super Bowls.

Then came the first of several key plays that turned the game around. On first down from his 24, Kelly tried to flip a shovel pass to Thomas.

Although the game was still in the first quarter, it was the second time Kelly had tried that play to Thomas. Jacksonville defensive end Clyde Simmons remembered and waited.

“I just held my tackle and hung in there,” he said.

When the ball came floating by, Simmons reached up and grabbed it.

“I just rumbled, tumbled and stumbled to the end zone,” he said, a big grin on his face in the Jaguar locker room as he recalled his 20-yard scoring run with the interception.

A two-yard run by Thomas, who was held to 50 yards in 14 carries, put Buffalo back in front. The first of Hollis’ three field goals, a 27-yarder, made it 14-10 heading into the second quarter.

Then came consecutive plays that symbolized the Buffalo frustration and Jacksonville elation.

Having just been sacked for a four-yard loss and faced with third and 14 at his 23, Brunell connected with tight end Pete Mitchell on a pass play that went for 47 yards, Mitchell breaking four tackles as he barreled down the field. On the next play, Means bounced off Smith and lumbered 30 yards into the end zone, breaking two tackles.

Two plays, 77 yards, six missed tackles.

“It looked liked the preseason with all the . . . tackles we missed,” defensive lineman Phil Hansen said. “It was bad, very bad.”

Two Steve Christie field goals, from 33 and 47 yards, put the Bills back in front 20-17. Hollis’ 24-yarder again evened the score.

When Buffalo cornerback Jeff Burris picked off a tipped Brunell pass in the fourth quarter and raced 38 yards into the end zone, it appeared the experienced Bills might escape their young challengers.

But Brunell calmly marched his team back down the field to again tie the game on a two-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Smith.

And Hollis then provided the margin of victory after Jacksonville recovered a Kelly fumble. It was caused by a hit by defensive back Chris Hudson that left Kelly with a concussion.

He left the field in a daze, as his teammates would moments later.

They had seen the future, and they were not a part of it.

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SATURDAY’S SCORES

AFC

Jacksonville 30, Buffalo 27

NFC

Dallas 40, Minnesota 15

TODAY’S GAME

AFC

Indianapolis at Pittsburgh, 9:30, Ch. 4

NFC

Philadelphia at San Francisco, 1, Ch. 11