Uh, Mike? You Almost Missed

The Jaguars used all sorts of body English to help teammate Mike Hollis’ 45-yard, game-winning field goal get through the uprights in the fourth quarter.

But not Hollis.

The last thing he felt was his foot connect solidly on the ball. The last thing he saw was that ball headed straight down the field. Knocked down by several onrushing linemen, Hollis didn’t know that the ball, caught in a stiff crosswind, had veered right and hit the top of the right upright before ricocheting through.

“It made it,” holder Bryan Barker told Hollis, the relief obvious on Barker’s face.

Hollis didn’t know what Barker was worried about.

“It made it?” repeated Hollis. “Why wouldn’t it? I didn’t think there was a question.”

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Jacksonville is the first team in 13 years to win its first postseason game. The last to accomplish the feat was Seattle, which defeated Denver, 31-7, in 1983.

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Although he wasn’t in the mood to talk about it, Buffalo running back Thurman Thomas had a record-setting day.

With two touchdowns, he became the league’s all-time postseason leader in points scored with 120, moving past George Blanda (115). With 74 yards from scrimmage, he becomes the league’s all-time leader in that category with 2,068, surpassing Franco Harris (2,060).

And his two touchdowns give him 20 in the postseason, which made him the leader for several hours, only to have the Dallas Cowboys’ Emmitt Smith tie him later Saturday.