Jets shoot down the Bills 17-7

Bill Parcells has done it again to Doug Flutie and the Bills. He came up with a game plan that put the wraps on Flutie's explosive running and forced him to make three huge blunders that cost the Bills the game. The Jets won their third straight game under the guidance of Ray Lucas by a score of 17-7. Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick came up with a brilliant strategy once again to hand the Bills a humbling defeat.

Ray Lucas rambles 9 yards for his first NFL touchdown

Flutie was sacked and fumbled the ball in his own endzone that resulted in one of the Jets touchdowns. On another occasion, Flutie threw an interception while the Bills were threatening at the Jets 11 and had to make the tackle to save a touchdown.

Flutie had so many things go wrong on this day, that he must have felt it was a nightmare. He had so many passes batted down, that he may decide to wear elevated platform sneakers next week. One of the most crucial batted down passes was converted into an interception deep in Jets territory while the Bills were trying to catch up late in the game.

"We just tried to keep it tight enough so he couldn't scramble," Parcells said about the Jets continued mastery of Flutie. "We tried to pressure him a lot today."

"Turnovers and inconsistency," Flutie gave as reasons for the loss. "If you make that many mistakes, you will lose."

The Bills had many chances to score touchdowns and they failed miserably all but once. They also missed on their two field goal attempts as Steve Christie was wide from 40 and 45 yards out.

"We certainly blew some opportunities," Wade Phillips said in his post game conference."Giving away a touchdown and missing two field goals is the difference in the ball game. We made mistakes and we didn't make them make mistakes."

Flutie threw 40 times, completed 22 passes for 220 yards and had two interceptions. Lucas passed 20 times for 142 yards on 16 completions and no turnovers. The Bills running game suffered with Antowain Smith and Linton playing with injuries. Smith only got to carry twice for six yards, while Linton gained 28 yards on 12 carries for only a 2.3 yards per carry average.

The Bills were able to contain Curtis Martin, who ran 23 yards for 64 yards. But Martin did have 7 receptions for 42 yards. Keyshawn Johnson caught 4 for 42 yards and Wayne Chrebet caught 3 for 37 yards.

Buffalo outgained the Jets 265 yards to the Jets 208. The Bills sacked Lucas 5 times for 30 yards, while Flutie was sacked twice for 15. The time of possession favored the Jets 31:57 to 26:03.

"There is a lot of football left," Jets coach Bill Parcells said. "How many losses do they have? Four. How many for us? Six. I'm not very good at math, but that is six for them and four for us with six to go. I keep telling them that it's too soon to quit and now you know why I talk like that."

After the teams exchanged a couple of punts in the at the start of the game, the Bills took over at the Jets 47 with 5 ½ minutes left in the first quarter. On second down, Doug Flutie threw incomplete to Andre Reed, but Marcus Coleman was flagged for interference, putting the ball on the New York 31. Three plays netted only three yards, so Steve Christie came in and attempted a 40-yard field goal that went wide right.

The Jets, led by Ray Lucas at quarterback, started a 7 play, 70 yard drive that produced the first touchdown of the day. Key plays of the drive were an 18 yard pass to Keyshawn Johnson, another 8 yard pass to Johnson, and a 15 yard pass to Curtis Martin to put the Jets on the Bills 22. On the next play, Thomas Smith was penalized for pass interference on Johnson and that put the ball first and goal on the Bills 9. Lucas then sped around right end to go untouched into the endzone for the touchdown, his first rushing touchdown in his NFL career.

"I felt like throwing the ball out of the stadium," Lucas said about running for his first TD.

On the kickoff after that score, Kevin Williams fielded the ball at the 4 and returned it all the way to the Jets 34 for 62 yards. The Bills could only make it down to the Jets 27 and on fourth down, Christie missed this second straight field goal attempt, this time from 45 yards out.

The Jets got the ball at their own 35 and drove down to the Bills 45 and Tom Tupa punted the ball deep into Bills territory where the Jets downed it at the Buffalo 3. Flutie threw the first pass from deep in his zone incomplete to Sam Gash. Antowain Smith ran off left tackle for two yards on the next play. On 3rd and 8 at his own five, Flutie went back into the endzone to pass, but was tackled by Ray Mickens and fumbled the ball. Eric Ogbogu jumped on the loose ball and the Jets had a 14-0 lead.

"As a young guy, you've got to produce when you get the chance," Ogbogu said. "I had not been getting the opportunities and I knew I would get it today and I had to produce."

"We missed a blocking assignment," said Phillips about the breakdown that resulted in the winning points. Robert Hicks was the Bills lineman who let Mickens storm in on Flutie. "It's not Doug's fault when we miss a blocking assignment, because he's not supposed to check that guy. We missed a blocking assignment and give them a touchdown in a close game like that."

The Bills took over at their 20 after the kickoff and Jonathan Linton gained two yards before Flutie scrambled for three yards. Then on 3rd and 5, Flutie's pass was incomplete to Reed, but Aaron Glen was tagged with interference and the Bills drive got new life. Facing a 3rd and 4 from his 40, Flutie threw a strike to Eric Moulds for 37 yards. Mickens brought him down at the New York 23.

On second down, Moulds was interfered with down near the goal line, but because Moulds had lined up a yard off the line of scrimmage, the play was negated with offsetting penalties. Flutie connected with Jay Riemersma for twelve yards down to the Jets 11. Then Flutie made his second serious mistake of the game when a pass to Bobby Collins was intercepted by Victor Green and Flutie had to run him down to make a touchdown-saving tackle all the way back at the Bills 41. Bobby Collins was the intended receiver on the play, but he ran the wrong route, going to the end zone instead of to the right sideline.

"He was running the route called," Flutie said about Collins." It was just a miscommunication.."

Richie Anderson catches pass before being tackled by Sam Cowart

The Jets had complete control of the game now. After an offensive holding call put the ball back to the Jets 31, Lucas passed to Martin for 8 yards and then hooked up with Richie Anderson for a 20 yard pick up. But the drive halted there and Tupa had to punt again. This time he got it down to the Bills 32.

In the two minute drill, Flutie tried to get the Bills down the field in a hurry but could get no further than mid-field and the Bills had to punt with half a minute left on the clock. The Jets then ran out the clock and went into the locker room with a surprising 14-0 lead at halftime.

The Jets added three more points to their total when they drove down in 5 plays for 25 yards and John Hall kicked a 36 yard field goal in the third quarter.

After Kevin Williams returned the kickoff 22 yards, the Bills started another drive from their 34. Flutie, out of the shotgun, passed to Riemersma for 29 yards. Two plays later, he connected with Williams for 19 more yards down to the Jets 18. The Bills got down to the 12 when Moulds caught a pass from Flutie. Another 5 yard pass to Moulds put the ball on the New York 8. Peerless Price was the next target and he caught a 6 yard pass down to the two. Price was open again on the next play and caught a two yard pass for the Bills only score of the day.

After the Jets failed to make it on a 4th and 1 gamble from the Bills 38, the Bills mounted another futile drive. Flutie started the drive by completing his first two passes, one to Moulds for 4 and the other to Collins for 12. He then tossed an 8 yard completion to Reed who was pushed out of bounds at the Jets 37 by Green. On third down, Flutie's pass to Price fell incomplete.

With time running down, the Bills decided to go for it on 4th and 2. Flutie took off over right end and scrambled 20 yards down to the Jets 15. But he turned around and looked like he was going to lateral it to the nearest Bill in the vicinity as he was being tackled. Flutie coughed up the ball when he hit the ground and the ball bounced back 7 yards and out of bounds at the Jets 22. On the next play, Flutie hit Moulds down at the Jets 10 for a twelve yard pickup.

Flutie's last play of the game, although bizarre, was typical of the kind of day it was for the diminutive quarterback. He went back to pass and once again his pass was tipped in the air by Ernie Logan and when the ball came down, it hit Jason Wiltz in the upper part of his right arm. The ball bounced off Wiltz and landed on John Fina's back. Wiltz quickly reacted, picked it off Fina's back and ran up the field five yards before being tackled by Ruben Brown.

When asked if he saw the ball bounce around off bodies after his pass was tipped, Flutie replied, "No. I just knew it hadn't hit the ground yet. I saw it get batted and I saw it go over towards them and I'm watching for it to pop out or go to the ground and it hadn't come out...and it hadn't come out. I knew he (Wiltz) didn't know the ball was there because he didn't clutch it or grab it for the interception. Then all of a sudden it never came down and he turned and he finally got a hold of it and took off and that was just typical of the way things went."

"On the sideline, I was talking with Eric about making a big play, making something happen," Wiltz said afterwards. "I just saw the ball sitting on Fina's back. I grabbed it as quick as I could. I'm just glad to help the team any way I can."

That was the game for the Bills as the Jets ran out the clock for their fourth win of the season.

The Bills fall further from the pack and now stand at 7-4. With both the Colts and Dolphins winning, the Bills are now 1 ½ games behind the leaders who both have 8-2 records.

"Our goal is to win the division, not just make the playoffs" said Flutie. "We're still in good shape as far as the playoff picture is concerned, but it's going to be a dog fight the rest of the way."

Phillips said, "We knew it would be harder to run the ball this week, especially on the road here and with both of our running backs not having practiced (last week). But we made mistakes that cost us the ball game. We let them play pretty much the same game they played last week in New England."

"I just know the whole defense played well,"Parcells said. "Victor (Green) made a big play getting a turnover there. We got some turnovers down in the redzone and if you can do that, it makes a big difference."

"We've got a lot of tough games to go. We've got a very serious injury situation with this team - we've got a lot of guys hurt, we've got a lot of guys out for the year. So I don't really get a chance to enjoy this (win) too much because I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to do next."

The difference in this game was not just turnovers. Except for the first game between these two teams earlier this season, Parcells has a knack of pulling the right switches and coming up with a game plan that will usually beat the Bills even if his team is inferior.

"I like the players I have on the team" Parcells summed up the situation with the Jets. "I don't have a lot of jerks. You know I don't have a lot of discipline problems. I don't have a lot of guys coming in with a bad attitude or not trying to do what you want. They look a little better now than they did some time ago. It's not about wins or losses for me. It's trying to get my team with what I have to play to its potential. That's how I judge myself. I don't hold myself accountable to the media or the fans or anybody else. I hold myself accountable to myself and if I feel they are playing to their potential. Today I felt they did that against a good team."

The Bills will try to regroup next week when they face the New England Patriots at home. After this devastating loss to a divisional foe, the Bills cannot afford to lose any more games especially in their division. They still have two remaining with the Pats and have their last game of the season against the first place Colts.

Copyright © 1999 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.