The Best of One Bills Drive: Nov. 26, 2006

(Greg D. Tranter and Budd Bailey have written a book about the history of the football stadium in Orchard Park called "One Bills Drive." It has been published by Reedy Press (https://reedypress.com/shop/one-bills-drive-the-buffalo-bills-greatest-home-games/). The books covers the top 50 games played in the stadium's history from 1973 until January 2025. However, there are several other games that qualified as thrilling - but they couldn't crack the top 50. Those contests deserve to be remembered too, so we'll offer them in this space a couple of times per week during the season.)

Score by Quarters:

                                       1       2       3       4       Final

Jacksonville (L, 6-5)       0       14      0      10      24

Buffalo (W, 5-6)             7       10       7       3        27

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Bills – McGahee 4-yard run (Lindell kick)

2 – Bills – Lindell 21-yard field goal

2 – Jaguars – Jones-Drew 14-yard run (Scobee kick)

2 – Bills – McGahee 30-yard run (Lindell kick)

2 – Jaguars – Garrard 1-yard pass to Lewis (Scobee kick)

3 – Bills – Parrish 82-yard punt return (Lindell kick)

4 – Jaguars – Scobee 27-yard field goal

4 – Jaguars – Garrard 3-yard pass to Jones (Scobee kick)

4 – Bills – Lindell 42-yard field goal

Recap: The Buffalo Bills had high hopes for J.P. Losman when they drafted him in the first round in 2004. They had given up a first-round pick in 2005 in order to obtain their “quarterback of the future.” Sure enough, Losman spent most of his rookie year watching Drew Bledsoe, and then he became the starter when Bledsoe was released.

The future didn’t arrive in 2005. Losman struggled and ended up splitting playing time with journeyman Kelly Holcomb. J.P. had the job to himself in 2006, and had a decent year in his first full chance at serving as the starter. Losman had a nice moment in mid-November when a touchdown pass to Peerless Price with nine seconds left lifted the Bills to a win in Houston.

Could that be a turnaround moment? “I hope it is,” Losman said. “I hope everything just blows up, I guess, from here on out.”

Still, it might have been too much to ask for Losman and Company to do something like that twice in a row. The Bills still were a game under .500, and hadn’t had a winning record all season. The Jaguars weren’t much better, but they hadn’t had a losing record all season. The weatherman threw out a welcome mat for the team from Florida during its visit, as the game-time temperature was 60 degrees – more than acceptable by Orchard Park’s late fall standards.

Willis McGahee opened the scoring for the Bills with a short run. McGahee was back in the lineup after missing two games with broken ribs, and was wearing a flak jacket for protection. “I just couldn’t sit out another game,” he said.

Rian Lindell’s field goal padded that lead early in the second quarter. Then the teams traded touchdowns, as McGahee went 30 yards for a score. He bounced off a pile along the line of scrimmage, cut to the left, and outraced the defense to the corner of the end zone. Even so, Jacksonville stayed close with a scoring pass late in the first half. The Jaguars only trailed 17-14.

The third period only provided one moment of excitement, but it was a big one. Roscoe Parrish was a little small to be an effective NFL wide receiver, but when he had the ball in the open field he became a dynamic force. That’s exactly what happened on his 82-yard punt return, which restored Buffalo’s lead to 10 points. The play looked doomed from the start, but Parrish avoided a tackler, raced along the sidelines, stumbled for about five yards before regaining his balance through the help of teammate Kiwaukee Thomas, and went on for the touchdown. It was an improbable and remarkable touchdown.

“I didn’t want him to fall because he was already by himself after he beat the punter,” Thomas said. “So I was telling him, ‘You’re not going to fall. Let’s ride.’ Guys don’t get a clean shot on him because he’s so quick and elusive.”

Jacksonville spent the fourth quarter digging out of that 10-point hole. Josh Scobee hit on a 27-yard field goal to make it a one-possession game. Then the Jaguars had a late 11-play drive that featured a 16-yard run by quarterback David Garrard on a key fourth-and-14^th play. The drive was climaxed by a 3-yard pass from Garrard to Matt Jones. Once the extra point was kicked and the score was tied, it was easy to figure that the final 28 seconds would pass uneventfully and the game would head to overtime. How optimistic could anyone be, considering the Bills had punted in their previous five possessions in the second half?

But Losman and the Bills had other plans. Terrence McGee, who certainly ranks as one of the greatest kick returners in Bills’ history, took a lateral and carried it to the Buffalo 40.

“When we took the field with 22 seconds left, we had good field position,” guard Duke Preston said. “We were confident we could take at least one good shot down the field and have a good shot at a field goal.”

Losman walked into the huddle and said, “Somebody make a play. Be ready. Any guy can step up.” He threw a quick pass to Parrish for six yards, and then rolled to his left and found Parrish along the sideline for a 30-yard gain. All of a sudden, the Bills were on the Jaguars’ 24 with a chance to win.

"It was pretty cool," Losman said about the crucial long pass to Parrish. "Sometimes you've got to let it go, dude, and let players make the plays. I don't think many receivers could've caught that like he did."

Bills’ assistant coach Alex Van Pelt added, “One of the things you like about J.P. is his ability to throw on the run. He was out on the move, probably one of the harder throws to make for a quarterback, doing to your left. He put it on a dime and Roscow made a great catch.”

Losman went on a quarterback sneak to move the ball to the right, and exited in favor of Lindell. The reliable kicker came through from 42 yards, and the Bills had taken a 27-24 win out of almost nowhere.

“Once they scored, I put my shoe on, went to the net and started getting ready because I figured it was going to come down to that,” Lindell said.

Two straight last-second wins? What was up with these Bills?

“Certain things are going our way that didn’t go our way earlier in the season,” wide receiver Lee Evans said. “You can start to see the consistency come along.”

Noteworthy: Losman finished 21 for 28 for 169 yards with one interception. Buffalo’s fifth win matched its total from the 2005 season. … The Bills only had 13 first downs in the game, going 3 for 10 on third downs. … The Jaguars had 10 penalties for 108 yards. … Jacksonville ran for an impressive 207 yards. … In the previous game between the teams in 2004, it was Jacksonville that won a 13-10 decision with a touchdown on the last play of the game. … Since the game was not a sellout, it became the first blacked-out game of the entire NFL season.

Legacy: The Bills’ good times stopped after the game. The Chargers came in to Ralph Wilson Stadium a week later and beat the Bills 24-21. Buffalo divided its last four games to finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs.

In 2007, the Bills drafted quarterback Trent Edwards, who split the starter’s job with Losman for that season. J.P. was mostly a backup in 2008, his last season with the Bills. Losman saw limited duty with the Raiders in 2009 and the Dolphins in 2011.