ORCHARD PARK — Even with Pro Bowl rookie safety Jairus Byrd out of the lineup, as well as all four opening day starters from the secondary, the Buffalo Bills were able to bolster their impressive interception total in Sunday’s season finale.

Cary Harris picked off the first two passes of his career — one off Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Peyton Manning — to give the Bills 26 interceptions this season, the most in the AFC and tied with New Orleans for second-best in the league after Green Bay’s 27.

“It felt good to help out on that,” Harris said.

Harris, a sixth-round draft pick, had spent most of his rookie season on the practice squad. He started at safety on Sunday with Donte Whitner, Bryan Scott and Byrd all injured. Prior to this week, Harris had been getting reps at cornerback.

“Even though Donte was sick, he was at the facility trying to help me out with things all week,” Harris said.

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ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported Sunday morning that Bills owner Ralph Wilson and CEO Russ Brandon had a “stealth” meeting with former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher last week.

This comes after Sal Capaccio, a Western New York native now living in Florida, caused a stir earlier in the week with a report on his Web site, SalSports.com, that Cowher is “impressed and interested” in the Bills’ now vacant head coaching position.

The Bills reportedly made contact with Cowher shortly after firing Dick Jauron in November, and were told he was not interested in discussing the job at that time.

On CBS’ pregame show Sunday, Cowher said, “As I referenced to before, I am not going to talk about any jobs during the regular season.”

NFL.com’s Vic Carucci said on the 97 Rock postgame show that the meeting with Cowher was “not substantive.”

Prior to the Sunday night game on NBC, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King offered his opinion that Buffalo might provide Cowher his best chance to return to sideline, since there may not be vacancies in Carolina or Tampa Bay, which are perceived to be Cowher’s preferred destinations.

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Bills’ interim coach Perry Fewell said Sunday he would soon interview with new general manager Buddy Nix.

Fewell went 3-4 in his short tenure as head coach, and several players said that they wanted to win for him.

“We enjoyed playing for him in the short time that we had him as our coach and hopefully some things can happen and we’ll see where we are next year,” Fred Jackson said.

Fewell thanked the players for playing hard for him to the very end.

“This football team, they could’ve gone astray and gotten in trouble and done this and done that, but they didn’t,” he said. “They stayed focused. They came to work every day, every week, even when guys were going down and they were injured. They just kept plugging right along so I just thanked them for their efforts.”

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Before kickoff, Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy reminded one of his former players, Mark Kelso, that Sunday was the 17th anniversary of the Bills’ historic comeback win over Houston. Kelso now does color commentary for the Bills radio broadcast.

Frank Reich, the man who led the comeback that saved the Bills’ third Super Bowl season, was at Ralph Wilson Stadium as part of the Colts coaching staff.

“It was kind of neat that if fell on this day,” Reich said. “Obviously, for us being the Colts, it wasn’t exactly an inspiring day but good memories as far as 17 years ago.”

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Linebacker Jon Corto received his first start as a Bill and compared the weather conditions to a playoff game he played in while attending Orchard Park High School.

Corto also said he could identify with the fans who braved the elements for a game that had no playoff implications.

“I was in those stands not too long ago,” he said. “I did not have my shirt off — no, I wasn’t one of those crazy fans — but it was a lot of fun playing out there. I’m glad that it turned out the way it did. We ended the season on a high note.”

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In addition to division games, next year’s schedule will include home games against Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit and Jacksonville, and road games against Baltimore, Cincinnati, Green Bay, Minnesota and Kansas City. ... Rian Lindell hit three field goals, giving him 1,005 career points, and 735 in seven seasons with the Bills. ... This was the first time since 2002 the Bills won their season finale.

Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.