By John Wawrow
ORCHARD PARK — The short practice over, J.P. Losman sat quietly with his head down at his locker Monday before getting an encouraging pat on the back from linebacker Josh Stamer.
So much for the Buffalo Bills quarterback celebrating a day after what was supposed to have been a breakout performance for him and his offense.
Instead, Losman’s big outing against the New York Jets, in which he had career highs with 328 yards passing and 22 completions, and scored his first career touchdown rushing, added up to little more than a 28-20 loss — the second-year quarterback’s ninth defeat in 11 career starts.
“Yeah, I think everyone’s frustrated. You’ve got to be frustrated,” Losman said. “As well as we moved the ball ... not being able to pull it out is even more frustrating.”
Losman wasn’t the only one unhappy.
“It’s a tough loss,” receiver Lee Evans said. “Of course you’re mad. But you’ve got to go out and get the next one.”
“It’s a bad feeling,” added running back Willis McGahee. “But you’ve go to put it behind you.”
This one might take a while to forget for a Buffalo team off to a 1-2 start and preparing to host Minnesota (2-1) on Sunday.
What’s difficult to stomach is how Buffalo finally proved capable of marching up and down the field in generating 475 yards offense against the Jets only to have one thing missing: Finish.
Three Losman turnovers, one resulting in Victor Hobson’s 32-yard fumble return for a touchdown, numerous missed assignments, two failed fourth-down attempts and two extended drives ending in field goals were too much for the Bills to overcome.
They managed just 13 points — a touchdown and two field goals — despite five trips inside the Jets 30, and were limited to 20 points despite a six-minute edge in time of possession and generating five drives that covered 50 yards or more.
The Bills lost despite having McGahee register a career high with 150 yards rushing, and two players have 100 yards receiving — Evans with 107 and Roscoe Parrish’s career-high 104.
The 475-yard total was the most by the Bills in four years, and 64 more than they managed their first two games combined this season.
Buffalo’s 26 first downs were the most since the team had 27 in a 41-7 win at San Francisco on Dec. 26, 2004.
As for Losman’s 328 yards passing, that was the most for Buffalo since Drew Bledsoe produced that many in a 27-17 loss to New England on Dec. 8, 2002.
“That’s crazy,” McGahee said. “But we killed ourselves with turnovers.”
“Obviously, we need to improve,” added coach Dick Jauron. “Certainly we had our opportunities offensively to put up a significant number of points. We just didn’t finish for whatever reason.”
And Buffalo’s defense is not without blame, despite allowing a season-low 256 yards, including 74 yards rushing.
Besides managing just one sack and failing to force a turnover, the Bills allowed quarterback Chad Pennington to orchestrate a nine-play, 58-yard touchdown drive that put the Jets up 28-13 with three minutes left. it didn’t help that Pennington extended the drive with a 4-yard sneak on fourth-and-1.
“That was definitely a disappointment,” linebacker London Fletcher said. “You have to stop people and give the offense another chance.”
Added linebacker Angelo Crowell: “It’s hard to win ball games when you beat yourself. We win together, we lose together.”
Losman said the key was to remain upbeat.
“The last thing we need to do right now is point the finger or anything like that,” Losman said. “Nobody’s getting mad at anybody. We all know we have things to work on.”
