Detroit drops 25th straight road game

11/15/2010

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Elated and relieved, Eric Wood couldn't contain himself as he skipped toward the Buffalo Bills' locker room door and yelled out in ear-piercing jubilation.

"Holy cow, we won a game!"

Ten weeks in, the Bills have their first victory. And the Detroit Lions own the NFL's road futility record.

Fred Jackson ran for a season-best 133 yards and scored twice in leading the Bills (1-8) to a 14-12 win over the Lions Sunday. Detroit (2-7) lost its 25th straight road game to break the record the Lions set from 2001-03.

"Relief!" cornerback Leodis McKelvin said. "We won. We're not going to be talking about being an 0-16 team or nothing like that. It feels great to get a win and get that off our chests."

It was a more-of-the-same feeling for the Lions, who have not won outside of Detroit since a 16-7 victory at Chicago on Oct. 28, 2007.

"It was really frustrating, especially coming here and feeling we were the better team," receiver Calvin Johnson said. "We weren't thinking about the streak. That should have ended it. But it didn't."

In a game billed as a Futility Bowl, something had to give in a contest that wasn't at all pretty.

It was played under rain-soaked conditions, befitting the sloppy - and sometimes laughable - performances of two perennial losers in a game that wasn't decided until the final seconds.

That's when Bills safety George Wilson recovered an onside kick.

The Bills won by hanging on in the end, and making, perhaps, one less mistake than the Lions.

Detroit's chances to pull off a comeback ended when quarterback Shaun Hill hit Johnson for a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut the Bills lead to 14-12 with 14 seconds left. Hill failed on the two-point conversion when he couldn't find an open receiver and eventually overthrew tight end Brandon Pettigrew in the end zone.

The Bills already began celebrating. Defensive end Marcus Stroud sat on the field and cheered. And in the stands, fans started several chants, the most over-the-top being: "Super Bowl, here we come!"

"Our fans deserve it," tackle Kyle Williams said. "The guys in the locker room deserve it. To go out there and win a football game, it means a lot."

Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was 12-of-24 for 146 yards and a touchdown. Hill finished

29-of-50 for 323 yards with a TD and an interception in making his first start in three games since breaking his left arm. Hill was forced into action in place of Matthew Stafford, who hurt his right shoulder in a loss to the Jets. Johnson had 10 catches for 128 yards.

Ahead 7-3 at halftime, the Bills scored on their opening drive of the third quarter capped by Jackson scoring on a 16-yard catch off a shovel pass from Fitzpatrick.

The Lions were penalized 11 times for 60 yards and had difficulty getting their offense going until the fourth quarter. They were forced to punt eight times.

"All this killing ourselves and making mistakes, it's almost juvenile," Lions receiver Nate Burleson said. "The mistakes are killing us, and today I really noticed it."