Your Jaguars-Bills Open Thread: 'Flutie Keeping, Left Side, Touchdown!'

In preparation for today's draft-position showdown between the Jacksonville and Buffalo, We Want Marangi takes you back to a Jaguars-Bills contest that actually meant something AND was fun to watch.

It was Doug Flutie's first start for Buffalo, having replaced an injured Rob Johnson a week earlier during a win over Indianapolis.

The Bills had started 0-3, but Johnson outplayed Steve Young as they beat the previously undefeated 49ers for their first win. They came into the Jacksonville game with a shot at reaching .500. It was a defensive struggle for most of the day, with Buffalo holding the Jaguars, 5-0 coming in, under 300 total yards and Flutie completing just 18 of 39 passes.

As I recall, the press-box consensus that day was that Flutie's return to the NFL after nearly a decade in Canada was a nice story, and he was both a decent fill-in and fun to watch, but that a top defense with a week to prepare for his antics would shut him down. The game bore that out -- for the first 58 minutes, anyway.

Then Flutie did what he did in the clip above (which is highly recommended viewing, if you haven't already), and his legend accelerated. After the game, he said the play was supposed to be a run to Thurman Thomas, but that the future Hall of Famer wasn't there when Flutie turned to hand him the ball, so he improvised his touchdown dash.

The Bills would win five straight and seven of eight, finishing 10-6 and earning a wild-card playoff berth. Flutie had a cereal named after him and songs written about him. Well, at least one song, which, unlike most sports-themed tunes, is actually listenable. Mostly because it's by the Canadian band Moxy Fruvous (if you're not familiar, think Barenaked Ladies but better musically and funnier, if not quite as skilled at poppy hooks). And here it is, for your listening enjoyment:

WWM will spend this afternoon on a special assignment that we may or may not be at liberty to discuss. Meanwhile, please feel free to share your thoughts on today's game, which quarterback you'd like to see the Bills draft, or your Flutie memories in the comments below.