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It figures.
With Buffalo finally getting its first win last week in Jacksonville and San Diego on a two-game losing streak, it looked like Sunday's long-discussed Bills-Chargers showdown was shaping up as a meeting of two teams, and quarterbacks, heading in opposite directions. Even if those directions had changed abruptly since September.
But no. Nothing in the careers of Rob Johnson or Doug Flutie is ever that easy to classify. Just when it looks like defensive coordinators have figured out the Southern Cal version of the Flutie doll, he puts on a masterful performance in San Diego's 27-10 win over normally powerful Denver.
Johnson and Flutie won't be the whole story when Buffalo visits Qualcomm Stadium for the first time since Opening Day, 1998 (the first incidence of Flutie replacing Johnson and sparking a sputtering Bills offense, only to come up a little, um, short).
But let's face it. They will be until about 1:15 p.m. (Eastern), when the opening kickoff soars through the Southern California sky. That's when the defenses, running games and special teams that have keyed both San Diego's 4-2 start and Buffalo's 1-4 opening take over.
Whatever the outcome, one thing's for sure -- one quarterback will get the credit for winning, the other the blame for losing, whether either deserves it or not.
The memo came down from the headquarters of The Media that pregame hype will be all Johnson-Flutie, all the time, so here goes. Since Johnson still plays for the Bills and may continue to do so after this year, we'll start with him.
For the first four games, the conventional wisdom that Johnson would thrive without being partially engulfed in Flutie's shadow looked like wishful thinking. At times, particularly during Buffalo's first three losses, he performed as if he thought the West Coast Offense was part of the California penal code.
In his return to Jacksonville, though, he looked like the quarterback Tom Donahoe and Gregg Williams expected when they told Flutie that his abilities didn't suit their needs -- poised, decisive and mobile, able to deliver the ball to any spot on the field quickly and accurately.
Just as important, he showed any teammates with lingering doubts about management's choice that they can win with him calling the signals and throwing the ball.
"How about our quarterback? How many good things could you say about him tonight?" asked Larry Centers, one of the chief beneficiaries of Johnson's spread-it-around approach with a team-high seven catches for 59 yards.
Buffalo never trailed after Johnson hit Eric Moulds with a 27-yard touchdown pass that marked the first time all year that the Bills have taken a lead once the other team had scored. Midway through the third quarter, Johnson found a momentary seam in Jacksonville's cover-two zone and exploited it before it closed, even if the throw didn't have his characteristic tight spiral.
"That was huge," Johnson said. "Whenever a team would score on us in the past four weeks, we wouldn't answer. And to answer like that was big time."
With the game tied in the closing moments, Johnson methodically moved Buffalo into position for Jake Arians' game-winning 46-yard field goal with 1:03 left. Trying to burn as much clock as possible, the Bills called five running plays on the drive. Johnson mixed in three short completions and produced the drive's longest gain with a 12-yard scramble on the first play.
"Any time your quarterback leads you on a drive like that, you think, 'We can do that every week,'" Moulds said.
What Johnson didn't do meant as much to Buffalo's chances as what he did. He didn't freeze in the pocket, force passes or look confused. In short, he played like the kind of starting quarterback just about every National Football League team seeks.
"He fought and he didn't try to overdo it," Centers said. "He stepped up today. In my opinion, he grew up and became a top-notch quarterback."
Flutie played a big part when San Diego beat Denver to snap a two-game losing streak. Ronney Jenkins' opening 88-yard kickoff return to a touchdown allowed Flutie to play from ahead all day and he did so with precision.
With rookie running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who entered the day as the NFL's second-leading rusher, held to 58 yards, Flutie beat a withering Broncos blitz not by scrambling, but with quick throws.
Denver, facing Flutie for the first time, eschewed the method of defending Flutie employed by most Bills opponents in 1999 and 2000 -- keeping him in the pocket with a zone-oriented rush and making him throw underneath. The Broncos instead sent waves of linebackers crashing into the pocket.
That approach worked briefly early in the third quarter, when Denver's Bill Romanowski and Al Wilson each produced a sack. But after the Broncos closed to within a field goal, the Chargers adjusted and Flutie connected with wide receiver Jeff Graham for touchdowns of 17 and 20 yards.
It helped that San Diego's defense produced turnovers that shortened San Diego's two second-half touchdown drives to 33 and 38 yards, respectively. But, as mentioned above, this isn't about giving credit where it's due.
It's about Johnson and Flutie. It figures to stay that way until Sunday. And probably long after.
The myriad Buffalo exports now in San Diego have given Sunday's game more spice than any game between the two franchises in almost two decades.
The Chargers and Bills compiled the best two winning percentages over the first 100 games of the old American Football League, and met for the championship in 1964 and '65.
The Bills won both those pre-Super Bowl title games, 20-7 in 1964 and 23-0 a year later. The rivalry was epitomized by Buffalo linebacker Mike Stratton's thunderous hit on Chargers running back Keith Lincholn, which turned the game and sent San Diego's star to the sidelines with broken ribs.
In the early 1980s, Buffalo won two regular-season game that had a playoff-like atmosphere. The Chargers took the only game that counted, a 1980 divisional playoff contest. Buffalo led by a point with two minutes left. But San Diego wide receiver Ron Smith burning Bills safety Bill Simpson and catching a decisive 50-yard touchdown pass from Dan Fouts for a 20-14 playoff win.