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SAN DIEGO -- You can argue about whether or not Rob Johnson played his best game as the Buffalo Bills' quarterback Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium, but one of his postgame quotes was his undisputed best.
Asked if he thought his performance -- 24-of-37 passing for 310 yards and a touchdown, along with Doug Flutie-like mobility and Jim Kelly-esque will -- would finally silence his critics, the battered Johnson spoke softly, but with fire in his tired eyes.
"I really don't care," Johnson said after Buffalo's comeback from a 13-point deficit went to waste in San Diego's 27-24 win. "I don't give a rat's ass, to tell you the truth."
Pressed on the issue, he expounded.
"I've been dealing with this for three years," Johnson said. "It would have been a great win for our team. It would have put us 2-4, with two in a row. We've got Indy at home (on Nov. 4), for a revenge-type game."
This was a revenge-type game for a lot of people. For Johnson, who endured three years of Doug Flutie's half-hearted outward support and behind-the-scenes politicking. For Flutie, who was told once again by the new Bills regime that his best wasn't good enough. For Chargers general manager John Butler, who was fired with one game left in the 2000 season when he wouldn't talk to Bills owner Ralph Wilson about a new contract. And for John Holecek, who agreed to make his contract more salary cap-friendly, only to be shown the door by Bills team president and coach Gregg Williams, who also sent Flutie packing.
But most of all, it was about the two quarterbacks -- the California boy long on skill and potential, and everyman's underdog who does nothing but win. Fittingly, the game provided a microcosm of the on- and off-field relationship between Johnson and Flutie, one that has lasted since the winter of 1998, when Butler brought both to Buffalo within a month of each other. Flutie opened with a flourish, guiding the Chargers to scores on their first three drive and a 13-0 lead moments into the second quarter.
Johnson answered by overcoming Buffalo's miserable start with pinpoint passing and well-timed runs, scoring the Bills' first touchdown on a one-yard plunge into the heart of San Diego's defense.
Flutie benefited greatly from San Diego's defensive strength, with turnovers setting up two Chargers scores. While Flutie's offense moved the ball well enough, it only managed a pair of missed field goals between the beginning of the second quarter and the final minute.
Johnson had to work for every point and almost every yard the Bills got. With Buffalo's running game stuck in neutral and its offensive line alternately missing blocks and getting caught holding, he had to overcome obstacles emanating from both huddles.
Flutie got a huge break late in the third quarter, when he was ruled down at the 1-yard line on Bryce Fisher's sack, which clearly put both his knees and the ball in the end zone. Referee Tony Corrente's mysterious decision (how does one possess "forward progress" when tackled while going backward?) kept the Chargers up by three and prevented a huge momentum shift.
Johnson got knocked out of the game with a foot injury and by one hit along the sideline, and nearly knocked unconscious by another. Both times, he returned, with the Bills taking a brief lead shortly after his second near-hospitalization. Typically, he brushed off a question about his determination.
"It's a lot easier to come back on the grass," he said. "If I would have taken that shot on the sideline and hit my head on the turf, I would have been knocked out. And playing on grass was a lot easier on my foot, too."
Travis Henry scored on a 3-yard run on the first play after Johnson, who could barely stand, came back in the ballgame. For a minute or two, it looked like Johnson might finally come out on top in his unwinnable duel with Flutie.
Then, as happened in that playoff game in Tennessee, Buffalo's special teams rendered Johnson's performance meaningless where it matters most -- on the scoreboard.
"Me and Alex (Van Pelt) looked at each other and we were pretty fired up,"
Johnson said of the scene on the sidelines after Henry's touchdown with 1:34 remaining. "He said, 'Let's not celebrate too early -- we've been here before.'"
Good call, Alex. Ronney Jenkins' 72-yard kickoff return, followed by Brian Moorman's incredibly poorly timed display of bravado, put Flutie and the Chargers in point-blank range.
Of course, he delivered in typical Flutie style, winding his way through Buffalo's flailing defense for a 13-yard touchdown. And the ballgame.
Flutie, for his part, delivered the unique brand of humility so many in Western New York have come to love.
"Just another day at the office, I guess," Flutie said, managing to avoid a shoulder sprain while patting himself on the back.
Johnson, though, wouldn't buy the notion that Flutie had been remarkably fortunate, had escaped with a win he didn't really deserve.
"He didn't luck into it," Johnson said. "He played well. He's a competitor. We had a chance to sack him and he spun out of it and made a play. The fact that he got down there with a kickoff return and a penalty -- that happens."
Because it happened, Johnson had to watch helplessly from the sideline as Flutie crossed the goal line, and hear the thunderous chants of "Flutie, Flutie" after Jake Arians' 44-yard attempt at a tying field goal was blocked.
While he was physically and emotionally drained after Sunday's epic game, Johnson didn't sound discouraged, and neither did his teammates. At 1-5, any hopes the Bills may have clung to are pretty much gone.
But they didn't sound discouraged. They showed that they can bounce back when things don't go well, something that was in serious doubt through the season's first month.
And their quarterback proved that Donahoe and Williams may just have made the right decision, after all.
Whether Johnson gives a rat's ass or not.