Bills' miscue allows Jets to recover own kickoff in end zone for score

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Just when things looked like they could not get worse for the Buffalo Bills ... they did.

With 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter of Sunday's season finale, the Bills allowed the New York Jets to recover a Nick Folk kickoff in their own end zone for a Jets touchdown.

How did it happen? The Jets' kickoff landed around the 14-yard line and, with no Bills player in the area to return it, the ball began to bounce into the Bills' end zone. As return man Mike Gillislee began to chase after the ball, he stopped and declined to touch it as it entered the end zone -- the proper strategy for a punt, not a kickoff.

Gillislee attributed the mistake to a miscommunication with tight end Nick O'Leary, who was aligned upfield from him in the return formation. Because Gillislee did not shout "me," he expected O'Leary to catch the short kickoff.

"O'Leary, I thought he was going to catch it and he didn't," Gillislee said after the game. "So I just kind of blanked. I forgot the situation I was in."

Jets safety Doug Middleton fell on the ball in the end zone for one of the most bizarre touchdowns you'll ever see.

As Gillislee returned to the sideline after the Jets' ensuing kickoff -- fielded successfully by O'Leary -- he was met with a sympathetic pat on his helmet by Bills special-teams coordinator Danny Crossman.

"I just manned up to it and said it was my fault," Gillislee said. "That was pretty much it."

Since the Jets' ensuing drive ended in a field goal -- and no time came off the clock on the kickoff -- they scored 10 points in a zero-second span.

The Bills lost the game 30-10 to finish the season 7-9.