Higher ground

Terrell Owens' touchdown celebration in the fourth quarter of the Buffalo Bills' victory Sunday was fitting in more ways than one. After catching a 51-yard touchdown pass, Owens copied the sack dance of Miami star Joey Porter by kicking his leg as if to give his opponents a swift kick in the butt. Lo and behold, the entire Bills team found a finishing kick. The Bills outscored the Dolphins, 24-0, over the final 15 minutes to score their most convincing win of the year, 31-14. "The great thing about it is the fourth quarter has been our Achilles' heel," said Bills linebacker Bryan Scott. "This fourth quarter we were able to . . . score some points and then light our tails on fire and get after the quarterback." "We've played hard, we've hung on to the fourth quarter, and then we've let it slip away," quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. "So hopefully today we can use as a turning point." The Bills had been outscored, 109-40, in the fourth quarter entering the game, the biggest points deficit of any team in the league. A crowd of 70,155 at Ralph Wilson Stadium saw the Bills tie the game, 14-14, on a 3-yard touchdown run by Fred Jackson 1:11 into the final quarter. The Bills went ahead, 17-14, on Rian Lindell's 56-yard field goal, the second longest in team history, with 3:35 left. Then the floodgates opened. Fitzpatrick connected with Owens with 2:23 left, and Jackson added a 7-yard TD run with 1:20 left. The win was the first for interim head coach Perry Fewell and improved the Bills to 4-7. It put a severe dent in the playoff hopes of the Dolphins, who fell to 5-6. There were heroes in all three phases -- offense, defense and special teams -- for the Bills . But the catalyst for the win was the running of Jackson, who gained 61 of his 73 rushing yards in the second half. The Dolphins had physically dominated the Bills in winning the previous three meetings. So when Miami took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and dragged the Bills' defense 83 yards down the field in 16 plays and 9:07, the outlook was ominous for Buffalo. Ricky Williams' 1-yard TD plunge gave Miami a 14-7 lead. Surprisingly, the Bills responded with a smash-mouth drive of their own -- 75 yards in 13 plays. It took 7:04. "We definitely had to respond because they're a team that chews up the clock," Fitzpatrick said. "They really punish you if you're going three and out. They're not going to give you many opportunities to score. That was big for us to keep the defense off the field and get some momentum." "When we came out at halftime, we had a real condensed list of stuff we felt good about," said running game coordinator Eric Studesville, referring to run plays the Bills used in the second half. "It wasn't so much that we changed anything. It was about calling the things we liked." Fitzpatrick scrambled for 8 yards on a bootleg run to convert a fourth and 1 and get to the Miami 28. Then Jackson made a one-handed grab of a lobbed flare pass in the right flat and ran 8 yards to the Miami 3. "He made a great catch," Studesville said. "He's got fantastic hands. When he touches the ball, he makes things happen." Two plays later, the Bills overloaded the line to the left, with tight end Jonathan Stupar and tackle Jamon Meredith outside of left tackle Jonathan Scott. Meredith kicked out Miami linebacker Joey Porter, and Jackson rumbled 3 yards to the end zone. "It was my only play of the game, so I had to give it my best," Meredith said. The game still was tied with 3:40 left when Fewell elected to let Lindell try a long kick with the wind rather than punt on fourth and 9 from the Miami 38. Lindell had made one from 57 yards in warm-ups. "I said, 'Can you do this?' " said special teams coordinator Bobby April. "He said, 'Yeah, let's do it.' His confidence pushed us over the edge." "I was standing right there," linebacker Chris Draft said. "He was like, 'Let me kick it. I want to be the guy.' There were a lot of people today who said I want to be the guy, I want to be the guy who makes the play." The boot was the longest of Lindell's career. On the ensuing series, Bills defensive end Chris Kelsay burst up the middle and hit the throwing arm of Miami quarterback Chad Henne. Cornerback Drayton Florence, who had an outstanding game, picked off the pass and gave the Bills the ball at their 49. That's when Fitzpatrick called an audible to a bomb down the right sideline, and Owens scored his fourth touchdown of the season. The Bills were ahead, 24-14, and the party in the stands was on. Fitzpatrick finished 17 of 26 for 246 yards and was calm in the pocket, despite being sacked six times. He also ran seven times for 50 yards, including a 31-yard scramble for the Bills' first TD. "Everybody's fighting," Draft said. "I think that's the spirit of this city that we were able to actually embody today. There's a lot of fight in this city. We showed that." e-mail: mgaughan@buffnews.com