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Bills hand Vikings another road loss

Oct 1, 2006 - 8:55 PM ORCHARD PARK, New York (Ticker) -- The Minnesota Vikings finally scored an offensive touchdown but they couldn't overcome their inability to beat an AFC team on the road.

J.P. Losman threw for over 200 yards and a touchdown and Willis McGahee added a score on the ground as the Buffalo Bills added to Minnesota's road frustrations with a 17-12 victory.

Since 2001, the Vikings are a miserable 1-10 against the AFC on the road. The lone win during that span was a 34-28 overtime triumph against Houston on October 10, 2004.

"This is a tough place to come play," Vikings coach Brad Childress said. "I thought the defense battled and we moved the ball on the first series but we need to find a way to get those sevens."

Rian Lindell put the Bills up, 17-6, with a 28-yard field goal with less than a minute gone in the fourth quarter. The score remained that way until the Vikings' offense finally snapped out of their scoring funk.

Brad Johnson threw a 29-yard TD pass to Marcus Robinson with 3:07 to play to make it 17-12. It was Minnesota's first offensive touchdown in 12-plus quarters.

"The only struggle I have is that I know it's a hell of an offense when it's clicking and I just want to see it executed better and we will," Childress said. "We've played two or three pretty good defenses and we just haven't been able to get down the field with the big pass play."

Minnesota (2-2) got the ball back with 1:39 to go, but this time Robinson was unable to come through. He got loose down the right sideline after a mixup in the Buffalo secondary but was unable to haul in a pass from Johnson at the Bills 15 despite getting both hands on the ball.

The game ended after Billy McMullen caught a pass at the Buffalo 16 and the clock ran out.

"It was a great football game for us. The defense played pretty well and offensively we did what we needed to do," Bills coach Dick Jauron said. "We stayed patient with the ball, tried to run some clock and the defense played really well."

After throwing for 328 yards in a loss to the New York Jets last week, Losman turned in another solid start, completing 23-of-32 passes for 222 yards. His eight-yard TD pass to Peerless Price in the third quarter gave Buffalo a 14-6 lead.

"J.P. performed at a high level," Jauron said. "The idea offensively is to go with your read, put the ball where it is supposed to be. He did that well, he distributed the ball well."

McGahee rushed for 78 yards on 28 carries and gave Buffalo a 7-3 lead with a one-yard TD run in the second quarter.

Ryan Longwell opened the scoring with a 37-yard field goal in the first quarter to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead. He added a 49-yarder in the second quarter to make it 7-6.