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	BEST WILD CARD GAMES
	This is the fourth in a five-part ESPN SportsCenter series on the best NFL Wild Card Games of all-time, selected by a vote of ESPN.com users earlier this month. Follow the series on-air and on-line as ESPN brings you the best of the best.

Expansion teams just aren't suppose to be as good as the Jacksonville Jaguars -- and for that matter the Carolina Panthers -- were in their second seasons. Both clubs would make it within a victory of the Super Bowl, but for the 1996 Jaguars, the road would have many twists and would take them through the playoff-tested Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card Game.

The Jaguars' story, however, really began on the season's final weekend -- when they almost didn't even make it into the postseason.

It was a finish to the regular season few could explain. Certainly not the usually reliable Morten Anderson, who missed a 31-yard chip shot of a field goal as time expired that allowed the Jaguars to beat the Atlanta Falcons and reach the playoffs.

The next week, fortunate just to be in the postseason, the 2-year-old Jaguars found themselves in Buffalo and down a touchdown early to Jim Kelly and "K-Gun Offense." If not for its opportunistic defense, Jacksonville would have been out of the game early.

A clever play by Clyde Simmons, who stepped in front of a Kelly shovel pass to Thurman Thomas and raced into the end zone, got the Jaguars even. The game then settled into a ball-control war, with the young Jaguars winning the battle at the line of scrimmage against future Hall of Famer Bruce Smith.

With Jacksonville's offensive line opening up the holes, the bruising Natrone Means pounded the ball down the field. Means capped off a dominating drive by the Jaguars by breaking a Smith tackle and then bouncing off two more Bills to ramble 23 yards for a score.

	Natrone Means was a big reason why the Jaguars were able to pull off an upset in Buffalo.

"We just knew that we had to come out and pound the ball," said Means. "They have two of the greatest ends possibly to ever play the game (Smith and Phil Hansen) and we knew we had to slow those guys down."

"They've got a lot of veterans over there that had everybody jacked up and ready to play," said Jacksonville wide receiver Keenan McCardell. "We probably shocked them."

The game was tied 20-20 in the fourth quarter when turnovers ultimately decided the outcome. And Smith came up with the biggest defensive play of the game for the Bills.

The Bills blitzed quarterback Mark Brunell into a bad decision, as he threw the ball into the flat where Smith was waiting. Smith's big hands cradled the ball, and he took off for a touchdown and a 27-20 Buffalo lead.

With less than 10 minutes remaining and Rich Stadium rocking, the Bills had to think Jacksonville was permanently in the rearview mirror. But the Jaguars responded, moving the ball the length of the field in 11 plays to the Buffalo 2-yard-line, where Brunell capped off the drive with a game-tying strike to Jimmy Smith.

Once again, Buffalo fans looked to their team's resilience. In three plays, Kelly and company moved to midfield. But that's where disaster struck.

Jeff Lageman hit Kelly from the side and jarred the ball loose. Kelly managed to recover the ball and took off running for safety. But before he could get too far, he was leveled and lost the ball again. The Jaguars recovered and set the scene for another improbable finish.

As the Jaguars offense came onto the field, a woozy Kelly staggered off. He wouldn't return, but it wouldn't matter.

Brunell started the drive by hitting his receivers with short passes, and Means' legs got the Jaguars in field goal position. A week earlier, a missed field goal got the Jaguars into the playoffs, now a Mike Hollis field goal can get them to Denver and the next round.

Adding to the drama, Hollis' kick hit the upright ... but made it through. Cinderella was alive and still living in Jacksonville, Fla.

The fortuitous bounce gave the Jaguars their first playoff win in Franchise history. Their second postseason triumph would come a week later in maybe the biggest upset since Super Bowl III -- as Jacksonville went into Denver's Mile High Stadium and beat the Broncos, 30-27

The clock would finally strike midnight in Foxboro, Mass., however, in the AFC Championship Game, as the Patriots, not the Jaguars, advance to Super Bowl XXXI with a 20-6 win.

"That first expansion team 'BS,' that's a bunch of crap," said Hansen. "I don't know why you guys keep bringing that up and calling them an expansion team. Hell, they beat us."

"We lost the game, we lost the battle, it's bitter," said Buffalo coach Marv Levy. "I can't remember one in all the time I've been here that hurts more than this."

Taking a line from the Super Bowl champions of a year earlier, McCardell asked, "How 'bout them Jaguars?"

Well, they were pretty good.