CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Thomas Jones rushed for 221 yards and Dan Ellis threw a school-record six touchdown passes Saturday as Virginia beat winless Buffalo 50-21.

Jones, the nation's leading rusher, blew away one of the nation's worst rushing defenses, scoring on a 37-yard run and an 84-yard reception for the Cavaliers (6-4).

Jones did the dirty work on several long Virginia drives, setting up scoring passes from Ellis.

Jones' 331 all-purpose yards set a Virginia record. Ellis, a junior quarterback who nearly lost his job after backup David Rivers led Virginia over Georgia Tech last week, tied an Atlantic Coast Conference mark with the six TD passes.

For three quarters, Buffalo (0-10) kept things respectable against Virginia, a 49-point favorite, with an assortment of trick plays and 141 receiving yards from Drew Haddad. Quarterback John Freedy threw for 193 yards and Josh Roth ran for 114 yards in the Bulls' highest scoring output of the year.

But Buffalo had no answer for Jones. The 5-foot-10 senior's day appeared to be finished after he scored his first touchdown early in the fourth quarter on an 84-yard catch. But after sitting his star out a series, coach George Welsh reinserted him late in the game, and Jones scored his second touchdown on a 37-yard run up the middle with 3:19 left.

Virginia barely broke a sweat on its first two possessions in taking a 14-0 lead. Ellis capped drives of 87 and 72 yards with touchdown passes of 28 yards to to Kevin Coffey and 30 yards to Billy McMullen.

Bulls coach Craig Cirbus dug deep into his bag of tricks, calling fake punts, kick return reverses and a pass off a lateral to a wide receiver. A 19-yard pass from Haddad to Dahnahl Singfield at the Virginia 19 set up the Buffalo's first touchdown, an 8-yard run by Roth.

Buffalo tried an onside kick, but failed to recover and set up Virginia on the 50. Giving the ball exclusively to Jones, Virginia marched to the Buffalo 7, where Ellis finished the drive with his third touchdown pass, a 7-yarder to McMullen.