SUPER BOWL XXVII : THE BUFFALO BILLS : Buffalo Bills: A Review of the Season

SEPT. 6

Bills 40, Rams 7--Chuck Knox’s second term as Rams coach started with a thud. Buffalo took a 21-0 lead before the second quarter was four minutes old and Thurman Thomas wound up with four touchdowns. James Lofton became the NFL’s all-time receiving yardage leader, surpassing Steve Largent. SEPT. 13

Bills 34, San Francisco 49ers 31--Billed as a Super Bowl preview, the game was indeed super. Neither team punted. Steve Young passed for 449 yards, the 49ers gained 598 yards--and they lost. The Bills got 403 yards passing from Jim Kelly, 179 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns from Thurman Thomas, and the victory when the 49ers’ Mike Cofer missed a 47-yard field goal attempt with 54 seconds left. SEPT. 20

Bills 38, Indianapolis 0--This was no homecoming for Colts Coach Ted Marchibroda. The Bills’ former offensive coordinator watched Bruce Smith ruin his new offense. Smith had 2 1/2 sacks and seven tackles, and he pressured Colt quarterbacks into interceptions that were returned 23 and 82 yards for touchdowns by strong safety Henry Jones. SEPT. 27

Bills 41, New England Patriots 7--The Patriots had a plan: keep the ball away from Buffalo and stay in the game. And it worked--for a half. New England held the ball for more than 20 minutes in the first half and trailed only 6-0. But the Bills scored three touchdowns in eight minutes to open the second half and the rout was on. Thurman Thomas rushed for 120 yards, Jim Kelly passed for 308 yards and Andre Reed had nine catches for 168 yards and a touchdown. OCT. 4

Miami Dolphins 37, Bills 10--And then the wheels came off. The Bills, having outscored opponents 153-45, couldn’t keep pace with a Miami team showing off its newest weapon--free agent tight end Keith Jackson, who had signed the previous Tuesday. Actually, the Dolphins best weapon was an old hand--safety Louis Oliver had three interceptions, returning one 103 yards to tie an NFL record. The Dolphins forced five turnovers, four of which led to scores. OCT. 11

Raiders 20, Bills 3--A loss to division-rival Miami could be rationalized. A loss to the Raiders, who had dropped three of their first four games, was a sign of trouble. The Bills had 350 yards and 22 first down but couldn’t convert opportunities to points. Moreover, injuries started to mount. Jim Kelly, who passed for 302 yards, was bothered by a sore elbow, Thurman Thomas had an injured neck and knee and center Ken Hill left with a pulled hamstring. OCT. 18

Bills had a bye OCT. 26

Bills 24, New York Jets 20--It took a 12-yard touchdown pass from Jim Kelly to Thurman Thomas with 51 seconds remaining to secure the Bills’s victory over a Jets team that had lost five of its first six games. The winning drive covered 75 yards in seven plays and 59 seconds after the Jets had gone on a 77-yard scoring drive to take a 20-17 lead with 1:50 remaining. Don Beebe returned after spending five games on injured reserve to lead the Bills with six catches for 106 yards. NOV. 1

Bills 16, New England Patriots 7--Trailing 9-7 early in the fourth quarter, the winless Patriots had a chance to go ahead when Randy Robbins intercepted a pass by Jim Kelly to give New England possession at the Buffalo 25. But the opportunity was lost when reserve quarterback Tommy Hodson was sacked by Cornelius Bennett and fumbled. The Bills responded with a 73-yard scoring drive capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass to James Lofton. And stumbling but not falling, the Bills were back in a tie for first place in the AFC East. NOV. 8

Bills 28, Pittsburgh Steelers 20--Trying to emerge from their doldrums, the Bills went back to basics. In Buffalo, that means a large dose of Thurman Thomas. In his personal showdown with the Steelers’ Barry Foster, Thomas carried a career-high 37 times for 155 yards and a touchdown. In the first half, he touched the ball on 23 of 48 plays. NOV. 16

Bills 26, Miami Dolphins 20--Mistakes, the undoing of the Bills in the teams’ first meeting, undid the Dolphins this time. Buffalo capitalized on a fumble, an interception and three penalties to win its fourth consecutive game and take a one-game lead in the AFC East. Miami quarterback Dan Marino completed his first 11 passes and directed two scoring drives before the Bills defense slowed him down with four sacks. Defensive penalties against Miami set up two scores as the Bills gave Marv Levy his 100th coaching victory in the NFL. NOV. 22

Bills 41, Atlanta Falcons 14--By any definition, this was Bills football. They scored on their first five possessions, Kenneth Davis rushed for 181 yards and Thurman Thomas ran for another 103 yards as Buffalo won its fifth in a row. NOV. 29

Indianapolis Colts 16, Bills 13 (OT)--A week after playing some of its most impressive football, Buffalo was felled on Dean Biasucci’s field goal in overtime. Jim Kelly completed only 11 of 33 passes for 184 yards and the Bills did not convert a third-down opportunity until the third quarter. DEC. 6

New York Jets 24, Buffalo Bills 17--A week earlier, Dennis Dennis Byrd was carried motionless from the suffering from a neck injury that left him partially paralyzed. Inspired by his spirit and courage, his emotionally charged Jet teammates scored one of the biggest upsets of the season. The Jets had lost 10 in a row to the Bills and were playing without four injured starters. Oddsmakers had made them 17-point underdogs. But after the Bills rallied to tie the score late in the fourth quarter, Brian Washington returned an interception 23 yards for the game-winning touchdown. Dennis Byrd, who watched the game from a Manhattan hospital, got the game ball. DEC. 11

Bills 27, Denver Broncos 17--The Bills resorted to trickery to get their offense moving. A reverse flea-flicker, which ended with Jim Kelly connecting with Don Beebe on a 64-yard scoring play, ended a five-quarter offensive drought against the Broncos that dated to the 1991 AFC Championship game. The Bills then added touchdowns on their next two possessions in the second quarter to clinch a playoff berth. DEC. 20

Bills 20, New Orleans Saints 16--The Bills kept their AFC title hopes alive against a playoff-bound team that had been eliminated earlier in the day from its own championship race. More importantly, the Bills’ road victory validated their earlier victory at San Francisco and gave them a swept of the NFC West’s best teams. A pass interference penalty against the Saints kept a late Bills drive alive, and Thurman Thomas scored on a two-yard run for the decisive touchdown. DEC. 27

Houston Oilers 27, Bills 7--This, potentially, was no small loss. With it went the Bills chance for a fourth consecutive AFC East title. And with it went quarterback Jim Kelly, who would be sidelined after spraining a ligament in his right knee with 7:58 left in the first half. Houston quarterback Warren Moon, returning after being sidelined since Nov. 15 with a broken arm, led the Oilers to a victory that set up a rematch in the first round of the playoffs. JAN. 2

Bills 41, Houston Oilers 38 (OT)--They don’t come any bigger than this. Comebacks, that is. Reserve quarterback Frank Reich engineered the biggest comeback in NFL history, throwing four touchdown passes as the Bills overcame a 35-3 third-quarter deficit. Reich, who hadn’t started a game in more than a year, led the Bills to 28 points in the third quarter (two touchdown passes to Andre Reed, another to Don Beebe and a scoring run by Kenneth Davis). In the fourth quarter, he connected with Reed for another touchdown and the Bills had taken a 38-38 lead. Warren Moon, who completed 36 of 50 passes for 371 yards, rallied Houston to a field goal that forced overtime, but he had a pass intercepted in the extra period that set up Steve Christie’s 32-yard game-winning field goal 3:06 into overtime. JAN. 9

Bills 24, Pittsburgh Steelers 3--Another playoff game. Another rematch. Another victory. Frank Reich went from spectacular to solid, passing for 160 yards and two touchdowns. Kenneth Davis overshadowed Thurman Thomas with 104 yards rushing in 10 carries and the Bills were alive and kicking as a wild-card entry headed for their third consecutive AFC Championship game. JAN. 17

Bills 29, Miami Dolphins 10--Quarterback Jim Kelly, after missing two games with a knee injury, pronounced himself fit to reclaim his starting job. And although their were plenty of armchair coaches willing to give the job to playoff hero Frank Reich, the only coach that mattered--Marv Levy--stuck with his starter. Kelly responded to the pressure by completing 17 of 27 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown. Together with an inspired defense that limited Miami to 33 yards rushing and harassed quarterback Dan Marino into three sacks and two interceptions, Kelly delivered his most satisfying victory.