Tweet
The Buffalo Bills have played a total of 37 games on Monday Night Football since the NFL began the tradition of the primetime matchup. Their first MNF game was played the same year I was born (1973), which means I obviously don't remember most of them. So, to be fair, I'm only going to include games played since the 1988 season as I compile my Top-5 Bills Monday Night Football games remembered. Any games played before that time were played at a time I was either too young to remember or not old enough to understand the implications of what I was witnessing.
So, here they are. My Top-5, counting down to #1. After reading them, post your best Bills Monday Night Memories in this thread.
Let the debates begin:
#5) 10/2/95 at Cleveland; Bills 22 Browns 19
-This game was more memorable because of what it signified to Cleveland Browns fans and not because of anything the Bills did, other than win the game. It was announced just a few days before this matchup that Browns owner Art Modell was moving his team out of Cleveland and to Baltimore, where they would become the Ravens. Of course the city of Cleveland had another team granted to them by the NFL, but it was without football for four years. I remember watching that game, seeing the anger and despair on Browns' fans faces and realizing at that very moment just how truly awful it would be if the Bills ever left Buffalo.
#4) 10/4/99 at Miami; Bills 23 Dolphins 18
-Living in Florida at the time of his game, I attended with several other Bills fans and friends. It was a night in which the Bills were more prepared to play a football game than I had seen in a very long time. Part of the reason for that was the team was beaten by these same Dolphins in this same stadium in the previous season's playoffs and they were determined to avenge that loss. Doug Flutie was the quarterback, the defense played tremendous, and the game wasn't as close as the score indicated. After the game, we walked out of the stadium with our chests out and our Bills gear worn proudly.
#3) 10/16/89 home vs. LA Rams; Bills 23 Rams 20
-Jim Kelly was injured. Backup Frank Reich was to make his first of many memorable starts for the Bills. The Rams came to town undefeated at 5-0. The deck seemed stacked against the Bills. But in front of over 76,000 fans at Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium), Reich rallied the Bills in the fourth quarter for a 23-20 victory. Reich also started the next two Bills games, beating both the Dolphins and Jets in front of the home crowd.
#2) 9/24/90 at NYJ; Bills 30 Jets 7
-No one knew it at the time, but the Bills had just begun a season in which they would reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. The Dolphins drubbed Buffalo 30-7 in week two, setting the stage for an angry Bills team playing on MNF in New York the following week. Thurman Thomas ran for a career high 214 yards in a 30-7 victory over the Jets, and kick-started the Bills on an eight-game winning streak. Thomas' night still remains third on the all-time Monday Night Football rushing yardage performance list.
#1) 10/17/88 at NYJ; Bills 37 Jets 14
-The Bills had not appeared on MNF in four years. They were a bad and boring football team during that span and didn't warrant any prime time exposure. But all that changed when Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, and others arrived. Thomas was only a rookie, and "Biscuit" Bennett had arrived only a year earlier. Personally, I was a 15 year-old diehard fan who went to my older brother's dorm at Buffalo State College to watch the game with him and his roommates. The Bills exploded on the Jets early. Kelly threw for 261 yards and three TDs...........in the first half! He finished the game with 302 yards passing and the Bills ripped the Jets 37-14 at the Meadowlands. It was the first of two MNF appearances for the Bills that 1988 season. They trashed the Dolphins in Miami less than a month later, 31-6, setting a club record for the fewest points allowed in a Monday Night contest (since tied on 10/20/97 at Indianapolis).
The victory over the Jets was the catalyst that put the Bills on the national radar of NFL fans and television networks. Counting that contest, the team went on to appear in 25 MNF games over the next 13 seasons. Since then, it has been almost seven seasons since the Bills kicked off on Monday Night Football.
Will the game against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night, October 8, 2007, serve as another springboard for Bills appearances on the league's most recognizable night? Will it find its way into a future "top-5" Bills MNF games column? Hopefully, we won't have to wait another seven years to find out.
So, here they are. My Top-5, counting down to #1. After reading them, post your best Bills Monday Night Memories in this thread.
Let the debates begin:
#5) 10/2/95 at Cleveland; Bills 22 Browns 19
-This game was more memorable because of what it signified to Cleveland Browns fans and not because of anything the Bills did, other than win the game. It was announced just a few days before this matchup that Browns owner Art Modell was moving his team out of Cleveland and to Baltimore, where they would become the Ravens. Of course the city of Cleveland had another team granted to them by the NFL, but it was without football for four years. I remember watching that game, seeing the anger and despair on Browns' fans faces and realizing at that very moment just how truly awful it would be if the Bills ever left Buffalo.
#4) 10/4/99 at Miami; Bills 23 Dolphins 18
-Living in Florida at the time of his game, I attended with several other Bills fans and friends. It was a night in which the Bills were more prepared to play a football game than I had seen in a very long time. Part of the reason for that was the team was beaten by these same Dolphins in this same stadium in the previous season's playoffs and they were determined to avenge that loss. Doug Flutie was the quarterback, the defense played tremendous, and the game wasn't as close as the score indicated. After the game, we walked out of the stadium with our chests out and our Bills gear worn proudly.
#3) 10/16/89 home vs. LA Rams; Bills 23 Rams 20
-Jim Kelly was injured. Backup Frank Reich was to make his first of many memorable starts for the Bills. The Rams came to town undefeated at 5-0. The deck seemed stacked against the Bills. But in front of over 76,000 fans at Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium), Reich rallied the Bills in the fourth quarter for a 23-20 victory. Reich also started the next two Bills games, beating both the Dolphins and Jets in front of the home crowd.
#2) 9/24/90 at NYJ; Bills 30 Jets 7
-No one knew it at the time, but the Bills had just begun a season in which they would reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. The Dolphins drubbed Buffalo 30-7 in week two, setting the stage for an angry Bills team playing on MNF in New York the following week. Thurman Thomas ran for a career high 214 yards in a 30-7 victory over the Jets, and kick-started the Bills on an eight-game winning streak. Thomas' night still remains third on the all-time Monday Night Football rushing yardage performance list.
#1) 10/17/88 at NYJ; Bills 37 Jets 14
-The Bills had not appeared on MNF in four years. They were a bad and boring football team during that span and didn't warrant any prime time exposure. But all that changed when Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, and others arrived. Thomas was only a rookie, and "Biscuit" Bennett had arrived only a year earlier. Personally, I was a 15 year-old diehard fan who went to my older brother's dorm at Buffalo State College to watch the game with him and his roommates. The Bills exploded on the Jets early. Kelly threw for 261 yards and three TDs...........in the first half! He finished the game with 302 yards passing and the Bills ripped the Jets 37-14 at the Meadowlands. It was the first of two MNF appearances for the Bills that 1988 season. They trashed the Dolphins in Miami less than a month later, 31-6, setting a club record for the fewest points allowed in a Monday Night contest (since tied on 10/20/97 at Indianapolis).
The victory over the Jets was the catalyst that put the Bills on the national radar of NFL fans and television networks. Counting that contest, the team went on to appear in 25 MNF games over the next 13 seasons. Since then, it has been almost seven seasons since the Bills kicked off on Monday Night Football.
Will the game against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night, October 8, 2007, serve as another springboard for Bills appearances on the league's most recognizable night? Will it find its way into a future "top-5" Bills MNF games column? Hopefully, we won't have to wait another seven years to find out.
Comment