| January 01, 2004 | « Previous Story | HOME | Next Story » | Posted at 05:46 PM |
The Buffalo Bills began their long journey back to the Super Bowl. The humility of losing the big game had an effect on the team- for the first time in recent memory, there were no high profile prolonged contract disputes, major locker room issues, or other distractions surrounding the club. Coach Marv Levy and GM Bill Polian boith had their contracts extended in the spring.
Leaving the Bills in the off-season were RB Don Smith to the Dolphins, Safety Chris Hale to the Colts, and Punter Rick Tuten. FB Jamie Mueller was forced into retirement when nerve damage was discovered in his upper back. The Bills did make some waves giving former 1st round pick DE Reggie Rogers a contract. Rogers was convicted and served a year in prison for vehicular homicide.
In the NFL draft, Buffalo made Henry Jones from Illinois their top pick in the draft. DE Phil Hansen from North Dakota State in round 2. Other notable picks were DB Darryl Wren in round 3, WR Brad Lamb in round 8, LB Mark Maddox in round 9.
Buffalo and Philadelphia played their first exhibition game in London's Wembly Stadium, a 17-13 Bills victory. The Bills would then drop a Super Bowl rematch to the Giants 23-17, pick up a win against Detroit 21-16, lose to Green Bay 35-24, and finish the pre season for the second straight year with a blowout loss to the Chicago Bears 30-13. Jim Kelly suffered a sprained ankle during the Packer game, but declared himself fit for his season opening debut against the rival Miami Dolphins. Bruce Smith, who underwent knee surgery in July and did not participate in the preseason, was still a month away from getting on the field.
The Bills opened their AFC title defense with a record performance, as Buffalo racked up 583 yards of offense in a 35-31 win over Miami at Rich Stadium. The total yardage was the most in Bills history. Jim Kelly turned in a gutty performance, despite aggravating his preseason ankle injury in the third quarter. He completed 29 of 39 passes for 381 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a comeback win over the Dolphins.
Buffalo fell behind 14-0 early in the second quarter, but the Bills struck back with an 86-yard drive halfway through the second quarter, capped off with a 54-yard touchdown pass from Kelly to Andre Reed, and the score stayed 14-7 Miami at the half. The Dolphins opened the second half by tacking on another field goal to their lead, but then the Bills took control.
On Buffalo's first drive of the second half, Kelly injured his ankle, and Frank Reich stepped in to complete two passes, including a 3-yard pass to Butch Rolle to cut the Miami lead to 17-14. Kelly returned to lead the Bills to a six-play, 80-yard march on the next drive, capped off with a 50-yard pass to Thurman Thomas to take the lead for Buffalo. Don Beebe's fumble set up a Dolphin touchdown that gave Miami a 24-21 lead, but the Bills struck with another six-play touchdown drive to take the lead for good. Thurman Thomas added a touchdown to make the score 35-24 with 3:55 left in regulation. The Dolphins Mark Duper scored a late touchdown, but the Bills held on for the win. Thurman Thomas also had a monster of a game with 165 yards rushing and 103 yards receiving, adding 2 TD scores. Lost in the game was nose tackle Jeff Wright, who would be knocked out of action until mid season with a leg injury. Rookie Phil Hansen filled in.
In week 2 they hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers at Rich Stadium. Both teams entered the contest with 1-0 records. The Steelers quickly got a clinic in the no-huddle offense, as Buffalo racked up 52 points in a 52-34 win in front of 79,545 at Rich Stadium. Quarterback Jim Kelly, who grew up in Pittsburgh, torched his boyhood team for six touchdown passes, setting a club record and a personal high, with four of those tosses going to Don Beebe, who tied a team record with Jerry Butler for four touchdown receptions in a game. It was especially sweet for Beebe, who was lost for the season with a broken leg one year ago. Against the Steelers on that September afternoon, Buffalo recorded the second-highest point total in team history, and the most ever in their NFL existence.
On their second drive of the game, Buffalo opened the scoring with a 53-yard strike from Kelly to James Lofton 6:18 into the game, and the Bills quickly added a Scott Norwood 50-yard field goal to give the Bills a 10-0 lead as the first quarter ended.
Kicker Gary Anderson put Pittsburgh on the board, but then the Kelly to Beebe show began. On Buffalo's next drive, the Bills went 80 yards in 10 plays, and Kelly hit Beebe for a 34-yard touchdown with 3:46 gone in the second quarter. The defense held Pittsburgh on their next possession, and notched another touchdown toss. Buffalo capped off a 63-yard drive with a 14-yard reception from Kelly to give the Bills a 24-3 lead with 6:57 remaining in the half. Pittsburgh did narrow the gap before the half to 24-10, as they got a 56-yard touchdown run by Barry Foster late in the half.
Buffalo opened the second half with another scoring drive, as they drove 80 yards down the field and Andre Reed caught Kelly's fourth touchdown pass of the day to give the Bills a 31-10 lead with 3:47 gone in the second. However, the Steelers wouldn't go away quietly, putting together a 17-point run to make the game close by the end of the third quarter, but the Bills then put the final exclamation point on their record-setting afternoon with a fourth-quarter explosion.
Just 1:51 into the fourth quarter, Beebe caught a 11-yard touchdown pass, which tied Kelly for the club mark for throwing five touchdown passes in a game, which tied him with his own mark set in 1989 and Joe Ferguson hit twice. The touchdown also made Beebe only the fourth Bill to catch three touchdowns in a game. Just over five minutes later, Kelly hit Beebe again for a 4-yard pass, breaking the club mark with his sixth touchdown pass, and making Beebe only the second Bill to have caught four touchdowns in a game, and with it Buffalo had a 45-27 lead. Nate Odomes put a cap on the afternoon by returning an interception back 32 yards for a touchdown just :45 after Beebe's last touchdown. Thurman Thomas finished with 107 yards rushing on the day.
It was the Buffalo fans who set the records tumbling in week 5 when the undefeated Bills met the undefeated Chicago Bears in Rich Stadium. A record crowd of 80,366 witnessed the Bills bury the Bears with a second half scoring onslaught. With a slim 7-6 lead at the half, Kelly moved the Bills 91 yards to open the 3rd quarter. On 4th and goal from the 1, FB Carwell Gardner was stopped in his tracks as he fumbled on the goal line. He recovered it himself for his first career TD. Butch Rolle's 2 yard scoring catch later in the 3rd was his 10th consecutive catch for a TD- a streak that stretched back to 1987. Lofton added a 77 yard TD reception and the Bills cruised to a 35-20 win.
Appearing a second time on Monday night Football in 14 days, Buffalo played host to the winless Cincinnati Bengals. Jim Kelly turned around a disastrous first quarter performance in which he threw 3 interceptions killing Bills scoring drives. Kelly put together a 5 TD, 392 yard performance in a 35-16 win. (Both MNF records). It was the third home crowd of the season to exceed 80,000 to see a home game, a new club record.
Bills Kicker Scott Norwood, who was struggling all season, suffered through his worst game of the year. Norwood missed 3 FG attempts in the second half as the Raiders moved ahead 27-14 entering the 4th quarter. Kelly led the Bills on a 67-yard drive capped off by Ken Davis's 1-yard TD run with 4:06 remaining. Norwood's missed extra point left the Bills trailing 27-20. The Bills defense held LA to a 3-and-out, and Kelly led Buffalo 64 yards in 1:36 to tie the score, converting on 4th down on the way. Norwood was able to pull it together and connect on the extra point to tie the score. Safety mark Kelso intercepted a Jay Schroeder pass on the second play of OT, setting up Norwood's redeeming game winning kick.
In a repeat of the season finale from 1 year ago, Buffalo sat out Kelly, reed, Thomas, and other Bills starters against Detroit in game 16. Trailing 14-7 late in the game and the Bills playing their third stringers, Frank Reich hit Steve Tasker with a 20 yard TD catch to tie the score with 2:33 left in the game. Detroit ended the Bills' 17 game home winning streak when Eddie Murray kicked the winning FG for Detroit in OT. Thurman Thomas finshed the season leading the Bills in rushing with 1,407 yards, and added 62 receptions (second on the Bills) for an additional 631 yards. Thomas finished with a team high 12 TDs. Andre Reed led the Bills in receptions with 82 for 1113 yards and 10 TDs. James Lofton added 57 receptions for 1,072 and 8 more scores. Jim Kelly had an outstanding season with 3,844 yards, a 64.1% completion rate, 33 TDs, and only 17 interceptions.
On Defense, Cornelius Bennett led the team with 9 sacks, with NT Jeff Wright adding 6. Nate Odomes led the secondary with 5 interceptions. Three players broke the 100 tackle mark- LB Shane Conlon (122), LB Darryl Talley (117) and Bennett (107).
Guard Jim Ritcher and Talley were both voted to their first Pro Bowls. They joined Jim Kelly,Kent Hull, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, James Lofton, Cornelius Bennett, and special teams ace Steve Tasker. Thomas was also awarded the AP's Offensive Player of the Year.
After resting up during the bye week, Buffalo advanced to its second consecutive AFC Championship Game with a convincing, 37-14, win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Buffalo moved out to a 17-0 lead on the strength of two QB Jim Kelly-to-WR Andre Reed TD strikes and a K Scott Norwood 33-yard FG. The Bills extended their lead early in the second half when WR James Lofton hauled in a 10-yard pass from Kelly to set the score at 24-0. The Chiefs finally got on the scoreboard late in the third quarter as a LB Lonnie Marts interception set up a drive, which ended with a 3-yard TD run by RB Barry Word. Buffalo put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter with two Norwood field goals and a 5-yard TD run by RB Kenneth Davis. WR Fred Jones grabbed a 20-yard pass from QB Mark Vlasic to set the final score at 37-14. In the game, Kelly threw for 3 TDs and 3 INTs, while Mark Vlasic was intercepted 4 times in relief of an injured Steve DeBerg.
Buffalo moved out to a 10-0 lead after K Scott Norwood hit a 44-yard field goal mid-way through the fourth quarter. Denver then took control of the ball and marched 85 yards in 8 plays for a score, a 3-yard QB draw by Gary Kubiak. The Denver back-up quarterback took over after Elway left the game in the third quarter with a thigh bruise. The Broncos then recovered the ensuing onside kick, but on the next play from scrimmage, CB Kirby Jackson stripped RB Steve Sewell of the ball and scooped it up to halt the Denver comeback. On the day, Denver K David Treadwell missed three FGs, a 47-yarder wide left and two attempts, 42 and 37, both which hit the right upright.
Bills 10, Broncos 7 -Billsbackers Recap
Rypien, the game's most valuable player, completed 18 of 33 passes, including a 10-yard scoring strike to Earnest Byner and a 30-yard touchdown to Gary Clark. The latter came late in the third quarter after Buffalo had trimmed a 24-0 deficit to 24-10, and effectively put the game out of reach.
Washington went on to lead by as much as 37-10 before the Bills made it close wih a pair of touchdowns in the final six minutes.
Though the Redskins struggled early, converting their first three drives inside the Bills' 20-yard line into only three points, they built a 17-0 halftime lead. And they made it 24-0 just 16 seconds into the second half, after Kurt Gouveia intercepted Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly's pass on the first play of the third quarter and returned it 23 yards to the Bills' 2.
One play later, Gerald Riggs scored his second touchdown of the game to make it 24-0. Kelly, forced to bring Buffalo from behind, completed 28 of a Super Bowl-record 58 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns, but was intercepted four tlmes.
Bills running back Thurman Thomas, who had an AFC-high 1,407 yards rushing and an NFL-best 2,038 total yards from scrimmage during the regular season, ran for only 13 yards on 10 carries and was limited to 27 yards on four receptions.
Clark had seven catches for 114 yards and Art Monk added seven for 113 for the Redskins, who amassed 417 yards of total offense while limiting the explosive Bills to 283.
1991 Draft-
1991 Stats- 1991 Results-
-Super Bowl XXIV- Redskins 37, Bills 24 Bills Backers recap
