The Buffalo Bills decided to go back to basics and run the football and the result was a stunning 31-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals last night. The win allows the Bills to keep pace with the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild card race.
The Arizona Cardinals spotted the Bills 14 points and then roared back to tie the game when the Bills committed two crucial interference infractions. The Cardinals had no trouble converting those golden opportunities.
"The two pass-interference calls kept them in the game," said Wade Phillips, "but our team stood strong and then I told them at halftime to come out and show them what we're made of."
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Doug Flutie came out gunning in the first half to put Bills up 14-0 |
"We proved tonight that we can still run the ball," said Jonathan Linton, "that we're still the Buffalo Bills."
"We couldn't run it as well the first half," said Phillips about not running that often at the start. "They were using a lot of run blitzes. But we threw it well. That got them off us, and then we got our running game going."
Doug Flutie, coming off one of his worst performances in his NFL career, attempted 32 passes, completing 21 for 239 yards and had two touchdowns. He also had 2 picked off. His strikes were to Eric Moulds and Jay Riemersma.
"It felt good," the Bills signal caller said. "I saw things very well and throwing the ball felt great."
The game was on the line when Rob Moore caught a touchdown pass after the two minute warning to close the gap to 24-21. But an onside kick was fielded by Henry Jones and he broke clear to gallop all the way for a 37 yard touchdown to seal the Cardinals' fate.
On the opening drive of the game, the Bills faced a 3rd and 4 at their own 39 when Dough Flutie hit Jay Riemersma for a 24 yard pickup at the Arizona 37. On the very next play, Andre Reed caught a 19 yard pass by Flutie and was pushed out of bounds at the Cardinals 18. Jonathan Linton took it up the middle for three yards.
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Moulds catches Flutie's 15 yard pass and falls into the endzone for first Bills touchdown |
The Bills defense came to play on this warm Arizona night. They forced the Cards to go 3 and out two straight series.
When the Bills got the ball again for their third possession, Flutie mounted another long drive that produced a touchdown. Facing a 3rd and 10, Flutie decided to take off and got the first down. Reed and Kevin Williams caught passes for 6 yards. Then Flutie connected with Peerless Price for 21 yards down to the Arizona 36. The Bills quarterback was now on a roll. He had a 16 yard completion to Reed down to the 20. Moulds was the next recipient of a Flutie pass, down to the Arizona 6, a 12 yard pickup.
Jonathan Linton made one of his most spectacular runs of his career when he got the handoff at the 6 plowed down to the one and was stopped. However, he did not give up and was able to break three tackles and ran parallel to the goal line while the defense was pursuing him. Linton dove and twisted towards the goal line, putting the ball in his right hand. When he landed from his dive, the ball broke the plane of the goal line and the Bills had another early touchdown to go ahead 14-0.
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Kurt Schulz breaks up a pass intended for Rob Moore |
The Bills appeared to be driving for another score when they got down to the Arizona 38 with 14 yards picked up by Flutie on scrambles, ten yards by Linton and a 8 yard completion to Price. But the drive was cut short when Tommy Bennet stepped into a Flutie pass. He was brought down by John Fina before he could head downfield. The Bills defense held the Cardinals to 7 yards and forced them to punt.
The Cards got a great drive start after Mac Cody returned a Chris Mohr punt 26 yards to the Bills 46. Bates cracked off runs of 5, 7 and three yards on consecutive runs. Plummer hit Frank Sanders for 12 yards down to the Bills 19. Then the Bills committed their second damaging interference when Antoine Winfield when he collided with Rob Moore before the pass reached him. That put the ball on the Buffalo 3 and it took Bates two carries to tie the game up with a 2 yard touchdown run.
In the second half, the Bills decided to come out and ram the ball down the Cardinals' throats. Linton playing one of his most impressive games in his career, started a long time consuming drive when he had consecutive runs of 3, 5 and 6 yards. Then Thurman Thomas ran off left end for another 6 yards and then 5 more yards. Linton then burst over right guard for 14 yards.
The Thomas and Linton combination continued to move the chains. Linton picked up another 4 yards to get down to the Arizona 25. Then he picked up another 7 yards when he ran over the left guard. Thomas moved the chains again when he picked up 5 yard on the next two carries. Linton got down to the Cardinals 11 and the Bills were gearing up to score their third touchdown. Then Flute made one of two mistakes that may have cost the Bills a couple touchdowns. With the running game going so strong, Flutie attempted his first pass in the second half and was forced to run backwards to avoid a sack. Finally Patrick Sapp caught up to him and sacked him for a 17 yard loss. Flutie came back with a pass on 3rd and 25 to Kevin Williams to get 13 of those yards. Steve Christie came on and kicked a 33 yard field goal to put the Bills back on top 17-14.
"That drive was probably the best drive we've had all year," said Linton. "The linemen were feeling like they were in a groove and they called for the ball."
"I don't know if it was the intention for us to come out and hammer the ball," said Flutie after the game. "We ran the ball three times and got a first down. You get 5 or 6 yards a pop, you end up sticking with it."
After the Bills defense forced the Cards to punt again, the Bills pounded the ball on the ground again with Linton ending the third quarter by picking up 9 yards on two carries. After Thomas made the first down, Flutie went to the air and hit price for four yards. A five yard Linton run and a 5 yard reception by Price put the Bills down to the Arizona 39. Thomas then blasted off right guard for ten more yards. Then with a 2nd and 8 at the Arizona 27, Flutie had his pass picked off by Tom Knight. Knight returned the pick 16 yards before Moulds caught up with him.
"The interception was one of those where I went to the guy who was singled up, so a guy who was pulling out couldn't get in the way," Flutie described the play. "Peerless was one-on-one and the defensive back just broke on it. At the last second, I tried to throw the ball high and away over (Knight's) head and he got a hand on it, kept it in play and made the pick. Chalk one up for them."
The Bills defense once again forced the Cardinals to punt and the Bills offense once again mounted a long drive that ate up precious time. Thomas had runs of 9, and three yards before Flutie connected with his favorite target, Riemersma for 15 yards down to the Cardinal 48. After Jerry Ostroski was penalized for offensive holding, Thomas gained 9 yards.
The Bills running game was wearing down the Arizona defense and attacking the Cardinals at their weakest point.
"We gave up such long drives, it seemed we were out there forever," said Arizona defensive end Thomas Burke. "Before you knew it, eight to 10 minutes of the (third) quarter was gone."
The Bills continued their drive down the field when Flutie hit Moulds for another 9 yards and Buffalo had a first down. On third and five from the Arizona 30, Moulds caught a 26 yard pass to get a first and goal at the 4 yard line.
"They were pressing me inside," said Moulds, "and I had told Doug on the sideline that I would signal to him for him to throw it to the outside. Doug gave me the signal that he saw it and he made a good throw."
After two runs by Linton got no yardage, Riemersma caught a pass right in the back of the endzone in what proved to be the winning touchdown.
"It was a designed route," said Riemersma. "They got confused when we motioned the running back outside. I didn't have to put a move on anybody because they had three guys covering the flat."
The long drive consumed 7:33 as the Bills went 78 yards on 13 plays.
Plummer came out gunning and completed passes to D. Boston for 13 yards and Sanders for 26 yards. From the Bills 26, Plummer threw a strike to Moor who dove for the ball and made a spectacular catch in the endzone to put the Cardinals back into the game with only 1:47 remaining in the game.
Cardinal kicker Chris Jacke tried an onside kick and Henry Jones picked the ball up on the fly and was completely in the clear with all the Cardinals heading in the opposite direction. Jones dashed 37 yards untouched to finish off the Cardinals hopes of making a comeback.
"The ball took a great bounce," Jones said. "I saw the big hop and said, "I should attack this.' I think I saw a gap out of the corner of my eye and I just ran."
Linton carried the ball 21 times for 81 yards. Thomas ran 13 times for 53 yards. Meanwhile, Plummer completed only 11 out of 29 for 119 yards and 1 TD. Moulds led the receivers with 6 receptions, followed by Jay Riemersma with 5 and Reed and Price with 3.
"I was surprised, disappointed, whatever word you want to put in there, that they were able to move the ball like they did," said Cardinal coach Vince Tobin. "We had eight people in the box, nine when we brought the safety up for a blitz, and we couldn't stop them consistently." Thomas made a statement in his second game back from the injury that sidelined him most of the season. Not only did his play speak volumes, but he may have gotten the team's out of a backwards slide when the game was 14-14 and Doug Flutie almost threw his third interception in the first half which could have been taken back all the way for the touchdown. Thomas slammed his helmet to the ground in disgust and got a 15 yard unsportsman like conduct penalty. But like the Sabres need Rob Ray to mix it up to wake up the team, Thurman's gesture may have had the same effect on the Bills. They needed a big wake up call right about then.
"That's exactly what I was trying to do, fire up the team," Thomas said. "I knew the pass was incomplete. It wasn't going to make a difference. At halftime I did a little talking and then Wade gave his speech. Some of the guys were talking as Wade started to talk and I told them that's the problem sometimes around here. People want to talk about stuff and not listen to the head coach. I told them to go out, play the game and shut up."
Thomas then went out for the second half and put his money where his mouth was. He ripped off 48 yards on 9 carries, a very respectable 5.0 yards per carry. In fact, his return seems to have also sparked the running of Linton. The two of them were the core of the Bills offense in the second half and preserved the victory.
The two quarterbacks in this game struggled at times, and were hot at other times. Both have received the wrath from their respective fans the past few weeks for lack of production.
This summer when both Flutie and Plummer were in Jamaica for a TV Superstars competition, Doug gave Jake a few words of advice on confidence.
"We talked about a lot of things," said Plummer. "One of the main things was to never give up on yourself. He had this big chip on his shoulder, I mean, a big chip, about his ability to play. It was really confidence.
"Some of it might have come from people saying he's too small (listed at 5 feet 9 and 178 pounds) to play quarterback. They've been saying that for a long time, but he has been able to produce. He has a lot of fire. I look up to a guy like that."
Flutie reflected on his advice to Plummer.
"The biggest sin is to lose confidence in yourself," Flutie said. "Everybody else will give up on you in a hurry. It's just human nature. People, and those in the media, will point fingers. You know what you're capable of doing and why things went wrong.
"There's a fine line between having one of those 300-yard days with three touchdown passes and having two of those balls picked off and bad things happening. Sometimes it's a matter of a guy tipping a ball or a receiver breaking off a route sooner than you thought or later. It can be a fraction of a second.
"I know Jake's a tremendous athlete and an excellent quarterback. He's proved that already. You just have to quit trying to prove it to other people and take care of business."
The AFC playoff picture is still crowded, but three teams have already clinched a playoff berth. The Jacksonville Jaguars lead the Conference with a 13-1 record, followed by the Colts (12-2) who clinched the Eastern title with their win over Washington. Following on the Colts' heels are the Tennessee Titans (11-3), Kansas City (9-5), the Bills (9-5) and the Dolphins and Seahawks are both 8-6. New England, Baltimore and Oakland are all fighting for their lives at 7-7. The Bills presently stand fifth in the playoff standings if the season ended today. However, they must win both their remaining games to assure themselves of a playoff spot. One win may be enough, however if Seattle and/or the Dolphins lose next week.
The Bills travel to New England, Flutie's hometown, for their second last game of the season next Sunday.
Copyright © 1999 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.
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