The Bills win UGLY in Baltimore

The Bills pulled out a last minute comeback in the land of Edgar Allen Poe to defeat the Baltimore Ravens 13-10 in a mistake-filled contest. Doug Flutie having one of his worst games as a Bill, struggled for most of the game and was not able to generate a productive drive until the very end.

Jonathan Linton leaps into the arms of Robert Hicks after catching winning TD.

After Ravens quarterback Tony Banks fumble gave the Bills new life, Flutie still couldn't connect. So on fourth and 15 and the Bills behind 10-6, Flutie ran 17 yards to pick up the crucial first down and keep the Bills hopes alive. The Bills made it down to the Ravens 5 yard line and Flutie turned a busted play into the winning touchdown when he tossed a low pass to Jonathan Linton in the endzone.

"I'm relieved. It's hard to be real happy because we just are struggling offensively and at times it looks ugly," Flutie said in his post game interview. "Two or three interceptions I'd throw again because they were one-on-one routes and I have faith in our guys. All of a sudden a guy sits and squats and breaks on the ball and makes a play. We had a lot of missed assignments, a lot of mistakes all over the place and it was just plain ugly. We've got to tighten that up because we are not going to win a lot of games playing that way."

"We did what it took to win," Bills coach Wade Phillips said. "I didn't think we played well enough in all areas, obviously. But the heart of the team showed today. We can build with that."

Flutie struggled for over three quarters, throwing three interceptions and helping the Ravens take a 10-3 lead. But it was Banks' miscues that determined the outcome. He threw an interception that resulted in a Steve Christie field goal and then his fumble led to the winning touchdown. So this was the story of the two struggling quarterbacks and a contest to see which one could hurt their own team the most.

Flutie passed 40 times, completed 18 for 155 yards and the one winning TD. Banks, meanwhile was 13 for 34 for 129 yards and one score.

After the two teams exchanged punts in the first quarter, the Ravens took over at midfield. Banks passed to Chuck Evans for seventeen yards to the Bills 33. Ravens' running back Errict Rhett picked up 5 and then 13 yards on the next two plays from scrimmage. Rhett plowed for 6 more yards before being tackled by Gabe Northern. A couple plays got the Ravens down to the Bills 6, and on 4th and 1, Evans picked up three to get down to the Bills three and a first down. Justin Armour was penalized 10 yards for offensive interference, but the former Bill tight end made up for it two plays later when he caught a 7 yard TD pass from Banks in the back of the end zone.

Doug Flutie gets pressure from Ravens

Doug Flutie having another sub-par game, threw in the direction of Andre Reed, but it was picked off by Chris Mcalister at the Bills 27 and he returned it 7 yards. Three plays netted 0 yards so Matt Stover kicked a 37 yard field goal to put the Ravens up 10-0.

The Bills did mount a drive from their own 21 and marched down to the Ravens 23. Two passes to Reed for 16 and thirteen yards plus an 18 yard run by Jonathan Linton were the highlights of the drive. However, the offense couldn't get past the 23, so Steve Christie attempted a field goal which was blotched because of a bad snap.

Right near the end of the first half, the Bills mounted a 9-play, 51 yard drive that resulted in a 25 yard Christie field goal. Punctuating the drive were a 14 yard reception by Kevin Williams and a 15 yard roughing the passer penalty assessed to Baltimore.

Flutie started the game completing 4 of 6 attempts. But that's when everything fell apart for the Bills starter. He started to force the ball into coverage and that resulted in three interceptions. Twice the Bills started from within their own five yard line and that only added to the obstacles put in Flutie's way.

Gabe Northern strips the ball from Tony Banks

In the fourth quarter, the Bills got a huge break when Banks, trying to throw the ball away, lobbed a duck that Kurt Schultz intercepted at the Bills 40 and he returned it 26 yards to the Ravens 34. The Bills could only get to the 31, so on 4th an 7 Flutie connected with Williams for 13 yards and the first down. A defensive interference on McAlister put the ball on the Baltimore 12. Then Flutie hit Jay Riemersma for 7 yards to the Ravens 5. A two yard run by Antowain Smith and another two yarder by Linton gave the Bills a first down at the Ravens one yard line.

Then the Bills committed a couple of blunders that moved them back 22 yards. First, Flutie was sacked by Rob Burnett for an 8 yard loss. To add insult to injury, Flutie was being held down by Burnett and couldn't get up. John Fina came in to get Burnett off his quarterback and was charged with a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty. The Bills got back to the Baltimore 14 when Linton ran for 8 yards. But Flutie was sacked for an 8 yard loss on the next play forcing Christie to come in and kick a 39 yard field goal to make the score 10-6.

The Bills got another huge break when Banks ran for an apparent first down and Gabe Northern chased him down and stripped the ball from Banks. Sam Rogers picked it up at the Bills 46 and returned it for nine yards.

"Actually, I was slowing up because I knew I had the first down," Banks said. "I was about to get on the ground. Gabe Northern made a great play."

"I should have had (Banks) in the backfield for a sack, but I jumped," Northern said. "He was running with the ball down kind of low, so I was just chasing him. And I knew if I caught him I was going to be able to knock the ball out."

"Gabe has made big plays all along this year," said Phillips. "He seemed to be in the right place at the right time."

Flutie passed to Price for 11 yards on the next play. But after that, 3 incompletions and a penalty left the Bills with a 4th and 15 and they had to go for it. Flutie, avoiding the sack, ran up the middle for 17 yards and the first down to keep the Bills hopes alive.

In describing the fourth down scramble, Flutie said, "We were going to try to clear people out and run Peerless (Price) on an in route underneath them. There's a three-man rush and people 15 yards deep and there's no way I was going to stick it anywhere. So I figured just drop back, hang onto the ball for awhile and let people work. I thought for a second I might have a shot at Andre on the right sideline, decided not to throw it and pulled it back down. I saw Jonathan standing in front of me, about 8 or 10 yards and I was going to dump it to him but they'd come up and make the tackle. So I just pointed to him, told him to turn up and let's go."

"What a tremendous play. We needed a miracle play and that's what it was," said Phillips.

"It is a real sickening feeling knowing that you work all day, then at the end you allow something like that to happen," said Michael McCrary about Flutie's 17 yard scramble. "It just shows that you really have to work every single play. We allowed that to happen."

After that fourth down scramble, Reed caught two passes of 5 and 12 yards respectively to give Buffalo a first and goal at the Ravens 5. After he took the snap, Flutie looked to his left, rolled right, straight-armed a Raven coming right at him and lobbed a pass to Linton who fell to his knees to catch the pass in the middle of the endzone. The Bills had their first lead in the game and it couldn't have come at a better time.

"The touchdown was another screwed up play," Flutie said. "We had wrong routes, we had people out of position and I had to hold onto the ball, move around and make something happen. I got out to the right and I thought I'd have a shot at running it in. Then one of their Dbs came up and I had to avoid him. Once I avoided him I said, ‘OK, I've got a play now. I can run it in or throw it.' I was so hesitant to pull the trigger because I didn't want to throw an interception. Then I finally went ahead and pulled the trigger and tried to stick it as low as I could to be safe with the ball. And he (Linton) made a nice catch."

"Actually, my job was just to block," said Linton. "I wasn't supposed to run out in the pass route at all. Sometimes you've got to take desperate measures and dare to be great. I leaked into the end zone, found an open spot and Doug threw me the ball."

With a minute and a half left, the Ravens had plenty of time to at least tie it up with a field goal. However, the Bills defense which played strong for most of the game, held on to secure the victory for Buffalo. The win gives the Bills a 5-3 record at the midway point of the season.

"We had to have this one," Sam Cowart said. "Football isn't a beauty contest. It's about doing whatever it takes. We did that today. We got a big burden off our shoulders."

"We didn't start out the way we'd like to start, but we sure finished up the way we'd like to," Phillips said. "I thought our defense certainly is back. They played a tremendous game and that was the difference in the ball game."

Linton had an impressive day. He not only caught the winning touchdown pass from Flutie, but carried 14 times for 56 yards, a 4.0 yards per carry average. Antowain Smith continued to struggle running the ball, gaining only 5 yards on 6 carries.

"It's a great feeling to be in position to make a play that helps the team win," said Linton. "I'm just trying to make the most of my opportunities. Unfortunately, Antowain is not getting more playing time. But when I'm getting a lot of playing time, it means I'm doing something right."

"He's our Thurman," Wade said of Linton. "He's the guy that's featured in all of our passing sets. He's playing 2/3 of the time. He's splitting the time at running back and also playing for Thurman. You are going to see him more (than Smith). I thought he stepped up last week and I thought he stepped up again this week."

In the Ravens locker room, they were trying to describe Flutie.

"You give Flutie too many opportunities he's going to make plays. That's what he does," Ravens linebacker Peter Boulware said.

"It's just the law of averages," said Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "If you give him enough opportunities he's going to run around and make some plays and beat you. If you limit those opportunities you will beat him. That's what other teams have done the last couple of weeks and that's what we did -- up to a point."

The top performer on offense for Buffalo was Reed, who caught 7 passes for 56 yards. Coming off a bad performances against Seattle and Oakland, Reed looked like the Reed of old as he made key receptions to keep drives alive.

When asked why the offense struggled so much, Phillips replied, "They've got a good defensive team. Nobody's moving the ball on them or scoring a lot of points on them. We knew it was going to be tough. We've got some young guys in there that make some mistakes offensively that hurt us some. Our two tight ends on the goal line (when the Bills had first and goal at the one), lined up on the wrong side, blocked it the wrong way and that kills us on the goal line. We made some mistakes with young players at times, but we can build from this."

"I made more than my share of mistakes today," Flutie said. "I feel like kicking myself or pulling out a gun and shooting myself once in awhile for a mistake, but it doesn't have anything to do with the next play."

The Bills travel down the road to play the Washington Redskins next week. The ‘Skins scored 48 points in their victory against Chicago, so it will be a big test for Buffalo's defense.

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