STEEL CURTAIN STONEWALLS BILLS

BILLS CRUSHED IN ONLY ‘70s PLAYOFF APPEARANCE

December 22, 1974 - Three Rivers Stadium -The Buffalo Bills were making their first playoff appearance in 8 years, the first one since the Kansas City Chiefs foiled the Bills bid to go to the first ever Super Bowl in January of 1967. The Pittsburgh Steelers handed the Bills their second straight playoff loss (including that one in ‘67), by beating the Bills 32-14.

After Pittsburgh opened the scoring on a 21-yard field goal by Gerela, the Bills came back when Joe Ferguson hit Paul Seymour for a 22-yard touchdown pass near the end of the first quarter.

But then the roof fell in for the Bills in the second quarter, as the Steelers scored 4 unanswered touchdowns. Terry Bradshaw engineered the Steelers explosion, completing 7 of 8 passes for 143 yards. When the Bills tried to put pressure on Bradshaw, he scrambled out of harms way and for big yardage.

Rocky Bleier was the recipient of one of Bradshaw's great passes, as he caught a 27-yarder from the thinning-haired QB. And after that, the Steelers drove down to a first and goal three times inside the 5 yard line. From there, Franco Harris burst in on all three drives to score touchdowns, putting the Steelers up by 29-7 at halftime.

In the second half, O.J. Simpson scored his only postseason touchdown for the Buffalo Bills as he caught a three yard pass from Ferguson to narrow the margin to 29-14. For the day, Simpson ran 15 times for a mere 49 yards. The Hall of Fame runner, the 2,003-yard season record holder, was a non-factor in this game.

But after that, the Steel Curtain came down on the Bills and thwarted any drive the Bills could muster. Gerela kicked a 22 yard field goal for Pittsburgh to ice the cake in this one and the Bills finished their only playoff game in the 70's on a sour note.

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