Vikings march back to remain unbeaten

By Rick Anderson

The Buffalo Bills came just a couple minutes from upsetting the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, but a couple of big plays helped the Vikings become the only perfect team in the NFL as they came from behind to beat the Bills 31-27.

Doug Flutie got the Bills offense clicking as he passed for almost 300 yards against the Vikings. Here he gets protection from Bills guard Ruben Brown as he sets up to pass.

[AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt]

Doug Flutie, starting in place of the injured Rob Johnson, played a commendable game, completing 28 of 43 passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, Flutie had the Bills offense moving like a well-oiled machine after his first few passes were off their mark. Flutie looked sharp, especially in his 25-yard touchdown pass to Eric Moulds in the second quarter. He also hooked up with Sammy Morris on a 18-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The Bills offense looked fluid and even the running game jived as Shawn Bryson ran for 72 yards on 11 carries and Morris picked up 31 on 14 carries, including a 1-yard touchdown dive to go along with his touchdown reception.

"We moved the ball efficiently, up and down the field," said Flutie. "We made one mistake late and it wound up costing us. We possessed the ball, they didn't have a lot of opportunities to score points and they made the most of them."

This was Flutie's day to prove himself to the many critics he has back in Buffalo that he still has some magic in his arm and legs. Flutie, who was starting his first game of the season one day before his 38th birthday, had a rusty start. However, after warming up, his passes were tight spirals and he kept the Viking defense honest, setting up the running game with his short to medium passes.

"I felt great, it was like riding a bike," gleamed Flutie. "I love playing the game, I like competing. We should have won it and even when they took the lead, I thought we'd win it."

While the Bills offense probably had its best game of the season, the defense fell down on the job and could not protect a 24-13 lead they had in the third quarter. Lapses in the Bills secondary hurt Buffalo with three touchdown passes by the Vikings sensation at quarterback Daunte Culpepper. The real back-breaker was a 39-yard Culpepper to Randy Moss pass that the Vikings receiver somehow caught in the back of the endzone while straddling the endzone chalk line.

"It came down to one play," Bills coach Wade Phillips contended after the game. "One play, and it's the difference in the game. We had two guys covering Moss. Obviously, we didn't have him covered."

Sammy Morris plunges over a pile of players to score a touchdown in the third quarter to put the Bills in the lead.

[AP Photo/Jim Mone]

However, there was another play that was of equal importance a little later on as the Bills were attempting to move up field after falling behind 28-27 in the fourth quarter. Flutie completed a pass to Peerless Price at the Bills 35 when Robert Tate popped the ball loose from Price's grasp. Minnesota recovered and drove down to the Bills five, setting up Gary Anderson's record shattering 21-yard field goal to ice the game. The field goal broke George Blanda's old record for most points. Now Anderson has 2,004 points and he broke the record against the team who originally drafted him.

"It was a tough loss for us," said Phillips during his post game conference. "We did a lot of good things in the ball game but not enough to win. We played our hearts out but made enough mistakes and didn't make the plays we needed to make and took a lot of penalties that hurt us."

The Vikings took the early lead in the game when they drove 51 yards in 8 plays. The key play in the drive was when Culpepper hit Moss with a 28-yard pass reception down to the Bills 33. The Bills defense held the Vikings and Anderson came on to kick one of his 3 field goals for the day.

In the second quarter, the Bills took the lead when Flutie threw a perfect pass to Moulds who caught the pass right at the goal line, beating the defender by a step. Moulds had another phenomenal game, catching 12 passes for 135 yards.

Flutie was able to engineer a couple of time-consuming drives in this game, the longest being in the second quarter when the Bills drove down the field 80 yards on 21 plays, eating up 10 minutes and 55 seconds. During that drive, Flutie completed passes of 9 yards to Jeremy McDaniel, 18 yards to Price along with some shorter tosses. However, the drive stalled and Steve Christie clanked his kick off the left goal post, but it ricocheted on the right side for a 26-yard field goal.

Anderson kicked his second field goal of the game before the first half ended after the Vikings decided not to attempt to go for the touchdown deep in Buffalo territory with time running out. That let the Bills go to halftime with a 10-6 lead.

The Vikings received the second half kickoff and marched 69 yards down the field to take the lead when Culpepper threw to a wide open Chris Carter in the right corner of the endzone. There wasn't a Bill anywhere in sight and Carter never had an easier touchdown.

How could the Bills allow Carter to be so open in the endzone?

"We were in a man coverage, and they ran a pick route," described Winfield. "Henry (Jones) was coming down and No. 89 (Matthew Hatchette) picked him and Cris Carter was wide open."

The Bills then moved 80 yards down the field in 14 plays, consuming 8 minutes. The drive was climaxed by a 1-yard Morris leap into the endzone, putting the Bills on top again 13-10.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Sam Rogers intercepted a Culpepper pass and returned it ten yards down to the Minnesota 32. Bryson galloped 19 yards down to the Vikings 15 and Flutie his Morris on an 18-yard TD strike to put the Bills in command of the game, 24-13. Now if the defense could keep its end of the bargain, the Bills would have themselves a big upset.

The Bills defense started to falter under the laser like passes of Culpepper. He connected with Carter for 17 yard to the Buffalo 49, and 11 yards to Moss. After a 20-yard run by Smith, Culpepper hooked up with Carter again for an 11-yard TD strike putting the Vikings within reach of the Bills.

The Bills then drove down into Viking territory after Chris Watson returned the kickoff 33 yards to the Viking 49. Christie was called upon to kick a 48 yards and his kick was perfect for his longest of the season. With the Bills up 27-21, the defense was the key to preserving the upset.

Randy Moss had a big day for the Vikings. Here he gallops for a 28-yard pickup after taking a pass from Duante Culpepper. Keioon Carpenter finally brings Moss down after this reception.

[AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid]

Chris Mohr pooched a punt that was returned for 28 yards by Troy Waters, setting the Vikings up in great field position on the Bills 34. After a penalty set them back 5 yards, Culpepper threw a long ball right to the back of the endzone. That's where Moss tiptoed on the end line and made a remarkable catch with Ken Irvin Daryl Porter being victimized.

"It's called, 'Moss, go get it,"' described Moss. "I've always been a prime-time player. I think my name and my number speaks for itself."

After the Price fumble, the icing on the cake came when Anderson kicked himself into the record books with his 21-yard boot to put the Vikings up by 31-27. The Bills were able to get the ball back at their own 20 near the end of the game, but they had already used up all their timeouts. Flutie was able to get the Bills to midfield with five ticks left on the clock. Could he repeat his miracle he performed at Boston College ages ago?

When Flutie went back to attempt his "Hail Mary" pass, Moss was in the secondary to prevent a Bills sudden victory.

"I told myself nobody's going to catch this ball today," said Moss. "Not after how hard we worked today. No way."

Flutie hurled the ball as far as he could and it came down with around 6 players jumping high to retrieve it. The ball was battled down and the Vikings remained unbeaten. The Bills walked away with a 3-4 record and hopes of making the playoffs dwindling.

Next week they take on the Jets who are tied with the Miami Dolphins for first place at 5-1. Those two collide Monday night to determine the AFC East leader.

Bills Talk

"It's like riding a bicycle," Flutie said about if it took time to get back in gear after not having started since last December. "You don't forget. You jump back on and go. I've been doing it for 16 years. With an offense like the Vikings have you can't make any mistakes. We made some mistakes late. With the explosiveness they have, you can't turn the ball over. They're 7-0. I think we're every bit as good as they are, and we're 3-4. So that's very frustrating."

"Some teams don't play very well and find a way to win,"said Marcellus Wiley. "We're a team that seems to do some things pretty well but we're finding a way to lose."

"I saw the safety (Daryl Porter) bite, and Daunte rolled opposite of me," Moss described his brilliant touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. "Right when I saw Daunte set up, I started to smile because I knew it was going to be a big play. It was just up to me to make the catch."

The quote of the day has to go to Bills coach Wade Phillips when he said about Moss' touchdown grab in the back of the endzone, "He (Culpepper) went one way, and we went to sleep."

Daryl Porter was the man sleeping on the job and was fooled by Culpepper.

"It was my mistake," admitted Porter. "You've got to play for 60 minutes. Mistakes kill you, and we lost the game on that. I got us beat. I take that blame."

Porter also was the goat in last year's Home Run Throwback. Makes one wonder how long the Bills will continue to allow him to make mistakes that cost the team important games.

"We were aggressive and jamming the receivers all day," said Irvin, who was the second man in on Moss in the endzone. "They called me for jamming up Randy Moss and then (Carter) comes right off and pushes me at the goal line and scores. I can't do anything about that. They didn't call it. I should have made the play. I've got to be aggressive, but it seems like the more aggressive I get, I get penalized for it when it's not being called the other way. That's the way the game goes."

"It hasn't been a case where guys are physically getting beat," Irvin continued. "We're just having too many mental mistakes and breakdowns and it's very frustrating right now."

The Bills defense knew that they let the offense down. After carrying them the first two games of the season, the defense has not performed under those standards since.

"It's very tough, especially the way the offense played today," related Antoine Winfield. "The offense played a great game. They gave us an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, and we didn't hold onto it. We didn't do our job."

Meanwhile, Flutie's teammates on the offense were giving him kudos.

"Doug played a great game," said Jeremy McDaniel. "He was calm. He was in control. He communicated with the receivers and with the running backs. He was just a leader out there today."

Eric Moulds agreed with McDaniel.

"He was in control the whole game," Moulds said. "In certain situations, he audibled and put in us in another position to make plays. He played a great game."

"We did a lot of really good things offensively," described Flutie. "I knew coming in they were a bend-but-don't-break defense where you've got to march the ball the length of the field. When teams make you do that, you can't make mistakes because you're making it 5 and 7 yards at a chunk."

"I was trying to make a play, trying to spin out of a tackle," Price described the fumble that literally cost the Bills the game. "Those things happen."

The most controversial quote of the day came from Bills receiver McDaniel. He has gotten a lot of flak for saying, "We're a young team, and I think we haven't found out how to really win yet. I think we're getting closer and closer."

Shawn Bryson led the Bills runners with 72 yards. He and Sammy Morris are starting to jell as the Bills main running backs.

"It was exciting to have a chance to make some plays for our team," said Bryson. "Hopefully, I can build off this game."

As the season has progressed, Morris has become more of a focal point than a bit player.

"I'm just trying to take advantage of my opportunities," Morris said. "As far as the so-called runing back controversy, it's fine with me. If I get four carries, I'm going to try to score on four carries or get the most yardage I can, and Sammy has the same idea."

As for the loud music inside the Metrodome, Flutie took exception to it.

"That's got to be totally illegal," Flutie retorted. "They were turning it up so loud, the guy right next to me couldn't hear me in the huddle. You're screaming in the huddle. At the end of the game, the crowd got very loud."

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