The Best of One Bills Drive - Nov. 1, 1998

(Greg D. Tranter and Budd Bailey have written a book about the history of the football stadium in Orchard Park called "One Bills Drive." It has been published by Reedy Press. The books covers the top 50 games played in the stadium's history from 1973 until January 2025. However, there are several other games that qualified as thrilling - but they couldn't crack the top 50. Those contests deserve to be remembered too, so we'll offer them in this space a couple of times per week during the season.)

Score by Quarters:

                                                1       2       3       4       Final

Miami (L, 5-3)                         7        7        7        3        24

Buffalo (W, 5-3)                      0       14      0       16      30

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Dolphins – Marino 12-yard pass to Gadsden (Mare kick)

2 – Bills – Flutie 1-yard pass to Riemersma (Christie kick)

2 – Dolphins – Abdul-Jabbar 1-yard run (Mare kick)

2 – Bills – Flutie 16-yard pass to Riemersma (Christie kick)

3 – Dolphins – Avery 1-yard run (Mare kick)

4 – Dolphins – Mare 38-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Flutie 48-yard pass to Moulds (Christie kick)

4 – Bills – Christie 22-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Christie 36-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Christie 25-yard field goal

Recap: On October 18, 1996, Doug Flutie supplied the magic in the Bills’ last-second victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Once the jubilation died down - which admittedly took a while – it was time for an obvious question. What could he do for an encore?

The quarterback supplied some answers in the next game in Carolina. Flutie was an impressive 18 of 22 for 282 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-14 win over the Panthers on Sunday Night Football. Even so, some pointed out that Carolina was winless, and beating them wasn’t exactly unexpected.  

But if he helped his team defeat Buffalo’s biggest rival of the era, the Miami Dolphins, in the following game, well, then we’d have something to discuss. The Seventies and Miami’s domination of the Bills were long gone at this point, but wins over the Dolphins remained a cause for celebration. Miami offered two familiar characters as villains. Quarterback Dan Marino was near the end of a career that would punch his ticket to Canton – even if he didn’t have too much success against Buffalo – and head coach Jimmy Johnson had spoiled two of the Bills’ Super Bowl appearances when he was in Dallas.

The Dolphins moved the ball down the field in small doses on their first possession. Marino’s pass to Oronde Gadsden capped the drive and gave Miami the early lead. But the Bills eventually answered, thanks to a defensive stop on a fourth-and-1 play on the Miami 34. “We had an inch to go," Johnson said. "We were trying to make something happen to take their crowd out of the game."

Seven plays later, the smallish Flutie (5-foot-10, officially) hit the huge Jay Riemersma (6-5, 255 pounds, officially) for the tying touchdown. Later in the second quarter, the teams again traded touchdowns. Karim Abdul-Jabbar of the Dolphins did the honors on a short plunge, while Flutie and Riemersma teamed up for another scoring pass.

From there, the Dolphins played as if they had designs of taking over the game. They moved the ball 70 yards for a touchdown; John Avery traveled the final yard. The Bills, meanwhile, were going nowhere fast. They only gained a single first down in each of their first two possessions in the third quarter. Another drive was stopped by Antowain Smith’s fumble on Buffalo’s 28. When Olindo Mare kicked a field goal, the Bills were down 24-14 with less than a quarter left.

Then Flutie went to work. He went deep to Eric Moulds, who took it to the house for an electrifying 48-yard touchdown. Two defenders both went for the ball and missed, leaving Moulds with nothing but green in front of him after the catch. “I thought I had an interception, to tell you the truth,” Dolphins defensive back Brock Marion said.

"We needed a big play and something to spark us and Eric Moulds came up with it," Flutie said.

On Miami’s third play after that, Marino was sacked by Ted Washington and fumbled. Phil Hansen recovered on the Dolphins’ 13. Steve Christie’s field goal tied the game at 24-24. Miami went three and out after the kickoff, and the Bills opted to try to grind out a long drive and take the lead. There were seven runs, six by Antowain Smith, and two pass completions. The plays chewed up more than six minutes, and Christie put the Bills ahead just before the two-minute warning.

“It was real gratifying because I don’t think they give many people respect,” Bills’ tackle Jerry Ostroski said about the drive. “That’s just the way they walk around. That’s their swagger. That’s the persona they want to give off. That’s fine with me. They’re a very good football team, and there’s a good chance we’ll see them in the playoffs.”

Marino still had time to lead the Dolphins to a tie or win. But Hansen sacked him on Miami’s first play, and the next three passes were incomplete. The Bills took over on downs, and Christie kicked another field goal.

The Dolphins still had a handful of seconds left, and they gave everyone in the building a scare. Avery returned the kickoff 55 yards to the Bills’ 45. Then Marino hit O.J. McDuffie with a 41-yard pass, but he was tackled a few yards short of the potential winning score … and time ran out. “I saw no one was going for the ball, so I went for it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get into the end zone,” McDuffie said.

The fourth quarter collapse was tough for the Dolphins to swallow. “We didn’t make plays when we had to in order to put us in position to win,” Marino said. “In this league, you have to play hard the entire game and continue to make plays to win.”

The Bills had survived in winning their fifth straight game after starting the season 0-3. Buffalo moved into a tie for first in the AFC East with the win. The playoffs had become a realistic goal.

“We’re in excellent position; we just have to make the most of it,” Riemersma said. “We didn’t think we were an 0-3 team, and I hope that we’ve proven that so far. We know that, as we continue individually, our team is going to get better.”

“I need a drink,” Bills head coach Wade Phillips said after the game. He quickly added, “Dr. Pepper.”

Noteworthy: The Bills finished with a 313-296 edge in total yardage. … Flutie improved to 8-5 as an NFL starter. … Miami failed on its last seven third-down conversion attempts. … The Dolphins had allowed a total of eight touchdowns in their first seven games, only to give up three to the Bills. … This was the first time that Flutie and Johnson were involved in the same football game since 1984, when Flutie’s miracle pass for Boston College defeated Johnson’s Miami (Florida) team in a memorable college contest.

Legacy: Ostroski turned out to be a prophet when it came to the postseason. The Bills finished 10-6 for a wild-card spot, and took on the Dolphins in the opening round. Miami won a close 24-17 decision that was in doubt until the end.