The Best of One Bills Drive - Oct. 15, 2000

(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        OT      Final

San Diego (L, 0-7)       3           7          14        0          0          24

Buffalo (W, 3-3)           0          14         0          10         3          27

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Chargers – Carney 36-yard field goal

2 – Bills – Morris 32-yard run (Christie kick)

2 – Bills – Ostroski fumble recovery in end zone (Christie kick)

2 – Chargers – Harbaugh 60-yard pass to Conway (Carney kick)

3 – Chargers – Fazande 2-yard run (Carney kick)

3 – Chargers – Harbaugh 52-yard pass from Graham (Carney kick)

4 – Bills – Johnson 11-yard pass to Bryson (Christie kick)

4 - Bills – Christie 29-yard field goal

OT – Bills – Christie 46-yard field goal

Recap: No one knew it, but a terrific stretch in Bills history was coming to an end when this game was played.

As of 2000, the Bills hadn’t been to a Super Bowl since the 1993 season. Even so, the team had qualified for the playoffs four times in six years leading up to the 2000 season. That adds up to 10 trips to the playoffs in 12 years – a great run.

Buffalo had lost the ultimate heartbreaker to Tennessee to exit the postseason in January of 2000, but the team had started off quickly with a pair of wins to open the 2000 schedule. Then came losses to the Jets, Colts and Dolphins in short order. Next up for the Bills was a game against the winless Chargers – seemingly the perfect matchup for a team seeking to regain its footing. But San Diego had other ideas.

The first quarter almost was scoreless, but John Carney kicked a 36-yard field goal with 13 seconds left to put San Diego on the scoreboard first. The Bills responded almost instantly, as Sammy Morris ran 32 yards for the go-ahead score. Then Buffalo padded its lead in a very unusual way. Lineman Jerry Ostroski recovered a fumble by teammate Jonathan Linton in the San Diego end zone. Linton lost control of the ball while trying to carry it over the goal line while he was tackled. Ostroski spent seven seasons with the Bills; you won’t be surprised to know that this was the only touchdown of his pro career. In fact, he hadn’t scored a touchdown since playing pickup football in a backyard in his native Pottstown, Pa. “I just saw the ball sitting there loose and I thought I better jump on it,” he said.

But San Diego fought back. Quarterback Jim Harbaugh – who would coach these same Chargers a mere 24 years later - threw a 60-yard pass for a touchdown to a wide-open Curtis Conway to put the Chargers within striking distance. Then in the third quarter, San Diego added two more touchdowns, including another bomb – this time for 52 yards – from Harbaugh to Jeff Graham, who hurdled defender Keion Carpenter on his way to the end zone.

As you’d expect, the Bills’ fans weren’t happy … about this game and the ones that came before it. Buffalo backers directed most of their venom at quarterback Rob Johnson.

“Personally, I think it’s damn ridiculous,” Ostroski said about the booing. “It’s sad when a football team is excited to go on the road because they don’t want to play at home and get booed by their own fans and have their head coach called out and have their quarterback called out like that.”

But the Bills fought back. Johnson completed a touchdown pass to Shawn Bryson to get Buffalo to within three at 24-21. The tying points proved elusive. Johnson almost threw a game-ending interception in the last minute to Junior Seau, but the future Hall of Famer couldn’t hang on to the pass. That allowed Steve Christie to kick a tying 29-yard field goal with seven seconds left.

“We hadn’t played well all game, but when it was on the line, we made the plays and we got it into overtime,” Johnson said.

The level of drama went up in extra time when Neil Smith brought down Johnson on a pass attempt, giving the quarterback a separated shoulder in the process. On the next drive, the Chargers’ Harbaugh threw an interception to Henry Jones to give the Bills good field position. “That was a play they had been running all game,” Jones said. “They ran it twice in a row, and the first two times were in zone. That time we were in man to man. (Assistant coach) Ted Cottrell made a good call.”

Doug Flutie came on as the relief pitcher, and he received a big cheer. Flutie had been popular during his days in Buffalo, and on “Canada Day” he received an ovation from about 15,000 who crossed the border for the game. Flutie had been the Most Valuable Player in the Canadian Football League six times before coming to Buffalo. “You don’t want to let your teammates down,” he said about the situation. “You want to go in and give them the best opportunity to win – don’t make mistakes and make the couple of plays that you can.”

Flutie did exactly that, as he hit Peerless Price and Eric Moulds for first downs. Then it was Christie’s turn to save the day again, although he had a little help. Christie’s initial 41-yard kick hit the upright and bounced away, but the play had been blown dead by the officials on a penalty. Ironically, the penalty was on Ostroski. With the practice kick done, he struck from 46 yards out to give the Bills a morale-boosting 27-24 win.

“This is a sign of relief after three straight losses,” linebacker Keith Newman said. “We really needed a victory. We had some breakdowns on both sides of the ball but we stayed together as a team.”

Noteworthy: The Bills avoided losing four in a row for the first time since 1985. … Johnson had a busy day with his throwing arm, going 29 for 47 for 321 yards. He was sacked four times. Moulds caught a career-high 11 passes for 170 yards; he was targeted 16 different times. … Harbaugh finished 21 of 33 for 287 yards. Both Conway and Graham finished with more than 100 receiving yards. … First-round draft pick Erik Flowers of the Bills had the first sack of his career. … Bills guard Ruben Brown and offensive line coach Carl Mauck had a shouting match highlighted by Brown’s vigorous helmet toss at the ground. … Seau finished the game with 10 tackles and two assists. … The Chargers hadn’t completed two 50+ touchdown passes in a game since 1974.

Legacy: Flutie replaced the injured Johnson for the next four games, and the Bills won three of them. Then Johnson returned, and Buffalo lost four games in a row to fall out of the playoff picture. Flutie did start the final game of the season, and he was 20 for 25 for 366 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Seattle. It was Doug’s last appearance in a Buffalo uniform; he was cut by the Bills and signed with the Chargers in the offseason.

The 8-8 season had another casualty as Wade Phillips was fired as the Bills’ head coach. The team didn’t return to the postseason until the 2017 season. In other words, the drought was underway.