The Best of One Bills Drive - Oct. 23, 1988

(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 is scheduled for publication by Reedy Press around October 15. 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

New England (L, 3-5)  7        6        0        7        20

Buffalo (W, 7-1)           7        6        7       3        23

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Patriots – Flutie 12-yard pass to Fryar (Garcia kick)

1 – Bills – Riddick 1-yard run (Norwood kick)

2 – Bills – Norwood 30-yard field goal

2 – Patriots – Stephens 11-yard run (kick failed)

2 – Bills – Norwood 35-yard field goal

3 – Bills – Kelly 10-yard pass to Metzelaars (Norwood kick)

4 – Patriots – Perryman 1-yard run (Garcia kick)

4 – Bills – Norwood 33-yard field goal

Recap:

This was Buffalo’s first chance to take an in-person look at Doug Flutie. It wouldn’t be the last. The on-and-off relationship between man and the area would be intertwined for some time.

Flutie was a sensation coming out of Boston College. He won the Heisman Trophy for the Eagles in 1984, and is still remembered for throwing a miracle pass to beat Miami (Fla.) in the final regular-season game of the year. The Bills had the first overall draft pick in the spring of 1985, and a movement quickly began among their fans to use that choice on Flutie. However, the charismatic quarterback stopped that speculation when he signed a contract with the New Jersey Generals of the competing United States Football League.

(The Bills took defensive end Bruce Smith with the pick, and that worked out quite well.) When the USFL died, Flutie signed with the Chicago Bears for the 1986 season, where he wasn’t particularly effective.

Then in the middle of the 1987 season, he moved on to the New England Patriots, his home team if you will. Flutie only played in one game for the Pats that season. But in 1988, Doug was part of a crowded quarterback room that also included Steve Grogan and Tony Eason. Flutie received a chance to play in Week Five, and kept the starting job through the date of the trip to Rich Stadium.

Jim McMahon, the outspoken quarterback of the Bears who shared the position with the 5-foot-10 Flutie when they were teammates, noticed Doug’s play with New England. “Well, I see where America’s favorite midget is back again,” he said.

Flutie wasn’t greatly responsible for the October game’s closeness. The Bills had to take the blame for that, coming up flat against a team that should have been outclassed in its visit to Rich Stadium. The first series set the tone, as Patriots’ linebacker Andre Tippett stripped Kelly of the ball on a sack, and Garin Veris recovered. But Teddy Garcia of New England missed a short field goal.

Flutie displayed his skills by opening the scoring with a pass to wide receiver Irving Fryar. The Bills soon answered on an uncharacteristic 69-yard drive with no passes. The score went to the man who scored plenty of touchdowns from close range without the benefit of the not-yet-invented “Tush Push.” Robb Riddick was the team’s specialist near the goal line. In 1987 and 1988, he ran for 17 touchdowns; none of the plays went for more than two yards.

The game went back and forth. Scott Norwood’s two field goals for the Bills were offset by John Stephens’ scoring run. A missed extra point left the score tied at halftime. Buffalo’s biggest problems were self-inflected. The Bills had three turnovers in the first 30 minutes.

“Kent Hull came up to me and said, ‘God, as many times as we’ve turned it over, I can’t believe we’re in this ballgame,’” quarterback Jim Kelly said.

Buffalo regained the lead in the third quarter when Kelly connected with his favorite tall target, tight end Pete Metzelaars. The Patriots retied the game as Bob Perryman did an impression of Riddick by scoring from 1 yard out with about seven minutes left. The score was set up by a pass interference call on safety Dwight Drane, even though the pass looked uncatchable.

It had become one of those games in which the team that scores last wins. The Bills methodically moved the ball down the field in the final minutes, landing in field-goal position while draining the clock. Norwood provided the winning margin with a 33-yard field goal with 13 seconds left. The Patriots tried some verbal intimidation before that kick, but it didn’t bother Norwood. “I wasn’t really listening to them,” he said. “I’m out there concentrating. It’s not my job to listen. They stopped yelling after the field goal went through.”

“We were fortunate to win,” head coach Marv Levy said. “Besides good fortune, we had some good drives and made some plays too.”

Even though the weather conditions weren’t terrible (43 degrees with a 12 mph breeze), it wasn’t a day for passing. Flutie had a day to forget, as he was 5 of 16 for only 58 yards and two sacks. Kelly was better at 12 of 18 for 165 yards. Stephens (134 yards) and Thurman Thomas of the Bills (84 yards) set the tone of the game. Stephens became the first running back to gain 100 yards rushing in a game against the Bills in the 1988 season.

The win gave the Bills a 7-1 record, its best start since 1974 and good for a two-and a-half game lead in the AFC East. Even better - November hadn’t even arrived yet.

Noteworthy: Garcia had a difficult day as the Patriots’ kicker, missing three field goals to go with the extra point. He already had missed more extra points in eight games (five) than predecessor Tony Franklin had in a 10-year career (three). “I am in a slump. I just have to do something to get out of it,” he said. … Norwood was perfect on his kicks, improving to 22 of 25 on field goals for the season. … Offensive tackle Howard “House” Ballard, who checked in at 6-6 and 313 pounds, blocked a field goal by the Patriots. “We put a little barbecue sauce on the ball, told him it was a chicken wing, and he just grabbed it out of the air,” teammate Fred Smerlas joked. … The Bills had beaten the Patriots 16-14 on Norwood’s field goal with 11 seconds left earlier in the season.

Legacy: This was part of a six-game winning streak by the Bills that saw the team start the season 11-1. With little at stake, Buffalo lost three of its final four games. All of those losses came in road games. The Bills reached the playoffs and played in the AFC Championship Game for the first time in team history, losing in Cincinnati.

New England closed with a 6-2 spurt after the loss in Buffalo to finish 9-7. Garcia was 6 for 15 in field goals that season. Flutie started nine games for New England. He left after returning to a backup role in 1989, playing in Canada for eight seasons. The quarterback returned to the NFL by signing with the Bills for the 1998 season.