The Best of One Bills Drive: Oct. 5, 2003

(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 (https://reedypress.com/shop/one-bills-drive-the-buffalo-bills-greatest-home-games/). 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

Cincinnati (L, 1-4)               0       6        0      10        0          16

Buffalo (W, 3-2)                   3        0       10      3         6         22

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Bills – Lindell 27-yard field goal

2 – Bengals – Graham 39-yard field goal

2 – Bengals – Graham 37-yard field goal

3 – Bills – Lindell 38-yard field goal

3 – Bills – Bledsoe 9-yard pass to Henry (Lindell kick)

4 – Bengals – Johnson 16-yard run (Graham kick)

4 – Bengals – Graham 30-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Lindell 29-yard field goal

OT – Bills – Henry 2-yard run

Recap:

Who were these 2003 Bills, anyway? After four games, it was difficult to tell.

The Bills had added several free agents to improve their defense before the season, including linebacker Takeo Spikes, defensive tackle Sam Adams, safety Lawyer Milloy and linebacker Jeff Posey. Add those players to an offense led by Drew Bledsoe that was coming off a good 2002, and Buffalo had hopes of returning to its previous winning ways.

Those hopes looked realistic as the Bills opened the season with two impressive wins over New England and Jacksonville. But then they lost to Miami and Philadelphia in performances that were on the dreary side. Those last two games left Spikes feeling very frustrated.

“We’ve been exploited,” he said about the defense. “No one might not want to hear it but, however you want to look at it, we have. We will play better this week.”

If that weren’t enough motivation for Spikes, he would be going up against his old team, the Cincinnati Bengals, in Game Five. The linebacker had been one of the biggest free agent signings in team history when he agreed to a six-year, $32 million deal. No doubt Spikes had some extra motivation to play well against the Bengals, who came into the game at 1-3 under new head coach Marvin Lewis.

The first half was a defensive struggle. Buffalo got on the scoreboard late in the opening quarter on a Ryan Lindell field goal. The Bengals answered in the second quarter with a tying field goal by Shawn Graham, and later in the quarter he added a second field goal to give the Bengals a 6-3 lead. Along the way, Cincinnati lost the ball on a fumble and Graham missed a field goal. The Bengals completely dominated the second quarter but had squandered multiple scoring opportunities.

The first half was one of the poorest of Bledsoe’s career. He completed only 5 of 17 passes for a paltry 45 yards. The Bills defense had made the Cincinnati offense one-dimensional, holding the Bengals to 17 yards rushing on 14 carries. But overall, the Bills’ first half performance was dismal. “When we came in at halftime, I was embarrassed,” Mark Campbell said. “I was kind of getting in guys’ faces a little,” Eric Moulds said.

Buffalo tied the game on its first possession of the second half on Lindell’s field goal. Late in the third quarter Buffalo defensive end Aaron Schobel intercepted Jon Kitna’s pass that was tipped at the line of scrimmage and he returned it six yards to the Cincinnati 35-yard line.

Travis Henry took over from there. He ran the ball five consecutive times; the last was for nine yards and the go-ahead touchdown. Henry had taken a pain-killing injection prior to the game for a torn rib cartilage. “He’s a warrior,” Moulds said. “If we could get everyone on this team to play like this guy when he’s hurt, we can do great things.”

The Bengals rallied in the fourth quarter, as Rudi Johnson scored on a 16-yard run. The Cincinnati drive was kept alive by Coy Wire’s roughing-the-punter penalty. “We were trying to go after it and flip the field for our team and get some momentum going,” Wire said. “I didn’t get it and I take the blame for that. I felt bad putting our defense in that compromising position.”

The Bengals took the lead a few minutes after Johnson’s touchdown, when Graham was good on a 30-yard field goal attempt. It was looking like Wire might be the goat.   

With two minutes left in regulation time, Buffalo trailed 16-13 and faced a fourth-and-three at the Bengals’ 39-yard line. Bledsoe tossed the ball to Moulds in the flat and the All-Pro receiver raced 19 yards to the Cincinnati 20. “We call it ‘All Sticks,’ where every guy gets to the first-down marker and Drew picks who he wants to get the ball to,” Moulds said. That play set up Lindell for the tying field goal.

In overtime, Buffalo forced a Cincinnati punt, and then Bledsoe threw his two best passes of the game - a 20-yarder to tight end Campbell and a 28-yarder to Moulds to the Bengals’ 7-yard line. “They went to a Cover Three, and that’s going to leave the seam open,” Campbell said. “The defensive end dropped and tried to get a big piece of me and not let me up the seam real quick. Fortunately, I was able to elude him. … Our best players had to make the biggest plays. Fortunately, Eric Moulds dominated in the last quarter.”

A Bengals penalty and two Henry runs later, the Bills were victorious. “We wanted to score,” Henry said. “The guys up front wanted it. They blocked great. I took it in for the touchdown and the rest is history.”

“In order to win it we had to run it,” Gregg Williams, Bills’ head coach, said. “We had to run with an attitude. I believe our guys came out with more of a down-in-the-trenches, down-and-dirty, get-tough attitude in the second half.”

Then there was Spikes, who had won bragging rights over his pals on the other side of the line of scrimmage for at least a few months. He said the game was special for him because of his bonds with old teammates, but he had business to do.

“This was a big emotional game for us,” Spikes said. “We got the win. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Noteworthy: Moulds had nine catches for 99 yards. … Henry carried 25 times for 85 hard-fought rushing yards. … Bledsoe improved significantly in the second half to finish 19 of 35 for 211 yards and one touchdown. … The Buffalo offense was turnover-free but only converted 3 of 15 third downs. … Defensive back Antoine Winfield led the Bills’ defense with 12 tackles and Spikes had an excellent game with 11 tackles. … Kiitna was 26 of 44 for 225 yards with one interception. … Johnson rushed 20 times for 69 yards and the lone Bengals touchdown. … Former Bills’ defensive back Jeff Burris was knocked unconscious after a collision with Buffalo fullback Sam Gash. But after the game he was walking under his own power.

Legacy: Buffalo lost five of its next six games to see a promising season go by the wayside, and the team finished with a very disappointing 6-10 record. That performance led to the firing of head coach Gregg Williams. The Bengals improved from a 2-14 season in 2002 to 8-8.