The Best of One Bills Drive - Sept. 20, 1987

(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

Houston (L, 1-1)             3       14      3       10     30

Buffalo (W, 1-1)              3       10      0       21     34

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

1 – Bills - Norwood 45-yard field goal

1 – Oilers – Zendejas 52-yard field goal

2 – Oilers – Moon 2-yard pass to Hill (Zendejas kick)

2 – Bills – Norwood 38-yard field goal

2 – Oilers – Rozier 8-yard run (Zendejas kick)

2 – Bills – Kelly 11-yard pass to Riddick (Norwood kick)

3 – Oilers – Zendejas 27-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Kelly 9-yard pass to Reed (Norwood kick)

4 – Oilers – Moon 12-yard pass to Givens (Zendejas kick)

4 – Oilers – Zendejas 30-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Riddick 2-yard run (Norwood kick)

4 – Bills – Kelly 10-yard pass to Harmon (Norwood kick)

It was a week in which what was happening on the field of an NFL game was secondary to what was happening off the field.

The National Football League and its Players Association were having little luck coming together to reach a collective bargaining agreement. The players planned to call a strike shortly after the second week of the season on September 22, once they had collected a couple of game checks. The league was planning to resume the schedule at some point through the use of “replacement players,” who weren’t members of the Players Association. No one had the slightest idea what might happen from there.

Coach Marv Levy of the Bills opted to take things one step at a time. “I have elected not to concern myself with a strike,” he said. “That’s burying my head in the sand, I guess.”

Therefore, a cloud of uncertainty surrounded what might be the last “normal” week of games. Even so, the Bills were very conscious of the need to avoid an 0-2 start to the season. Buffalo had lost its opener to the Jets the week before the game with the Oilers. Quarterback Jim Kelly also felt some pressure as he was the central figure in the team’s effort to reverse its losing ways. The Bills had lost four games in 1986 by seven points or less, and in four of them Kelly had thrown costly interceptions late in the game. He had yet to lead the Bills to a come-from-behind victory in the fourth quarter – the hallmark of a great quarterback.

Speaking of talented passers, the Oilers had one of their own in Warren Moon. He had led Houston to a win in its opener over the Rams. Moon was a main reason why the Oilers had hopes of finishing the season with a winning record for the first time since 1980.

The game started slowly in what was expected to be a shootout between these two pass-happy quarterbacks. The teams traded first-quarter field goals.

Houston was the first to find the end zone early in the second quarter. Moon found Drew Hill alone for a two-yard touchdown. Buffalo responded with a Scott Norwood field goal. The Oilers extended their lead to 17-6 with an 8-yard scoring run by Mike Rozier that culminated a 71-yard drive.

Kelly soon revved up the Bills’ offense. He completed 8 of 10 passes and with only six seconds left in the first half he tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Robb Riddick to cut Houston’s lead to four points. The Bills’ defense in the first half had held the Oilers passing game in check, allowing only 24 yards. But Buffalo was getting gashed on the ground. Houston had more than 100 rushing yards on 20 carries.

The highlight of the third quarter was a brawl between Bruce Smith and Darryl Talley of the Bills and Oilers offensive tackle Doug Williams and most of his offensive line mates. The three players were ejected from the game. “It looked as though they were trying to provoke a fight. We lost Miss America, and they lost Ma Kettle,” Bills coach Marv Levy said.

Following the scuffle Houston stretched its lead to 20-13 with a Tony Zendejas field goal.

The fourth quarter was a Texas shootout, staged in Buffalo. The Bills scored first to tie the game at 20, as Kelly passed nine yards to Andre Reed. The Oilers answered immediately when Ernest Givins was in the end zone on a 12-yard completion from Moon.

Kelly’s penchant for key interceptions then bit him again. On the first play after Houston’s touchdown, he threw a pass that was intercepted by safety Jeff Donaldson. The Oilers converted that miscue into a field goal to take a 10-point lead with only 4:52 remaining. The situation looked bleak for Buffalo, but it also represented an opportunity for the team to flip the script about winning close games.

It took Kelly all of 87 seconds and five plays to move the Bills 80 yards, with Robb Riddick finishing the drive on a short run for the score. The Bills defense stood tall and forced a three-and-out by Houston. Kelly then worked some magic. He completed five of six in driving the Bills 54 yards for the winning score. Harmon caught the game-winner with 57 seconds left.    

“In my heart and soul, I wanted to show all my teammates, fans and press that Jim Kelly is a winner. In the end we showed that we had a little more heart and soul than they did,” Kelly said. “With five minutes to go, I could just hear 60,000 people saying, ‘Kelly lost a chance to win because of another one of his interceptions.’ … I wanted the chance to come back and be able to put that ball in the end zone and win it. To tell you the truth, that whole drive down there I didn’t want a field goal. I didn’t want to tie the game; I wanted to win it.”

“He certainly got the albatross off from around his neck. That’s why they pay the quarterbacks like Marino and Kelly $1 million a year. They can win the game for you,” Fred Smerlas said.

Under the circumstances, any euphoria had to be short-lived. The usual week-to-week routine of the football was about to come to an emphatic halt, and no one was sure what would replace it.   

“Everybody’s happy with the win, especially the way we won it, coming from behind,” said John Kidd, the Bills’ player representative. “And as that momentum gets going, I think it would be a lot better, as we go into the week, knowing that we had a game against Dallas this weekend instead of wondering whether there’s going to be a strike.”

“It's like a cloud … impending doom. Here we are, feeling like we can get over the hurdle on the football field. But we can’t get over the hurdle in the conference rooms,” Smerlas said. “And if the scabs come in, they’re dead men. Just look at it this way, if the truckers went on strike and they had scabs come in, how many new lily pads would there be in Lake Erie?”

Noteworthy: It was Kelly’s first fourth quarter comeback as the quarterback of the Bills. He completed 26 of 43 passes for 293 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.  … Chris Burkett caught seven passes for 115 yards. … Harmon caught eight passes for 82 yards and chipped in 46 rushing yards. … The 64 points by both teams were the most scored at Rich Stadium since 1979. … Rozier rushed for a career-high 150 yards, the most by an Oilers running back since Earl Campbell’s 186 yards against Seattle in 1981. … It was Smerlas’ 110^th start at nose tackle for Buffalo.

Legacy: The players went on strike but the owners – after a week of preparational work - countered by playing games with replacement players. That charade lasted for three games and then the players returned to the field without a new contract. After two more years of failed negotiations, the players eventually decertified their union and took their issues to court – where they won several legal victories. … Buffalo finished the season with a 7-8 record, but were 6-6 with the regulars and the future was pointing up. … Kelly led another fourth-quarter comeback in his next game, when games with the regular players resumed, an overtime win in Miami. Kelly made his first Pro Bowl at the conclusion of the season.