The Best of One Bills Drive - Sept. 3, 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       Final

Tennessee (L, 0-1)       0          6          0          7          13

Buffalo (W, 1-0)          0          7          3          6          16

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team – Play

2 – Bills – Johnson 15-yard pass to Price (Christie kick)

2 – Titans – Del Greco 38-yard field goal

2 – Titans – Del Greco 27-yard field goal

3 – Bills – Christie 42-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Christie 41-yard field goal

4 – Titans – George 2-yard run (Del Greco kick)

4 – Bills – Christie 33-yard field goal

Recap: Someone in the office of the National Football League had a sense of humor.

In a playoff game in January of 2000, the Bills suffered one of the most painful losses in the history of the franchise. On the last play of the game, the Tennessee Titans scored the winning touchdown on a kickoff return. It’s become known as “Home Run Throwback” or “The Music City Miracle.”

Imagine the reaction then when the 2000 NFL schedule came out. The Bills were assigned to open the season against those same Titans. And if anyone missed the point, the contest was scheduled to begin at 8:35 p.m. – so that a national television audience could watch the rematch.

“There’s no question that it’s going to be an emotional environment,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said before the game. “It’s a tough place to play as it is. It’s a tough place to get in and out of. They’re extremely loud. We expect that. We’ve prepared for that.”

Sure enough, the two teams played another close game, with some last-minute heroics on both sides. However, there was no repeat of what happened earlier in the year.

This one started out slowly, at least in terms of offense. Neither side had possession of the football for more than five plays in the first 10 minutes of the game. Then the Bills finally put together some first downs, with three penalties helping the cause. Eventually Rob Johnson threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Peerless Price early in the second quarter to open the scoring. Tennessee answered with a pair of field goals by Al Del Greco, the second of which came with 11 seconds left in the half.

In the third quarter, the first five possessions ended in punts. With four minutes left in the period, Buffalo only had one first down in a drive but was close enough to try a 42-yard field goal. Christie’s kick padded the lead to 10-6. That was followed by another Titans’ punt, and another Christie field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

But the score was followed by a 57-yard kickoff return from Derrick Mason to the Buffalo 35. The Titans picked up a pair of first downs to move into the red zone, but gave up the ball on downs. The Bills’ offense went three-and-out, and a pass interference call put the ball on the 2-yard line. Eddie George ran it in, and the kick tied the game. If the Bills needed more bad news, starting quarterback Rob Johnson had to leave the game with a leg injury.

After an exchange of punts, backup QB Alex Van Pelt teamed up with wide receiver Eric Moulds for the biggest play of the game. A short pass turned into a 36-yard gain to put the Bills in field-goal range. After three plays, Christie converted again, and the Bills had a 16-13 lead with 35 seconds left.

“I’ve been doing this for a while,” Van Pelt said about his relief performance. “It’s the same thing that goes on in practice. You make your read, you make your throws.”

Yet after last season, no one thought it was over. Sure enough, Mason struck again with a 52-yard kick return to the Tennessee 49. A nine-yard pass from Steve McNair to George put the Titans a bit closer, but they ran out of time to do anything but try a long field goal. Craig Hentrich, usually the team’s punter, missed from 60 yards, and the Bills had won their opener. Barely.

After the game, it was hard not to think about what had happened eight months earlier.

"It felt like that game all over again, but we didn't want to live that out," Bills defensive end Marcellus Wiley said. "It was, 'Here we go again,' especially when he kept running. Everybody was like, 'You've got to be kidding me.' But lightning doesn't strike twice, and I don't think they deserved two miracles."

The Bills defense turned in a superb performance, holding Tennessee to only 172 yards – 53 on the ground. Buffalo also caught a couple of breaks when two passes for what looked like big gains were dropped by Titans’ receivers.

"That's a play a professional has to make. There's no excuse for a dropped ball like that," Frank Wycheck said of his drop. "It's a tough loss. It's going to sting. And it should sting.”

This could have been a chance for Wade Phillips, the Bills’ head coach, to gloat a little at the sliver of revenge that beating the Titans caused, but he declined. “I don’t live in the past,” he said.

Noteworthy: Van Pelt was forced to play in relief of Johnson because Doug Flutie was only available in an emergency. Flutie was recovering from a torn groin muscle. … Johnson was sacked five times in the game. He led the Bills in rushing for the day with 60 yards. … Tennessee had 15 possessions and did not pick up a first down in eight of them. Going 2 for 12 on third-down situations didn’t help much. The Titans didn’t do themselves any favors with 12 penalties for 112 yards. … It was the Bills’ first game since 1988 in which they didn’t have Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed or Bruce Smith in their lineup. … Signmakers had fun with the rematch. One called the game-winner in January “Home Run Throw Up,” while another’s effort read “NFL – No Forward Laterals.”

Legacy: The Bills went on to have a streaky, inconsistent season from that point. After starting with two wins, Buffalo lost four out of five to fall under .500. The team won four in a row to get back into the playoff race, but then lost four straight games to fall out of it for good. The 8-8 record wasn’t satisfactory for owner Ralph Wilson, who fired Phillips after the season. Oddly, Phillips was replaced by the Titans’ defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams.

The Titans took the opening night loss well, winning their next eight games and finishing with a 13-3 record.