No football today, so here's Bills-Raiders 1991 (regular season matchup)

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

 

[Merle]

I remember hearing an interview with one of the players after they got back to Buffalo after that game (may have been Thurman Thomas), who said that if Norwood had missed that last kick in OT, they would have dropped him out of the plane over the Grand Canyon on the way home!  😉

[Buffalo Boy]

   Got my second Shingles shot yesterday and feel like crap,  wife’s out of town, perfect way to spend an afternoon.

   Interesting to listen to Trumpy and Criqui call the game. No fluf, no BS, some serious criticism….. “ Scott Norwouldn’t” 

    Kelly looked like crap too with tons of over throws.

   Thanks for the share

Edited September 5, 2021 by Buffalo Boy

[Another Fan]

Scott pulled himself together enough when it mattered but umm that game did him no favors to fans who say he was a solid kicker overall.

 

 

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this is the only road victory the Bills had against the Raiders?  I still don't think they won in Oakland...  this was the L.A Raiders 

[benderbender]

My classroom that year had a Bo Jackson poster.

.

I remember classmates telling me that Buffalo was screwed because they had:

2 sport superstar Bo Jackson

SB champ Marcus Allen

SB champ Roger Craig

SB and World Champion relay runner Willie Gault

Future hall of famer Howie Long

SB champion Ronnie Lott

 

[Ralonzo]

In retrospect a really sloppy game.

Raiders were a bunch of dirty ****ers of course. 
Refs were really into the home cooking.

Thurman put Ronnie Lott right on his back and on the bench for one long delay.

And Norwood broke.

[Bferra13]

This is the way the game was supposed to be played. Thanks for the share.

[strive_for_five_guy]

10 hours ago, benderbender said:

My classroom that year had a Bo Jackson poster.

.

I remember classmates telling me that Buffalo was screwed because they had:

2 sport superstar Bo Jackson

SB champ Marcus Allen

SB champ Roger Craig

SB and World Champion relay runner Willie Gault

Future hall of famer Howie Long

SB champion Ronnie Lott

 

Your classmates clearly didn’t know much, Bo played his last NFL game a year prior!

 

He was an unbelievable athlete before his hip injury, though.

[davefan66]

That was a fun game to watch.  Usually watch the big wins from those years, interesting to watch them struggle as badly as they did.  Norwood...wow.  Kelly did not have a good day.  Raiders late hits and punching Reed over the middle all game.  
 

One interesting take away was how Kelly seemed to force the ball.  Ball speed wasn’t that great.  Wonder if he was hurt that day.  Josh is effortless in ball speed and distance.  Such a difference.  Once Josh has the football smarts (he’s well on his way) to go with his physicality, it’s going to be awesome.  

[Big Turk]

Is that the game where Nate Odomes stole the ball from the WR along the sidelines and ran it back for a TD?

[Ralonzo]

He ran it back to set up the game winning chip shot field goal for Norwood with :15 left in regulation, which is how the Bills went on to win in overtime. That and the refs called a second (in the game) “ball moved” false start on the try. Kick would have been good from the original LOS.

[Bferra13]

Man, this was right before I remember watching Bills' games as a kid. Freakin Norwood was a brutal kicker. I see everyone say, "he was a solid kicker other than the SB miss." Every old game I watch with him he looks miserable.

[Dr. K]

This was far from Norwood's only bad game. He was not a good kicker for a long time. 

[gomper]

I can't find it but the Van Miller call at the end of the Norwood FG attempt " in the twightlight of Southern California " was almost poetry. 

[WotAGuy]

Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed watching this game that I remember all too well. 
 

The amazing thing to me was how few commercial breaks there were back then. There were a couple TDs that they didn’t go to commercial after. Even though the recording didn’t include the commercials for the most part, the number of breaks compared to today’s broadcasts is stark. 

[JohnNord]

On 9/5/2021 at 2:23 PM, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

 

This is the game when I knew Scott Norwood was finished as a Buffalo Bill.  He nearly lost this game on multiple occasions.  He declined quickly after 1988 - to the point that having him kick 47 yarder on grass in SB25 was probably less than 50/50.
 

To his credit he did make a big kick in the playoffs, but it was clear that at this point he was a liability for the team

[Charles Romes]

I can’t believe they kept Norwood into 1991. Not only was he putrid, they needed a whole additional roster spot - on a super bowl contender - for a kickoff specialist.  
 

this was one of my favorite games as a fan. Nothing went our way, it looked like a loss… but just keep hanging in there. 

[JohnNord]

1 minute ago, Charles Romes said:

I can’t believe they kept Norwood into 1991. Not only was he putrid, they needed a whole additional roster spot - on a super bowl contender - for a kickoff specialist.  
 

this was one of my favorite games as a fan. Nothing went our way, it looked like a loss… but just keep hanging in there. 

He dropped off fast.  All-Pro in 1988, average in 1989, to below average in 1990.  

 

I always wondered what would have happened had Polian brought in legit competition for Norwood after his pedestrian 1989 season.  Back then teams seemed to be less proactive with personnel moves so and gave players more time. 
 

The fact that Brad Daluiso was the KOS was a pretty big indictment of Norwood’s declining ability.  

[mathja]

The bills might’ve been buried that day if not for Al Edwards kickoff return for a touchdown when they were down 10-0. I watched that play and I re-watched the instant replays five or six times. Absolutely textbook block by Steve Tasker because he got in front of the player he blocked. The touchdown completely changed Buffalo’s energy, that’s easy to see on video. 

 

But… if all that happened in 2021, the play probably gets called back for helmet-to-helmet contact by Tasker. If it was a college game, he probably would’ve been thrown out. 
 

It’s almost physically impossible to make a textbook block or tackle at full speed in the open field. I don’t know how the NFL accounts for this, but it’s already ruined some games and will definitely ruin some more. (The playing game vs the Texans comes to mind). 
 

I’m going to watch once more to see if I think Tasker could have made the block and avoided the helmet clash. 
 

Update: Just watched again. Watch the 3rd replay, the one from up close. It might be legit targeting. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by mathja

[Hellcamino]

I was at this game.  it made the cover of S.I. that week!