The Throwback Game

[dave mcbride]

Totally disagree.  That defense was incredible and they could have went to and won the Super Bowl with Johnson.  They proved it on the field that day, clearly outslugging the Bowl bound Titans on their home field, a place where they had a huge advantage. The week before, they had totally embarrassed the Colts in a game that was not totally without meaning to Indy(they lost Cornelius Bennett in that game too).  In the next two games the Bills would have been playing a battered and tired Indy team they had just throttled and a Jags team that had long since peaked.  Both were easy marks for the Titans and it was evident at the time that the Bills and Titans were the two teams going into the playoffs with momentum to burn(thanks in great part to Johnson, I might add). 

 

The Rams, who struggled to score at home against a lesser Tampa defense in the NFC championship, would have really been stifled by the Bills.

 

The notion that they could not have won because of Johnson is nonsense.  Johnson didn't have a good career, but at the time Flutie magic had run it's course and though Johnson was a sack magnet he also did not turn the ball over much(Flutie had 5 TO's himself against Miami in the wildcard loss the year before) and he had a knack for moving the football late in the game, something Flutie had struggled with in numerous upset losses that year.

 

  Sound defensive teams had learned to simply focus on gap control and keeping Flutie in the pocket, where he was nothing short of awful that year.  In home upset losses to the Raiders and Giants that year, the defenses didn't even attempt to rush Flutie and watched him helplessly one hop throws from the pocket until the clock expired and laughed about how easy it was after the game.  They  funneled the receivers to the sideline making Flutie beat them with the out throws he simply could not make.  In short, the Bills offense was totally neutered against smart defenses, which made him an easy mark in the playoffs.  People dogged Johnson, but the reality was that had Flutie played as scheduled, the Titans would have expected it, game planned it and quite possibly shut the Bills the f' out.

 

The sad part of the whole story is not just the HR throwback itself, it's that the coach wasn't strong enough to manage his QB situation.  It could have been a great 1-2 combo.  The two QB's brought totally different skills to the table and they tore up the defensive game plan that teams designed for the other.

 

In combination, they could have been a Woodley/Strock type combo.  But Wade was nowhere near coach enough to pull that off.  For Chrissake, they would have been home resting up for a divisional matchup at the Ralph had Wade been able to rotate the two, not on the road in the wildcard round.  I mean, give me those players and Bill Parcells on that sideline that year and there would be a Lombardi in the case at One Bills Drive.

695553[/snapback]

 

 

i really think the bills would have been shellacked by indy. over the course of the 90s, the bills were a pretty bad dome stadium team. and when they played *at* indy in 1999, they lost 31-14 in a game that wasn't even that close.

 

as well, regarding jax "peaking," they lost twice all year, and both times to tennessee, who clearly had their number. that's who they lost to in the playoffs too. no one else had their number that year. the previous week, they won 62-7 against miami.

[SnakeOiler]

Great story about the security guard --- now THAT's funny!

 

I'll always remember rob johnson running around at the end without his shoe to complete a pass.

[C.Biscuit97]

Nice analysis...the thing I will always remember, was it was on the day that I got my new huge screen tv....I had to friggin work, and watch it on video tape later that evening.  I avoided knowing the outcome all day, and just as I am leaving work, this mildy retarded securiy guard at my job, says, "Congratulations on your Bills"...I was so pissed!  The guy had never said a word to me about sports before, but he chose this moment to blow it for me.  He told me they had won, he had seen the end, he said, on a tv at nearby resteraunt, on his lunch break....

 

Fug, I thought, at least I can go home and watch it still, knowing they are going to win...so I am watching, feeling cocky the whole time, because I know the Bills are going to win, and I am sure that the winner of this game is SB bound...when Johnson leads them to the FG, I am thinking, "is this finally, the beginging of the RJ era, can all the Flutopians just shut it now!"  When the Titans run the "HOMERUNE THROWBACK", they showed a close-up of Wade Phillips, looking confident that it will be called back...knowing the Bills won (but not telling my girlfriend I know, becuause she will give me crap for staying up late to watch) I turn to her, all smug like and say "no big deal, that is going to get called back."

 

They keep showing the play over and over, while the officials review it.  Thinking about the special coital celebration we will partake in (always better after a big win) I explain, in my condescending way,  that the officials are often maligned, but they usually get it right.  I explain to her the rule, dazzling her with my incredible football knowledge, that the ball clearly went forward, which is a no-no!  She isn't convinced looking at the replay...."no matter" I tell her, I am right, the refs will get it right....

 

All I can say, there was no coital celebrations, I just went to bed, very bitter, wanting to kill the security guard at work...one of the most stinging losses ever, for me....

695490[/snapback]

 

That story is both tragic and hilarious. Good story.

 

I just was home for college break and was watching it with the family. As soon as the game was over, I got calls from three of my boys at college. I just picked up to swear at them and hung up. To borrow a phrase, that game was the ultimate stomach punch game. The feeling of being so happy and then just feeling like you got hit in the stomach. The game also showed the Bills, including Bruce, on the sidelines after the field goal so fired up and talking about the heart of a champion.

[IDBillzFan]

Nice analysis...the thing I will always remember, was it was on the day that I got my new huge screen tv....I had to friggin work, and watch it on video tape later that evening.  I avoided knowing the outcome all day, and just as I am leaving work, this mildy retarded securiy guard at my job, says, "Congratulations on your Bills"...I was so pissed!

695490[/snapback]

The game was played at the same time as my wife's grandmother's funeral, about 90 minutes from home. I set the game up to record and went to the funeral. After the funeral, we all went back to someone's house to eat and drink for whatever reason we find that a necessary rite, and it never dawned on me that her backwoods relatives would have the game on...but they did.

 

My wife stopped me from going into the house until the game was over because she knew I wanted to see the game blindly when we got home. A few minutes later, she came out and said "It's okay. It's over. You'll be happy. Come on in."

 

And so I did, just as they came back from commercial and the Bills were kicking off to Houston.

 

The ability to restrain myself as I watched them give the points to Houston was clearly driven by the hand of my wife's dead grandmother being extended from the heavens to cover my mouth, because the profanities I was due to unload would not have gone over well with the cake-eating mourners.

 

To my credit, I still went home and watched the game. But I severed the grandmother's hand off my mouth with beer.

[MRW]

The throwback was a different kind of hurt. When Christie put us up that late nobody considered the Titans might still win, and absolutely no one could have predicted they would win in that fashion. Then as many pointed out the Titans would go onto the super bowl, a destiny many feel we would have had. To sum it up take the complete opposite feeling the comeback gave me and that’s pretty much how I felt that day.

695596[/snapback]

Of course I have no evidence to back this up, but after the field goal I turned to my brother and said "We still have to kick off, let's not celebrate yet." The kickoff coverage that year had been quite sloppy and if I'm remembering correctly we had a couple of scary returns already that game. I didn't think it would actually happen but I was pretty nervous before the kickoff.

[BADOLBILZ]

i really think the bills would have been shellacked by indy. over the course of the 90s, the bills were a pretty bad dome stadium team.  and when they played *at* indy in 1999, they lost 31-14 in a game that wasn't even that close.

 

as well, regarding jax "peaking," they lost twice all year, and both times to tennessee, who clearly had their number.  that's who they lost to in the playoffs too. no one else had their number that year. the previous week, they won 62-7 against miami.

695796[/snapback]

 

To me, that team had a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than the teams that went to XXVI or XXVIII and that is what was so disappointing. People tend to look back and reshape the situation based on events that unfolded later, like Indy becoming a dominant team(which they weren't at the time, without Bennett their defense was AWFUL) or Johnson turning into a dud (which hadn't been the case with regard to his play on the field). It's also worth noting that the Jags had a incredibly weak schedule that year. It wasn't that the Titans had some kind of lucky number, it was that the Titans were the only good opponent the Jags had after the first month of the season. Trust me, I remember that season like no other. It's lost in the bickering between Flutie/Johnson backers, but that season was the one that got away and it hasn't been the same since.

[TC in St. Louis]

I remember standing in my living room taking a congratulatory call from my friend Todd, and saying, There are still 16 seconds left, there is time for the refs to screw the Bills. After the play, Todd said "that was a forward pass." He's a vikings fan. He was telling the truth.

 

The play on Price was a joke. He caught the ball in bounds. Holding on a field goal? A gift. The spot on McNair? Another joke. That game was a classic, if not THE classic case of Las Vegas paying off the officials. No way that game wasn't fixed. No friggin' way. The fix was on.

[2003Contenders]

To me, that team had a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than the teams that went to XXVI or XXVIII and that is what was so disappointing.  People tend to look back and reshape the situation based on events that unfolded later, like Indy becoming a dominant team(which they weren't at the time, without Bennett their defense was AWFUL) or Johnson turning into a dud (which hadn't been the case with regard to his play on the field).  It's also worth noting that the Jags had a incredibly weak schedule that year.  It wasn't that the Titans had some kind of lucky number, it was that the Titans were the only good opponent the Jags had after the first month of the season.  Trust me, I remember that season like no other.  It's lost in the bickering between Flutie/Johnson backers, but that season was the one that got away and it hasn't been the same since.

696208[/snapback]

 

 

Excellent points... And to those still crying about the switch from Flutie to RJ, let's not forget how divisive Flutie had become by that point.

 

I really think that he had lost some of his teammates in the lockerroom by his refusal to accept blame for losses -- and accepting the credit for that "Flutie Magic" in 10-7 type victories (of which there were many that year), when the thanks really should have gone to the fine defense. Recall the week leading up to the game that Andre Reed (Yes, I know he was at the end of his line -- but still...) had become quite vocal in his contempt for Flutie, and there were still people (many of them right here on this board) that blamed Flutie for hanging Thurman our to dry on a floater screen pass that wound up sidelining Thurman for most of the season.

 

Not trying to spark the Flutie/RJ debate again, just trying to remind everyone what the real atmosphere was like at the time.

[dave mcbride]

To me, that team had a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than the teams that went to XXVI or XXVIII and that is what was so disappointing.   People tend to look back and reshape the situation based on events that unfolded later, like Indy becoming a dominant team(which they weren't at the time, without Bennett their defense was AWFUL) or Johnson turning into a dud (which hadn't been the case with regard to his play on the field).  It's also worth noting that the Jags had a incredibly weak schedule that year.  It wasn't that the Titans had some kind of lucky number, it was that the Titans were the only good opponent the Jags had after the first month of the season.  Trust me, I remember that season like no other.  It's lost in the bickering between Flutie/Johnson backers, but that season was the one that got away and it hasn't been the same since.

696208[/snapback]

badol, i'd be more sympathetic to your argument if the bills hadn't lost 44-20 he subsequent season at indy in a game in which any chance of a playoff appearance was on the line. he bills simply were not a good dome team, and hadn't been for a decade. there's no shame in that, but all the same it's the truth.

[Peter]

badol, i'd be more sympathetic to your argument if the bills hadn't lost 44-20 he subsequent season at indy in a game in which any chance of a playoff appearance was on the line. he bills simply were not a good dome team, and hadn't been for a decade.  there's no shame in that, but all the same it's the truth.

699465[/snapback]

 

That team was not a good team?!?

[dave mcbride]

That team was not a good team?!?

699468[/snapback]

i said they were not a good *dome* team, which they weren't. they had a mediocre to sub-mediocre dome record going back to the late 80s (below .500).

[apuszczalowski]

SHUT UP......WHO CARES...they both suck and won nothing

695592[/snapback]

Finally,

Someone who is making some sense around here