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2nd greatest regular season comeback in NFL History


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Very few people recall the 2nd greatest regular season comeback in NFL history. From 26 points behind to win:

Buffalo 37, Indianapolis 35 : Sept. 21, 1997 at Buffalo

 

I was so excited that day when Todd Collins brought us back after being down so much.

 

We need to petition the NFL channel or ESPN Classic to reair that game. It was awesome!

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Only the second half. (Unless you want to relive the leading role Collins played in the 26-0 start ...)

Is it any different than watching the 1st half of "The Comeback"? Frank Reich was'nt exactly having a stellar game at that point either.

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Very few people recall the 2nd greatest regular season comeback in NFL history. From 26 points behind to win:

Buffalo 37, Indianapolis 35 : Sept. 21, 1997 at Buffalo

 

I was so excited that day when Todd Collins brought us back after being down so much.

 

We need to petition the NFL channel or ESPN Classic to reair that game. It was awesome!

 

Very few people recall that game because it was one of only 6 wins the Bills had that season, and it was the final season for Levy & Tasker.

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Is it any different than watching the 1st half of "The Comeback"? Frank Reich was'nt exactly having a stellar game at that point either.

First half of the Comeback was all about Houston's unstoppable offense. Reich actually moved the team on a couple of drives, and I'm not blaming McDowell's pick-six to start the second half on him. First part of that Colts game was all about Collins' deer-in-the-headlights pose every time a defender got within five feet of him. Brutally bad, even more so in person. Lucky for us, the Colts ended up sucking worse.

 

Er, maybe not so lucky. That loss helped them get Peyton Manning.

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I recall Antowain Smith breaking through for a TD that gave Buffalo an 8 point lead but also gave Indianapolis time to come back for a potentially game-tying TD. If Smith had only kneeled down at the 1, the game would have been over. Indy in fact did score a TD and almost tied the game on a two point conversion.

 

Also, I believe Kurt Shultz or someone should have been called for PI during the two point conversion attempt.

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Does anyone remember Kelly being one of the color guys for that game? I believe that when things were going bad Pat Maguire started ribbing Kelly about coming back for the Bills. His answer? "Not with that offensive line." This was around the time that there were rumors that Kelly would be coming back to play for the Ravens.

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Does anyone remember Kelly being one of the color guys for that game? I believe that when things were going bad Pat Maguire started ribbing Kelly about coming back for the Bills. His answer? "Not with that offensive line." This was around the time that there were rumors that Kelly would be coming back to play for the Ravens.

Wasn't that the game where people in the stands in front of the pressbox started turning around and begging Kelly to go suit up? There were so many ugly home games that year, I forget ...

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Wasn't that the game where people in the stands in front of the pressbox started turning around and begging Kelly to go suit up? There were so many ugly home games that year, I forget ...

 

You are probably right. That probably triggered Paul's comments.

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Very few people recall the 2nd greatest regular season comeback in NFL history. From 26 points behind to win:

Buffalo 37, Indianapolis 35 : Sept. 21, 1997 at Buffalo

 

I was so excited that day when Todd Collins brought us back after being down so much.

 

We need to petition the NFL channel or ESPN Classic to reair that game. It was awesome!

I was at that game. I believe Jim Kelly was announcing the game at that time and at halftime a lot of fans were so fed up with Collins in the first half they were motioning for Kelly to come back.

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Wasn't that the game where people in the stands in front of the pressbox started turning around and begging Kelly to go suit up? There were so many ugly home games that year, I forget ...

 

When I still had my seasons in 2007, I was beggin him to suit-up when I saw him on the sidelines each game... :thumbsup:

 

It's funny how that 10 years later, I still felt the same way :w00t:

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When I still had my seasons in 2007, I was beggin him to suit-up when I saw him on the sidelines each game... :thumbsup:

 

It's funny how that 10 years later, I still felt the same way :w00t:

 

 

Half the board would run him out of town midway through the season.

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I recall Antowain Smith breaking through for a TD that gave Buffalo an 8 point lead but also gave Indianapolis time to come back for a potentially game-tying TD. If Smith had only kneeled down at the 1, the game would have been over. Indy in fact did score a TD and almost tied the game on a two point conversion.

 

Also, I believe Kurt Shultz or someone should have been called for PI during the two point conversion attempt.

I do'nt remember that happening with Schultz, but I do remember Antowain Smith's TD run, which would have helped had he just fallen down at the 1 so the Bills could run the clock out.

 

I also remember Henry Jones fumbling on a punt return in the first half.

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I was at that game. It was Alumni weekend that weekend and my brother and I were attending the events. Instead of using our normal season tickets (upper level, 50-yard line), we used the tickets from the alumni. That put us in the lower corner of the endzone, in position to see Smith run it in for the final Bills score.

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Does anyone remember Kelly being one of the color guys for that game? I believe that when things were going bad Pat Maguire started ribbing Kelly about coming back for the Bills. His answer? "Not with that offensive line." This was around the time that there were rumors that Kelly would be coming back to play for the Ravens.

Remember when kelly got here and how he harped on improving not only the offensive line but how the existing o-line played? I thought he was unjustly heavy handed with Ballard, but the point is that great quarterbacks like Kelly know that the bottom line is they don't go anywhere without a great offensive line. Its the number one criteria for success. We have changed our offensive line and should hope for a killer draft result with our rookies. Our success depends mostly on how the o-line performs.

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Very few people recall the 2nd greatest regular season comeback in NFL history. From 26 points behind to win:

Buffalo 37, Indianapolis 35 : Sept. 21, 1997 at Buffalo

 

I was so excited that day when Todd Collins brought us back after being down so much.

 

We need to petition the NFL channel or ESPN Classic to reair that game. It was awesome!

That was an awesome game. I remember watching on the Sunday Ticket in my house in Atlanta and running out onto my front yard with my buddies screaming like we had just won the Super Bowl. My ex wife was going to have our first child a week later.

 

My daughter is now close to 12, I have two boys right behind her, have been divorced for over a year, but still LOVE the Bills. The more things change the more they stay the same. Memories from games like that are reasons that we all keep watching and loving the Bills my friends. Here's to this year being the year WE TURN IT AROUND!!!

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Please, some of us are trying to black out and totally forget the Todd Collins era in Buffalo. He was the great Heir Appararent to Jim Kelly. How did that work out?

About as good as the Rob Johnson era.

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Is it any different than watching the 1st half of "The Comeback"? Frank Reich was'nt exactly having a stellar game at that point either.

 

the defense was the biggest problem of that first half

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