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describe the comeback game


hootie1

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I remember watching it with my father-in-law. Big German who knew nothing of football. After the Bills started to come back he asked my how many points for a touchdown. I said seven. He though and said, hey, they can do this. I said...yeah, right. Bastard was right!

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got a great story on what happened outside in the third when everyone was trying to get back in. Couple guys in pickup trucks became the heros of Buffalo!!!! Would not anybody back in so a couple of guys pulled their trucks up and was going to chain the fence and gate up and rip them down. Funny stuff. The gate were opened and people rushed in. I think the WHOLE city of Buffalo were in there by the mid 4th. There had to be over 100,000 people in or around the Rich that day! The road, parking lots, stores, everywhere were packed with cars!

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Just to add.

 

My Intelligence Officer on the Truman said (He is a Vikes fan) that no matter who you are or what team you love. There is no movie or book in the world that could give a person inspiration in life than that game could. That game was a gift from God and anybody feeling down should watch that game and the events that took place the week prior. I have to pinch myself just to believe it really happened. Bills fan or not, that was just AWESOME! What a great day it was!

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This is more of a scene setup than a game account. You will get plenty of those!

 

Having been destroyed by the Oilers the previous week, the non-sellout game was televised via satellite in Rochester (this was before they changed the blackout rules). Jim Kelly was out with an injury, and it was bitchin cold, so my buddy and me decided to go to a local pub to watch the Bills play the Oilers for the 2nd consecutive week.

 

Standing Room Only on the second floor of Hitchcock's, we each had a pitcher of draft in one hand, a glass of beer in the other, and our legs were really starting to ache, while the Bills fell behind 28-3 at half time.

 

As the half-timers cleared out, seats opened up and we grabed a couple nice ones by the big screen. My buddy asked "What do you want to do?"

 

I replied, "The beer is cold, the game is on, we got good seats, and if we go home the wives will probably want us to go shopping."

 

"Good point" he said.

 

So we stayed put as the second half opened, to an immediate interception that was returned for a TD making it 35-3.

 

My buddy asked "What do you want to do?"

 

I replied, "The beer is still cold, I'm staying"

 

"Good point" he said.

 

Ever build a really nice sand castle only to realize you placed it in low tide? That is what the Oilers must have felt like as everything bounced Buffalo's way for the rest of the game. By the 4th quarter, the bar was rocking - the floor was actually moving as the fans danced and sang the SHOUT! song over and over. There was a long line of people waiting to get in, but the pub's legal capacity limit was already over the line. On TV we saw fans climbing the fences to get back into Rich Stadium.

 

What an unbelievable game. Afterwards, I approached two Oilers fans who stayed right to the end. I shook their hands and said it was good to see true team fans. All they could do is mumble and give me that vacant, incomprehensible, wide-right look as they wandered out of the pub.......... I understood their pain.

 

I am working on a novel, and the main character is a Bills fan. I want to include a description of the comeback game, with mention of a few key plays. Which would you all include? I have not seen the game since it happened and need some help!

 

The one play that stands out in my mind is the onside kick. Doing that so early in the second half was just so "go for broke" that for me, it was the hallmark play. Do you agree? What other plays would you include?

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You need to include the fact that if you polled Buffalo, you'd find that 350,000 people were at the game, and ALL of them stayed the entire time...

 

(altho the stadium in the 2nd half begged to differ, as i watched the game on my uncle's satellite dish)

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Kind if like the number of people that attended the FIRST (and only real) Woodstock!

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Kind if like the number of people that attended the FIRST (and only real) Woodstock!

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Yeah, well, those old people are grandparents now, forgetting thier names and recalling things that never happened, I can't fault em, that's senility.

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Yeah, well, those old people are grandparents now, forgetting thier names and recalling things that never happened, I can't fault em, that's senility.

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<ahem> I have 5 grandchildren and was only 16 when Woodstock happened (I saw the movie).

 

Have we ever met? <_<

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I was in the stands with my Godfather and Mom. After Houston scored to make it 35-3, we were joking around saying "Well, we only need five touchdowns to win, yeah like thats gonna happen."

 

Then we score. Well now its down to four, (more snide laughter).

 

Then the onsides kick, we score again, (ya know, this just could be possible).

 

D stops Houston, we score. Lets go Buffalo!!!

 

It was such and exhilarating rush of a game. I walked out of the stadium, saying "Noone's ever seen a game like that." Simply amazing.

 

 

That game is why when we were losing the SB that year by over 35 points, I still felt like we could win it.

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I was in the stands with my Godfather and Mom.  After Houston scored to make it 35-3, we were joking around saying "Well, we only need five touchdowns to win, yeah like thats gonna happen." 

 

Then we score.  Well now its down to four, (more snide laughter).

 

Then the onsides kick, we score again, (ya know, this just could be possible).

 

D stops Houston, we score.  Lets go Buffalo!!!

 

It was such and exhilarating rush of a game.  I walked out of the stadium, saying "Noone's ever seen a game like that." Simply amazing.

That game is why when we were losing the SB that year by over 35 points, I still felt like we could win it.

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Exhilarating is the word! I always tell folks that the comeback game was the most exciting day of my life. My husband gets offended because he thinks our wedding day should be on top!

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Exhilarating is the word! I always tell folks that the comeback game was the most exciting day of my life. My husband gets offended because he thinks our wedding day should be on top!

 

LOL! Thats wonderful!! I agree wholeheartedly. I say I have never, nor will I ever, see anything like that again.

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The play that stood out in my mind was the Oilers kickoff right after they had gone up 35-3. Fail DelGreco shanked the kick and it ended up like an onsides attempt. The Bills recovered the kick and had good field position to start the next drive.

 

I started jumping up and down and telling the wife (fiance at the time) that we were going to beat the $^##% %%^^#@ girl f*gs. (I had thought at 1st the Oilers intentionally tried an onsides kick to really rub Buffalo's nose in it.) I don't know if that helped fire the Bills up any, but it sure did fire me up!

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the non-sellout game was televised via satellite in Rochester (this was before they changed the blackout rules)

 

Hate to be picyune, but me thinks the pub got the game from Syracuse via some very large rabbit ears...the blackout policy in effect today goes back to 1972. Rochester was in fact officially blacked out, along w/ the rest of WNY, for the Comback Game.

 

There was a gin-joint on Lake Ave in Charlotte, long since gone, that use to put out a large sign whenever the Bills were blacked out, advertising that through their antenna, they had the game. This went on for a couple of seasons, until Syracuse was put in the Buffalo-Rochester market because a very small slice of the Syracuse viewing market was found to be within the 75 mile radius of RWS.

 

The more I tap the keyboards, the more I remember: Fat Moes on Dewey Avenue (still there?) got a tape of the game the day after and made big plans to show it that night...advertised big-time on Wease, etc. NFL suits got wind of showing the taped game and put their lawyers on the case and Fat Moes was shut out. Made for good controversy.

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How about the botched Oilers' FG?

 

It started to rain seconds before Montgomery muffed the snap.  It had been damp all day anyway, but the rain made the ball just slippery enough that it went right through Montgomery's hands.

 

See?  God doesn't hate the Buffalo Bills.  <_<

 

If I remember correctly, the next drive was the one where the Bills took a 38-35 lead with about three minutes left.

 

Mike

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I would say the play before that FG. Hansen's come-from-behid tackle saved a sure touchdown when the score was 35-31.

 

On that play, Hansen jumped to block Moon's pass and was puched by Oilders' OL. He fell upside down, but got up to chase Oilders' Harris immediately after he hit the ground. No other Bills defenders had chance to tackle Harris and It'd be a heartbreaking touchdown for all Bills fans if not Hansen. He saved the day and the greatest comeback.

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The most incredible moment I have ever had being a sports fan, one that will certainly stay clear in my mind the rest of my life.

 

Bubba McDowell's return for six at the start of the second half made an impossible situation look even more impossible. From then on a tital wave of amazing events took place in favor of Buffalo, without anyone of them the comeback may have never happened. In no particular order here are the plays that stayed with me over 10 years.

 

1. Pete Metzelarrs catch after the INT return for a TD. The ball sailed threw both hands of the Houston defender, and into the outstretched hands out Metzelarrs. They pick that off Davis never scores the Bills first TD.

 

2. Christie recovering the ensuing onside kick

 

3. The long TD pass to Beebe after the onside kick, this play brought the score much closer and gave us some reason to believe. Replay showed Beebe stepped out of bounds, which should have made him an ineligible receiver.

 

4. Reeds 4th down TD catch in the 3rd quarter. The Bills had all the momentum in the world at that point and Reeds TD of 4th down was so important to us to keep it going. I think that drive might have been set up by an INT?

 

5. The Bills forcing Houston to kick a field goal to send it to OT. If I'm Houston at this point why go conservative? They just gave up a 33 point lead, yet they're content to forcer overtime?

 

6. Nade Odoms INT in OT. When Houston forced overtime, and won the toss my stomach sank. If the emotional roller coaster we went threw that day would have ended in defeat, the euphoria would have turned into the worst feeling imaginable. In the end Nate made the play, and Christie hammered the kick threw, the rest is left for annals of Bills lore.

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