2002

Chicago 27
Bills 33

Attendance:  72,780

RICK ANDERSON -- Call them the sudden death Bills. The Buffalo Bills once again had to go to overtime in their game with the Chicago Bears, their 3rd sudden death game in 4 weeks. A dramatic 26-yard Drew Bledsoe to Travis Henry touchdown pass capped yet another roller coaster game as the Bills downed the Bears 33-27. 

Things started off as bright as this late September day for the Bills. They took the opening kickoff and drove straight down the field on an impressive drive to score. After stopping the Bears, the offense took over again and drove down the field once again. Travis Henry got the handoff and did what he did the last three games, fumbled the ball. Rosevelt Colvin had stripped the ball from Henry's grasp, got up and flipped it over to Mike Brown, who ran it back 70 yards for a touchdown. A Henry fumble resulting in a Broncos TD had turned the game around the previous week.

Henry was greeted to boos when he went to the sidelines. He had received much criticizism during the week for his 3 fumbles in 3 consecutive games. He was never going to hear the last of this.

"It was one of those things," said Henry after the game. "I got caught again switching the ball and it came out. It's something that I have to work on."

But Henry came back in the second half after being benched and put in a stellar game. On the day, Henry had 68 yards on 12 attempts. It was his fumble, however, that may stick in the Bills fans minds even though his overtime heroics saved the day for Buffalo.

"It was rough," admitted Henry, "but not one time did I doubt my skills or my toughness to go back out there and show my teammates and my coaches that I was going to do everything and anything to get that fumble back."

The Bills could have blown out the Bears early in this game. Had Henry not fumbled, the Bills were at the Chicago 30 and were driving for their second straight touchdown. The fumble took all the momentum out of the Bills and gave it back to their opponents, just like Henry's fumble did the week before. Fourteen points in two consecutive games resulting from Henry fumbles puts a huge red flag on his performance chart thus far.

Bledsoe had another career day, completing 28 out 36 attempts for 4 touchdowns and 328 yards. With the overtime TD to Henry, Bledsoe set an NFL career mark with 4 OT touchdowns.

"I guess I just don't do enough in regulation," joked Bledsoe. "I need to get more done in regulation so I don't have to keep dealing with this."

Bledsoe keeps finding more ways to bring the Bills back in the waning seconds of a game to force overtime. Sunday he set the Bills up for the victory before regulation ended, but a tipped 39-yard field goal attempt by Mike Hollis was tipped by James Williams and the two teams had to settle it in overtime.

The Bills defense stuffed the run all day as they gave up only 51 yards. However, Jim Miller, the Bears quarterback, was able to find some soft seams in the Bills secondary and started concentrating on that most of the second half. Miller ended up with two strikes, and was 19 out of 31 for 188 yards. He continuously picked on Chris Watson, who was the prey of choice last week in Denver. Watson committed one costly interference which kept a Bears drive alive.

However, an even costlier penalty was committed by Aaron Schobel. The Bills forced Miller to throw an incompletion on third down in the second quarter, but Schobel got a late hit on Miller after he released the ball, drawing the flag for roughing the passer. The Bears got a first down and drove down the field and scored when Miller threw a 5-yard pass to David Terrell.

Bledsoe was shut down in the second half after the Bills got a 49-yard field goal at the beginning of the third quarter. The Bears pressured Bledsoe, sacking him 3 times and hurrying his throws.

The Bears were able to tie the score at 20 when Paul Edinger kicked a 24 yard field goal. The Bledsoe led the Bills down the field just like he did on the opening drive of the game. A he hit both  tight ends, Jay Riemersma and Dave Moore during the drive, along with a couple of key runs by Henry. Then Bledsoe hit Moore in the back of the endzone to put the Bills in front 27-20.

Miller passed the Bears into the red zone and finished the drive when he bootlegged right and found John Davis, who decked two Bills defenders and made it in from 4 yards out.

The Bills thought they had the Bears on the ropes when they got the clock down to 32 seconds and Hollis was lined up for what appeared to be a chip shot from only 39 yards out. He had already made two fieldgoals of 48 and 49 yards. But James Williams got his finger tips on the ball and it went wide right.

In overtime, the Bears won the kickoff, but the Bills D finally forced them to punt. That's when Bledsoe led them down the field to the Chicago 26. On the winning play, Bledsoe was forced out of the pocket by the rush, went to his right and found Henry with a little swing pass. Henry found a seam and got great blocking that sprung him loose to score the touchdown. Henry, who had a game that swung on the two extremes, sprung into the stands after scoring the TD. He was embraced by the jubilant fans who had forgiven his previous 4 misdeeds.


Bills Scorecard

The Bills improved in several areas against the Bears. First and foremost was the defense against the run. The Bears who were hoping to have the success on the ground like the Broncos had the previous week, were shut down time and again.

The special teams had a good game, especially punt and kickoff coverage. The Bears were not able to crack any long runbacks.

The Bills running game improved over the past week, with Henry leading the way with his 68 yards, while Shawn Bryson had 31 yards on 11 carries.

The biggest concern is the Bills secondary. Miller found plenty of soft spots and was the second qb to pick on Watson to much success. With the Oakland Raiders coming to town next week, the secondary has to find ways to stop the Raiders' air game. That will be no easy task.


Bills Talk

After Henry had fumbled, Moulds went over to Henry to try to get him to stay positive. Henry really appreciated the gesture.

"It made me feel great that they still had the confidence that they believed in me like that," said Henry. "Not only Eric but a lot of guys were coming up to me, patting me on the back and telling me that we'd get it back. That just made me more confident and comfortable that when I got back in there to get a chance to redeem myself."

Henry gave Price credit for a game-winning block in overtime.

"It was a great block downfield by Price," lauded Henry. "I just read it and I saw the end zone and I just knew I was going to get that. I was just so happy to get the win."

Bledsoe chimed in kudos for Henry.

"Obviously, we know the situation that he needs to hold onto the football, but he is a guy that we all believe in and we are all counting on," said Bledsoe. "He is an outstanding running back and I have a great seat to watch him work. He is an outstanding running back, we believe in him and we are going to keep putting him on the field. He makes play for us, so I was really happy for him to see that he made that decisive play for us."

Bledsoe has made a huge impact on the team so far and he thinks that the team will keep improving.

"Even after the two games that we lost this year, I think that we are starting to develop a belief in ourselves that we got the talent, the ability to play with anyone in the league," said Bledsoe. "We just have to eliminate the mistakes. With all do respect to the Bears we should have been up by more than we were in the first half. The sooner we can start to eliminate the mistakes and stop beating ourselves the better."

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