History of Pro Football in Buffalo

Bills Backers United

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1998

Week 5 October 4, 1998

San Francisco 21
Bills 26

Attendance: 76,615

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) Steve Young and San Francisco's offense were finally shut down by the most unlikely opponent, the lowly Buffalo Bills.

Scoring Summary
	1	2	3	4	F
San Francisco	0	0	0	21	21
Bills	10	10	3	3	26
First Quarter Buf FG Christie 24, 12:30. Buf A.Smith 6 run (Christie kick), 1:27. Second Quarter Buf Early 5 pass from R.Johnson (Christie kick), 14:28. Buf FG Christie 19, :03. Third Quarter Buf FG Christie 38, 2:51. Fourth Quarter SF Edwards 47 pass from Young (Rice pass from Young), 13:16. Buf FG Christie 45, 9:04. SF I. Smith 9 pass from Young (pass failed), 5:33. SF Stokes 21 pass from Young (Richies kick), 1:03.

Rob Johnson overshadowed his counterpart, completing 19 of 27 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown to lead the Bills to a 26-21 victory Sunday.

The 49ers (3-1) entered the game ranked first in the NFL in rushing, passing and total offense, but were held to just 56 yards passing and 105 total yards in the first half. Their second-half comeback ended when they couldn't recover the onside kick after Young had hit J.J. Stokes with a 21-yard TD pass with 1:03 left.

The Bills entered the contest with just one victory in their last 10 games, worst in the league over that span, but they dominated the suddenly mistake-prone 49ers from the beginning.

The Bills (1-3) wasted no time in taking advantage of San Francisco's secondary, which was without Marquez Pope. They came out picking on cornerbacks Darnell Walker and Antonio Langham, who struggled against Buffalo's passing attack even though it was missing its top receiver, Andre Reed.

Johnson found Eric Moulds for a 50-yard reception on the game's first play and Buffalo took a 3-0 lead on Steve Christie's 24-yard field goal 2:30 into the game.

Johnson had 164 yards passing in the first half, 87 of them to Reed's replacement, Kevin Williams.

Garrison Hearst's fumble late in the first quarter gave Buffalo the ball on the 49ers 30 yard-line and Antowain Smith's 6-yard scoring run made it 10-0.

Another San Francisco miscue, a fumble by kickoff returner R.W. McQuarters, put the Bills in San Francisco territory again. Johnson took advantage tossing a 5-yard touchdown to Quinn Early for a 17-0 advantage.

After getting down to the 49ers 1-yard line on their final possession of the first half, the Bills had to settle for Christie's 19-yard field goal with three seconds left for a 20-0 halftime lead.

San Francisco had 12 first-half penalties and set a franchise record with 22 penalties for 178 yards in the game.

After Christie's third field goal of the game made it 23-0, Young finally got San Francisco on the board. A 33-yard reception to Jerry Rice set up a 47-yard touchdown pass to fullback Marc Edwards. Young connected with Rice on a 2-point conversion, cutting the deficit to 23-8.

Irv Smith's 9-yard touchdown reception from Young made it 26-14, but San Francisco was unable to convert on the 2-point conversion. Young's TD pass to Stokes ended the 49ers scoring.

Young finished 22-of-38 for 329 yards, his fourth straight game with more than 300 yards passing. The Buffalo defense held Hearst to 28 yards rushing. He entered the game averaging 127 yards rushing per game.

Game Breakdown
	SF	BUF
First downs Rushes-yards Passing Punt Returns Kickoff Returns Interceptions Ret. Comp-Att-Int Sacked-Yards Lost Punts Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards Time of Possession	23 18-65 312 2-11 6-82 0-0 23-38-1 5-17 5-44.6 3-3 22-178 27:07	21 38-115 237 5-33 1-22 1-27 19-27-0 3-17 5-39.4 1-0 12-106 32:53
Individual Statistics RUSHING SAN FRANCISCO, Young 5-34, Hearst 12-28, Leavey 1-3. BUFFALO, A. Smith 22-47, Thomas 8-42, R. Johnson 6-20, Gash 1-3, K. Williams 1-3. PASSING SAN FRANCISCO, Young 23-38-1-329. BUFFALO, R. Johnson 19-27-0-254. RECEIVING SAN FRANCISCO, Hearst 5-38, Owens 4-69, Stokes 4-62, I. Smith 4-49, Rice 3-54, Edwards 2-50, Levy 1-7. BUFFALO, Early 8-57, K. Williams 4-87, Moulds 3-86, Thomas 2-13, L. Johnson 1-8, Riemersma 1-3. MISSED FIELD GOALS BUFFALO, Christie 51 (WL). SAN FRANCISCO, Richey 48 (WL).

Bills Backers United is a combined effort between the Bills Backers International Chapters located in Willow Grove PA, Laurel MD, Phoenix AZ, and Virginia Beach VA.