1997

Bills 14
Tennessee 31

Attendance: 23,571

The Tennessee Oilers simply wore out one of the NFL's stingiest defenses. Steve McNair ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third as the Oilers held the ball for more than 38 minutes in beating Buffalo 31-14 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. "From here on out, every game is do or die," McNair said of the Oilers, who visit Dallas on Thanksgiving Day.

Buffalo had allowed only 13 touchdowns on 36 trips inside the 20 this season, but the Oilers scored on three of their four trips into the red zone. Only Eddie George's fumble stopped them from scoring a fourth time. The Oilers played keepaway by rushing for 163 yards, including 93 in 25 carries by George, who just missed his seventh 100-yard game of the year. McNair also ran six times for 45 yards despite a sore chest, and he was 15-of-24 passing for 167 yards with a 2-yard TD toss to Derek Russell. "We did things offensively that actually surprised me a little bit,...knowing what they can do on defense," Oilers coach Jeff Fisher said.

Tennessee gained 322 yards and protected McNair very well, allowing only two sacks to a team that had 37 coming into the game. Bruce Smith, the AFC leader with 13 sacks, had only one tackle against Oilers tackle Brad Hopkins. "A lot of guys surrounded me and made some good plays for me," McNair said. "I don't want to say I whet out there and gave a great performance all by myself."

Marv Levy wasn't happy with how his Bills played. "The performance was awful," Levy said. "You name it--offense, defense, kicking...I'm still stewing so bad that it's really hard to come up with a very logical keen explanation." But he rejected any suggestions that his defense is worn out from carrying the offense. "That's a cop-out...I don't know what it is. We played bad enough for whatever criticism is leveled," Levy said.

Whenever they got the ball, the Bills couldn't do much. They got only one first down and 50 total yards through the first 26 minutes against the Oilers defense that had its best day this year, allowwing Buffalo 4 yards rushing. Even Steve Christie had problems as Henry Ford blocked his 36-yard field goal attempt.

Todd Collins finally started taking advantage of a banged-up Oilers secondary. Using a no-huddle offense just before half-time, he moved the Bills 63 yards and capped the drive with a 9-yard TD toss to Quinn Early. But by the time Collins found Early for a second touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter, a 5-yarder, the score only cut the Oilers' lead to 24-14. Collins was 24-of-37 for 279 yards.

Bills receiver Andre Reed said they knew all week that several Oilers cornerbacks were nursing sore ankles, but that they failed to take advantage. "It seems like it's always too late, too little," Reed said.

The Bills, who lost at Miami last Monday, looked like they were suffering from jet lag from the beginning. Thurman Thomas lost the ball on the Bills' first play of the game, and the Oilers defender Marcus Robertson picked it up and returned it 25 yards for a 7-0 lead. "It's frustrating, but to tell you the truth, we're kind of getting used to it," Collins said. "That's what we said on the sidelines. We've been behind all year in the first quarter, so it's nothing new. I don't think it was really like a big surprise to anyone."

McNair started quickly by moving Tennessee 69 yards, capping the nine-play drive with a 1-yard plunge and a 14-0 lead. His 3-yard run put the Oilers up 21-0 late in the second quarter. Proof that it was the Oilers' day came at the beginning of the third quarter. Tennessee held the ball for nearly six minutes and was forced to try a 51-yard field goal by Al Del Greco, who had missed four of his previous seven attempts. But his kick hit the middle of the cross bar and bounced over for a 24-7 lead.

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