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1998

Week 14 December 6, 1998

Bills 33
Cincinnati 20

Attendance: 54,359

CINCINNATI (AP) With their very first play, the Buffalo Bills moved on.

Scoring Summary
	1	2	3	4	F
Bills	10	10	6	7	33
Cincinnati	0	13	0	7	20
First Quarter BUF A.Smith 1 run (Christie kick), 12:44. Drive: 4 plays, 66 yards, 2:16. Key play: Flutie 55 pass to Moulds. Buffalo 7, Cincinatti 0 BUF FG Christie 20, 8:48. Drive: 9 plays, 69 yards, 1:52. Key plays: Flutie 28 pass to Riemersma; Flutie 23 run. Buffalo 10, Cincinatti 0. Second Quarter CIN Scott 8 pass O'Donnell (kick failed), 14:10. Drive: 1 play, 3 yards, :06. Key play: Simmons interception and 18 return to Bengals 3. Buffalo 10, Cincinatti 6. CIN Pickens 3 pass from O'Donnell (Pelfrey kick), 9:13. Drive: 5 plays, 57 yards, 2:26. Key plays: O'Donnell 19 pass to Pickens; O'Donnell 29 pass to Pickens. Cincinatti 13, Buffalo 10. BUF Moulds 70 pass from Flutie (Christie kick), 1:41. Drive: 1 play, 65 yards, :13. Buffalo 17, Cincinatti 13. BUF FG Christie 52, :04. Drive: 6 plays, 22 yards, :45. Key plays: Thomas 11 run; Flutie 6 pass to Reed on 3rd-and-5. Buffalo 20, Cincinatti 13. Third Quarter BUF FG Christie 46, 10:38. Drive: 8 plays, 38 yards, 3:13. Key plays: Flutie 14 pass to Moulds on 2nd-and-7; Flutie 12 pass to Moulds on 2nd-and-8. Buffalo 23, Cincinnati 13. BUF FG Christie 34, 3:22. Drive: 10 plays, 39 yards, 4:25. Key plays: K.Williams 22 punt return to Bills 44; Flutie 6 pass to Reed on 3rd-and-3; Flutie 20 pass to Reed on 3rd-and-7. Buffalo 26, Cincinnati 13. Fourth Quarter BUF Moulds 30 pass from Flutie (Christie kick), 12:12. Drive: 4 plays, 59 yards, 2:00. Key plays: Cowart interception and 23 return to Bills 41; A.Smith 28 run. Buffalo 33, Cincinnati 13. CIN Dillon 3 run (Pelfrey kick), 1:42. Drive: 6 plays, 24 yards, 1:41. Key plays: Copeland interception and 3 return to Bills 24; Blake 11 pass to Pickens on 2nd-and-14; Bieniemy 7 run on 4th-and-1. Buffalo 33, Cincinnati 20.

A week after they fumed at the officials for a last-play loss, the Bills got right back to business Sunday. Doug Flutie's 55-yard throw to Eric Moulds on the game's first play headed them toward a big day.

Flutie and Moulds combined on three big plays and a pair of touchdown passes for a 33-20 victory over Cincinnati that kept Buffalo in the playoff race.

The Bills (8-5) knew they couldn't afford a New England hangover.

"We kind of got the game taken away from us last week," Moulds said. "We just wanted to come in and put it behind us and get ourselves into position where we can make the playoffs."

With their eighth victory in the last 10 games, Buffalo remained tied with New England for second place in the AFC East, a game behind the New York Jets and Miami.

The Bills would be in a three-way tie for first right now if not for that 25-21 loss to the Patriots, which was set up by a controversial interference call. Owner Ralph Wilson got a $50,000 fine from the NFL for criticizing the officials and the players came away feeling they'd been robbed.

The Bills put it behind them Sunday and gave Wilson a game ball in appreciation for his costly comments.

"You have to get in position to play the big games and play the playoff-type or championship-type games, and this was a game that gives us eight wins and gives us a chance to now play for something," coach Wade Phillips said.

The Bengals (2-11) couldn't stop the Flutie-to-Moulds combination, which produced the game's three biggest plays. Nor could they satisfy their boiling fans, who decked the stadium with two dozen banners that used various rhymes demanding that general manager Mike Brown step down.

Attempts to organize a massive walkout at the second-half kickoff were a dud only a handful of fans got up and left at that point. Many more joined them after Flutie and Moulds hooked up on a 30-yard touchdown pass that put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter.

"I saw the banners when I first came out, but I didn't think about them," said cornerback Ashley Ambrose, who was victimized by Moulds on the opening play. "My job is to play football."

The Bengals did a poor job of that as they lost their eighth in a row, their longest losing streak since 1994. Neil O'Donnell started at quarterback for the first time in three games and threw a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes that gave Cincinnati its first lead in 17 quarters.

But O'Donnell failed to make it through the game, breaking his throwing hand in the fourth quarter. And the lead he fashioned failed to make it through the first half.

The game turned when Flutie saw an all-out blitz coming and threw a quick slant to Moulds, who ran past two defensive backs and bounced off cornerback Artrell Hawkins while turning it into a 70-yard touchdown play that put the Bills ahead to stay with 1:41 left before halftime.

"Eric just made a tremendous effort on the play," said Flutie, who completed 18 of 30 for 319 yards with a season-high three interceptions. "He's the most athletic person I think I've ever played with. He's just making plays left and right for us."

In the loss to New England, Moulds had career highs with eight catches for 177 yards. Against the Bengals, he had six catches for 196 yards.

"If there's anybody better than him, I haven't seen him," Phillips said. "He was again the best player in the game. He's been the best receiver in the league the last two weeks. I don't think there's any doubt about that." Notes: Flutie has thrown for more than 300 yards in each of the last two games. ... The Bills had a season-high 448 yards on offense. ... Steve Christie was 4-for-4 on field goals, including a 52-yarder that was his longest of the season. ... Linebacker Marlo Perry, involved in a fatal auto accident Friday that was not his fault, played and had three tackles. ... Pat Williams had three of Buffalo's six sacks. ... Jeff Blake replaced O'Donnell and completed 3-of-5 for 46 yards. ... Corey Dillon became the second runner in Bengals history to top 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons, matching James Brooks. He had 43 yards on 11 carries, leaving him at 1,031.

Game Breakdown
	BUF	CIN
FIRST DOWNS Rushing Passing Penalty THIRD DOWN EFF FOURTH DOWN EFF TOTAL NET YARDS Total Plays Avg Gain NET YARDS RUSHING Rushes Avg per rush NET YARDS PASSING Sacked-Yds lost Gross-Yds passing Completed-Att. Had Intercepted Yards-Pass Play KICKOFFS-EndZone-TB PUNTS-Avg. Punts blocked FGs-PATs blocked TOTAL RETURN YARDAGE Punts Returns Kickoffs Returns Interceptions PENALTIES-Yds FUMBLES-Lost TIME OF POSSESSION	21 8 13 0 5-13 0-0 448 66 6.8 139 34 4.1 309 2-10 319 18-30 3 9.7 8-4-3 2-43.5 0 0-0 126 2-30 4-73 1-23 8-38 0-0 31:36	15 4 10 1 3-12 1-2 234 59 4.0 58 17 3.4 176 6-38 214 22-36 1 4.2 4-1-0 7-46.0 0 0-0 144 0-0 5-112 3-32 1-5 2-0 28:24
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUFFALO, A.Smith 18-77, Thomas 5-22, Flutie 5-21, Linton 5-17, Gash 1-2. CINCINNATI, Dillon 11-43, Bieniemy 2-9, Blake 1-5, Milne 1-2, Bennett 1-0, O'Donnell 1-(minus 1). PASSING BUFFALO, Flutie 18-30-3-319. CINCINNATI, O'Donnell 19-31-1-168, Blake 3-5-0-46 RECEIVING BUFFALO, Reed 7-68, Moulds 6-196, Thomas 3-14, Riemersma 1-28, K.Williams 1-13. CINCINNATI, Pickens 8-97, Scott 6-93, Dillon 3-2, Battaglia 2-9, Milne 2-7, Bieniemy 1-6. PUNT RETURNS BUFFALO, K.Williams 2-30. CINCINNATI, Gibson 0-0. KICKOFF RETURNS BUFFALO, K.Williams 3-73, H.Jones 1-0. CINCINNATI, Gibson 3-72, Bennett 2-40. TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS BUFFALO, Schulz 8-1-0, Irvin 6-0-0, Cummings 5-0-0, P.Williams 4-0-3, Cowart 3-2-0, Hanson 3-1-0, Perry 3-0-0, H.Jones 2-0-0, Washington 2-0-1, Smedley 2-0-0, Pike 2-0-0, Rogers 1-0-1, W.Simmons 1-0-0, Wiley 1-0-1, R.Jackson 1-0-0, Greer 0-1-0, B.Smith 0-1-0. CINCINNATI, Ambrose 7-0-0, Wilson 7-0-1, Hawkins 5-0-0, Shade 4-1-0, Ross 4-0-0, B.Simmons 4-0-1, Randolph 4-0-0, Bankston 3-1-0, von Oelhoffen 3-0-0, Myers 3-0-0, Francis 2-0-0, Spikes 1-1-0, Bell 1-0-0, Purvis 1-0-0, Steele 1-0-0, Granville 1-1-0, Curtis 1-0-0. INTERCEPTIONS BUFFALO, Cowart 1-23. CINCINNATI, B.Simmons 1-18, Ross 1-11, Copeland 1-3. MISSED FIELD GOALS None.

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