We remember the 20th century for many developments and engagements that served as cultural pinnacles.
Woodstock. The Internet. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The Buffalo Bills in the playoffs.
Not as long ago as Woodstock. But never since in this millennium.
It was 1999 and Wade Phillips was coaching the Bills. He had just finished his second season and taken the team to the playoffs again. The Bills, four times in a row the AFC’s entrant in the Super Bowl, seemed poised for another long run atop their division.
Most people remember the Music City Miracle, the controversial lateral on a kickoff that Kevin Dyson of the Tennessee Titans returned for a 75-yard touchdown and a 22-16 victory in the waning seconds.
What they do not recall is that Phillips had switched quarterbacks for the playoff game after Doug Flutie had made 15 starts. He gave the ball to Rob Johnson, who managed to get sacked six times while completing only 10 passes.
A year later the Bills slipped to 8-8, Phillips ran afoul of owner Ralph Wilson Jr. and was fired. The Bills have not been to the playoffs since.
Wilson was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame a week ago and the Bills and Titans met at Fawcett Stadium. The Titans scored their first touchdown on a fake punt, salting a wound open for nearly 10 years.
The preseason, though, is merely prologue. What Wilson, 90, wants is not revenge. He’d like to see another playoff game. He agreed last winter to retain Dick Jauron as his coach, despite three consecutive 7-9 finishes. Do not expect a 90-year-old owner to exhibit patience. As the old joke goes, he doesn’t even buy green bananas. His time may not be short but his patience is.
Maybe these Bills can recapture some of the magic of those Super Bowl teams. True, they did not win any of those games. But those Bills were known for Jim Kelly’s dynamic execution of an up-tempo offense called the K-Gun and these Bills also want to go no-huddle to put pressure on their opponents.
“There’s times when we’re going to want to run fast and there’s times when we’re going to want to huddle and tone it down a little bit and take a lot of the play clock down,” quarterback Trent Edwards says. “We have both options and I think we’re doing a good job at both.”
That’s a little bit like the way the Bills played last year. They got off to a 4-0 start and then the meltdown came. In three of their final five games they did not score a touchdown, including the season-ending 13-0 loss to the New England Patriots. That marked their 10th consecutive beating by the Pats and 17th in 18 meetings.
In their attempt to bolster their offense and score a few of those elusive points, the Bills signed free-agent receiver Terrell Owens and jettisoned a number of their starting offensive linemen, including Pro Bowl tackle Jason Peters. They drafted Aaron Maybin No. 1 to be their edge pass rusher but haven’t been able to sign him.
They must also play their first three games without running back Marshawn Lynch, suspended by the NFL for violations of the code of conduct.
The Patriots, who were 11-5 and still missed the playoffs, return Tom Brady to their lineup. The New York Jets, coached by the exuberant Rex Ryan, will be more aggressive defensively and perhaps be better than the team that faded to 9-7. The Miami Dolphins were surprise 11-game winners and AFC East champions.
That’s the field. Can the Bills compete and make their owner happy?
“I think this is a playoff team,” says safety Donte Whitner. “Everybody else around here has said it and I believe it.’
Saying it is one thing. Seeing it is another. Seeing it is believing it.
Unplanned events: The first full weekend of preseason games presents players with an opportunity to hit guys in uniforms different than their own. They must excel on almost an individual basis, however. Most teams do not prepare elaborate game plans, if any, when they are looking at performance on a much more fundamental level. Take the Cincinnati Bengals, who play the New Orleans Saints. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis does not care that the Saints are breaking in a new defensive coordinator, a new scheme and several new players. “We would go ‘vanilla’ anyway,” he says. “We’re not going to spend a lot of time game-planning for an opponent in the preseason. You want your guys to get out, play and react and move forward that way.” Game-planning might help win a preseason game but what does that mean in the bigger scheme of things? The Detroit Lions went 4-0 last year in games that didn’t count and 0-16 in the ones that did. They will not be installing much for their meeting with the Atlanta Falcons. “You really won’t see any game-planning,” says rookie head coach Jim Schwartz. “You know the message is it’s about us, it’s about what we’re doing. It’s not about what a particular opponent is doing this time of year.”
Quotable: “We have one of the best offensive lines in the league. It’s not just the things they do on the field. It’s the fact that they’re organizing film sessions together without the coach during game week, the Thursday night o-line dinners with thm that I attend and I yuck it up with the boys. I think that builds the camaraderie and relationship. We all stick together.” – Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose 5,069 passing yards last season rank second all-time in NFL history.
Bits and pieces: The San Francisco 49ers continue to look at quarterbacks Shaun Hill and Alex Smith and Hill will start the preseason opener Friday night against the Denver Broncos. But Smith worked with the first team during the Thursday walk-through. Go figure...The Indianapolis Colts said 11 players, including five starters, won’t play Friday night against the Minnesota Vikings. That would include receiver Anthony Gonzalez and tight end Dallas Clark. Ticket holders must be idiots to put up with this.
Larry Weisman covered professional football for USA TODAY for 25 years and now joins the Redskins Broadcast Network and Redskins.com to bring his unique viewpoint and experience to Redskins fans. Go to Redskins.com for the Redskins Blitz column and NFL Blitz on Friday. Larry also appears on Redskins Nation, airing nightly on Comcast SportsNet, and on ESPN 980 AM radio.
