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RARE BIG DEFENSIVE PLAY LEADS TO RARER BILLS WIN

By David Staba

ORCHARD PARK -- It was the sort of play the Buffalo Bills made far too infrequently through their first 11 games.

And it launched them to their second win of the season.

With Carolina ahead by 11 points with 5:50 left in the third quarter and facing a second-and-2 at their own 38-yard line, Bills cornerback Nate Clements deflected Panther quarterback Chris Weinke's pass away from intended receiver Donald Hayes and into the arms of rookie middle linebacker Brandon Spoon.

"It was just a normal zone coverage," Spoon said. "Nate (Clements) did a great job and tipped the ball. I just caught it and took off. My teammates did a great job of clearing it out for me."

Spoon finished his 44-yard jaunt to the end zone by cartwheeling past the final Carolina tackler. Travis Henry dove in from a yard out midway through the fourth quarter to complete Buffalo's rally from an 18-point first-half deficit. When Alex Van Pelt's third-down completion to Jay Riemersma with two minutes left sealed Buffalo's 25-24 win, the Bills were able to leave the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium to cheers, rather than boos or indifference.

"It was great," Spoon said of finally earning a little positive reinforcement from the announced crowd of 44,549 (the smallest since the 1997 season finale). "It's a monkey off our backs. It feels good again, especially after we fought back in the second half. We came out in the second half and did our job."

Not that the Bills were exactly dominant in scraping out their first home victory in more than a year. Or pretty.

Buffalo outgained Carolina 241-115 in the first half, but still went into intermission trailing 24-13 thanks to the Bills' weekly array of blunders.

Lousy special teams and Van Pelt's only interception of the game gave Carolina a short field on each of the Panthers' three second-quarter touchdown drives. Foolish pass-interference penalties on Buffalo's secondary sustained the Panthers' last two scoring marches.

Brian Moorman's shanked 24-yard punt late in the first set up Carolina's 10-play, 54-yard drive to Weinke's 1-yard sneak for the game's first touchdown.

Three plays later, Van Pelt's high throw bounced off Larry Centers' hands and to Carolina cornerback Reggie Howard, who returned it 16 yards to Buffalo's 36-yard line.

Weinke threw incomplete on second-and-13, but an interference call on Bills cornerback Chris Watson put the ball two yards from Buffalo's goal line. Richard Huntley took it in on the next play, giving the Panthers a 17-3 lead.

On Buffalo's next possession, Van Pelt launched a deep pass down the right sideline that bounced off intended receiver Reggie Germany to Carolina safety Mike Minter and back to Germany for a 39-yard pickup.

After Centers dropped a sure touchdown throw on third down, the Bills settled for Shayne Graham's 27-yard field goal, his second of the game (and his professional career).

But any momentum gained by cutting the margin to 11 vanished on the ensuing kickoff, when Steve Smith went 46 yards with Graham's low liner to put Carolina at Buffalo's 41. This time, the pass interference flag came on third-and-21, when strong safety Raion Hill bumped Patrick Jeffers without looking for the ball, an error that cost the Bills 34 yards.

Four plays later, Weinke flipped a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kris Mangum.

The Panthers not only never scored again, they couldn't get past Buffalo's 39-yard line in the second half.

"It seemed they ran the same plays (as in the first half)," said Bills defensive end Phil Hansen. "We just executed better. It did seem as if the holes for them to run weren't as big as they were in the first half. It seemed like things clogged up more in the second half."

Thanks largely to the generosity of Carolina's prevent defense, Van Pelt moved Buffalo 70 yards in four plays that required just 30 seconds with two completions each to Eric Moulds and Peerless Price.

The last, a 7-yard scoring throw to Price, came after the Bills eschewed a field-goal try with six seconds left in the half.

"I was either going to throw it out of the end zone or into the end zone," said Van Pelt, who was 20-of-29 passing for 277 yards, a week after his miserable four-interception night in San Francisco. "I was originally going to throw to Eric, but they had soft coverage on him and doubled him, so I just bought time until Peerless came open."

After a Muhsin Muhammad fumble recovered by Bills linebacker Jay Foreman ended Carolina's first second-half drive, the teams traded punts until Spoon's interception. But better kicking, kick coverage and steady running by Henry gave Buffalo the field-position advantage for most of the final two quarters.

That edge finally turned into the decisive points in the fourth quarter, when Price's 24-yard punt return put the Bills at their own 49 with 12:25 remaining.

On third-and-8, Van Pelt hit Riemersma for 19 yards over the middle. After two more completions to his tight end, the second for 18 on third-and-1, Van Pelt sent Henry into the line twice. The second time, he wound up in the end zone to give Buffalo its first lead of the day.

"This win feels great," said Henry, who finished with 101 yards on 27 carries, his second 100-yard game of the season. "It makes you want to go to work on Monday and get ready for the next game."


David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter and the editor of the BuffaloPOST. He welcomes email at editor@buffalopost.com.