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BILLSTUFF: BUFFALO RETURNS TO BASICS IN BEATING BENGALS

By David Staba

Early in Sunday's overtime session, the Buffalo Bills had moved within range for the decisive field goal.

The home team simply beating the Cincinnati Bengals wasn't enough for one man, though.

"Touchdown," he muttered, staring at the screen over the bar at the neighborhood tavern where the BillStuff coverage team watched Sunday's overtime. "I need a touchdown."

He hadn't bet the game with a point-spread teaser that would have paid off if Buffalo won by six points, nor was he a fantasy football owner in desperate need of an end-zone journey by Eric Moulds or Travis Henry. He wasn't even a super-advanced fan who wanted the Bills to prove they could reach the end zone more than once against the theoretically inferior Bengals.

He did, however, own the square in a weekly pool that would pay off only if Buffalo's final score ended in a two, with Cincinnati's finishing with a six.

"If they score a touchdown," another man said without malice in his voice, but with a steely glint in his eye, "I'm gonna kick your ass."

Despite reaching chip-shot territory with the wind at their backs, the Bills had decided to try to make the first man's dreams come true. Had Drew Bledsoe chosen that moment to force a throw into double coverage, as is his wont, or Travis Henry displayed his occasionally tenuous grip on the ball, irate fans would have threatened to administer far worse than a butt-kicking to head coach Gregg Williams and his offensive counselors.

All, of course, turned out well. Henry not only kept his grip on the ball, he lugged it in for the touchdown that gave Buffalo a 22-16 win and sent at least one man home with his pocket a little fuller and his ass unkicked.

On the whole, the game itself was the sort that encourages the derivative diversions that spring from the National Football League, like fantasy football and, especially, betting squares. In this case, though, the two teams combined for three touchdowns, giving the game limited fantasy appeal. And the Bills didn't cover the spread, which went off at 7 1/2 or eight points on most lines, unless the bettor had gone with a teaser, which expands or shrinks the line, at a price.

Though the Bills' third win in five outings wasn't quite aesthetically pleasing, either, it was a squares player's dream, with the numbers on the scoreboard changing six times after halftime, including four in the fourth quarter and overtime.

The squares pool stands as the most diplomatic bet in sports. Unlike taking on the point spread or playing fantasy football, no advance knowledge of either team, or even the rules of the sport, is required. It's also the most harmless - you'd have to enter a lot of very expensive pools to endanger your mortgage or car payment.

Of course, they're also illegal. After all, New York State's august leaders wouldn't want to divert gamblers' attention from the dozens of lottery games it sponsors, or the growing casino industry they're counting on to fund their annual spending spree.

Due to that technicality, BS won't identify the tavern in which we watched the denouement of Sunday's struggle. But it's easier to find that piece of lined cardboard in just about any restaurant or bar in Western New York than it is to locate an ashtray, even with the state's widely ignored smoking ban in effect.

Most Bills fans particularly welcomed any sort of distraction on Sunday, when their team spent much of the afternoon looking more like the 3-13 disaster of 2001 than a playoff team, to say nothing of a Super Bowl contender.

The first half followed the script written during the previous two weeks - the defense playing well enough to win with the offense performing as if it had congregated for an extremely heavy pre-game meal.

Buffalo's offensive brain trust also seemed in need of a long autumn's nap through the first two quarters.

The wind was gusting above 20 mph at times. Cincinnati's defense entered the game ranked a miserable 25th in the NFL against the run, but No. 8 against the pass. Henry's ribs had healed enough to play, giving Buffalo the quality running back it lacked a week earlier against Philadelphia.

So, of course, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride called for 18 passes in the first half, as opposed to 10 runs. Surprisingly enough, the Bills managed a single field goal in the first 30 minutes and trotted to the locker room trailing 6-3.

At some point before they emerged for the third quarter, Gilbride realized - or someone told him - that football is a pretty simple game. Run the ball consistently, with some degree of effectiveness, and you usually win.

Henry carried three times for 16 yards on Buffalo's first second-half drive, which resulted in Rian Lindell's game-tying field goal.

Two possessions later, following defensive end Aaron Schobel's interception set Buffalo up at Cincinnati's 35-yard line, Henry lugged it on four straight plays, covering 26 yards. That set up Bledsoe's flip to Henry, which he carried in for the game's first touchdown.

But Williams' coaching staff doesn't like to win in simple ways. The defense blunted Cincy's next drive in Bengals territory. Buffalo was set to get the ball back in decent field position, leading by a touchdown, early in the fourth quarter.

But no.

Special teams coach Danny Smith ordered a punt-block attempt. Coy Wire, who lost his starting job at strong safety when the Bills acquired Lawyer Milloy, did his job a little too zealously, crashing into Bengals punter Nick Harris.

The ensuing 15-yard penalty didn't just give Cincinnati a new set of downs. It completely turned the game around.

A Bengals offense that hadn't mustered a decent drive in two quarters marched 45 yards in seven plays, capped by Rudi Johnson's 16-yard touchdown run to tie it.

The Bills went three-and-out on their next possession, with Peter Warrick's 20-yard punt return setting up a go-ahead field goal by former Buffalo kicker Shayne Graham.

The ignominy of losing to the improved, yet still quite lowly, Bengals - at home, no less - hung heavy over Williams and his prized coaching staff. The eventual explanation for the mindless punt-rush - that it was designed not to necessarily block the kick, but to keep Harris from launching a more-or-less perfect punt to pin Buffalo near its own goal line - was excuse-making at its finest.

Bledsoe, Henry and Lindell bailed out Williams and Smith, with big assists from wide receivers Eric Moulds and Bobby Shaw and a Bills defense that stifled the Bengals' only possession in OT.

So Buffalo takes a 3-2 mark to New Jersey to face the winless Jets next Sunday. Given Gang Green's noxious start, they shouldn't present much opposition.

Then again, the Bengals weren't supposed to, either.

BILLS MVP: Aside from scoring both of Buffalo's touchdowns, Henry gained 85 yards on 25 carries, with two catches for 14 more. He got 16 of those carries after halftime, covering 55 yards. Not coincidentally, Bledsoe was 5-of-17 passing in the first half. Once Gilbride rediscovered the running-game portion of the playbook, Bledsoe hit on 14 of 18 attempts after intermission.

Moulds was pretty good, too, with nine catches for 99 yards. A pass-interference call against him nearly killed the game-tying drive, though.

THE OTHER GUYS' MVP: In case Henry's performance and the outcome didn't drive home the importance of running the football, Johnson's afternoon should have. The Bengals' third-string running back as recently as two weeks ago, he pounded out 69 yards on 20 attempts, providing their only semblance of a consistent attack, and was the lone guy wearing orange to reach the end zone.

THE WAY THEY DRAW IT UP: Schobel's interception came on a perfectly executed zone blitz. Linebacker London Fletcher accounted for the "blitz" portion of the call, rushing Cincy quarterback Jon Kitna into an even worse throw than usual. Schobel, having properly dropped into one of the zones vacated by a blitzer, grabbed it to give Buffalo possession, and momentum.

TWO TELEVISIONS, NO WAITING: Some of the crowd at the Arterial Lounge on Niagara Street, BS's vantage point during regulation, nearly got whiplash trying to follow the final moments of the Bills-Bengals game and the last two innings of Boston's comeback win over Oakland to send their playoff series to a fifth and final game.

The final out of the 5-4 win by the Red Sox came moments before Lindell's field goal forced overtime. Ultimately, almost everyone left happy, save the guy with a ponytail emerging from his Yankees' hat.

WING REVIEW: The Arterial's mediums were meaty and had a bite to them. Kevin, who was running the kitchen in between checking on the Boston-Oakland game, also served up a variety of complementary pizzas to earn bonus points. Grade: B+.

BS FAN OF THE WEEK: Kevin proved a master of multi-tasking, keeping everyone fed without losing track of how the Red Sox or Bills were doing. And the pie with mushrooms and sausage was a downright inspired bit of pizza-making.


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David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter. He welcomes email at dstaba13@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com October 7 2003