1989 - Week 13 - Buffalo Bills at Seattle Seahawks

welcome to the kingdom in seattle washington where tonight we close out week 13 of the nfl's regular schedule tonight the buffalo bills and the seattle seahawks with a sellout crowd anticipated hello again everyone i'm frank gifford we're happy you're with us as we watch the buffalo bills try to go two games up on the miami dolphins in the afc east the sight of the different story for the seattle seahawks winners of the western division of afc a year ago they are four and eight and they are out of it the bills of course have to be figured the favor but they've had a tough time winning on the road over the last nine weeks they are six and three they won six at home they lost three on the road now they had this problem a year ago at the end of the season they lost three of their last four on the road they lost the home field advantage and they wound up losing to cincinnati in the afc championship game at cincinnati now they close out this season the same way they have three of their last four games on the road and now i would think that marv levy hopes they do not have the same scenario as they had a year ago because if they figured that it really cost him a shot at the super bowl he doesn't want that scenario and he doesn't want a scenario he has now seen twice in the last four weeks four weeks ago they went into atlanta figured to beat the stumbling and bumbling falcons and the next thing you know they went home with a loss 30-28 two weeks ago they went to foxborough where the patriots were stumbling and they went home with a loss again so marv levy doesn't want to see a repeat and as frank said he doesn't want to see a repeat of last year he would love to see this team get hot and finish with a flourish in december and of course remain hot through the playoffs they are coming off their best outing of the season last week's dominating 24-7 victory over cincinnati they accomplished that without cornelius bennett and they'll have to do it tonight against seattle without cornelius bennett he has a knee injury he is inactive so dan buffalo of course thinks playoffs seattle not thinking playoffs they're thinking survival right now what's the state of this team at the moment well i guess if you're a seahawk fan al the number one thing you're here tonight watching for us to see if steve largent can make his 100th touchdown reception and become the all-time leader in nfl history that's goal number one secondly though i think is the future of chuck knox chuck knox has been a coach in the national football league head coach for 17 years he fully expects to be back here next year he told us this morning i've got two years left on my contract i expect to honor it he has received a vote of confidence from his owner from his general manager and i said to chuck knox i said hey coach are you burned out he said no i'm not burned out but i'm plenty burned up and he has been very often in the last month in particular and especially so last week when they were destroyed by denver 41-14 in the game the broncos led at halftime 38 to nothing and so it's knox with larget very much in the spotlight tonight and four games remaining in his illustrious career and back they go with dave craig who had started the first 10 games of the season at quarterback they had gone with kelly's stocker the last two weeks and he is probably their quarterback of the future but right now knox thinking about the present trying to close out the year with some victories and seattle will get the ball as we begin the final game of week 13. scott norwood who last week became the all-time leading scorer in buffalo bills history eclipsing o.j simpson's mark he'll be kicking off kevin harmon and david hollis are back deep harman is number 34 and he is the brother of the bill's ronnie harmon who plays a lot in third down situation and the two the younger brothers of derrick harmon the former san francisco 49er running back so from seattle here we go as norwood puts it in the air and fielded at the 10-yard line by david holland and the former unlv star brings it out to the 31-yard line and already a skirmish jamie mueller involved in it with the buffalo bills [Applause] now that that leads us right to what uh chuck knox told us about how he wants his team to play buffalo hard he thinks that buffalo might hold a physical advantage over his club as being bigger and stronger and he wants his seahawks to play a little in your face football tonight the seahawks once again it's dave craig 15 touchdowns but 16 interceptions leading them up to the 31-yard line john l williams and kurt warner get the start in the backfield and craig will go right to the air and he drops it off underneath warner who makes a nice move to elude one tackler and takes it to the 44-yard line and we'll take a look at that seattle offense john l williams has been banged up derek benner started last week along with warner in the backfield and right now it's warner and williams brian blades and of course large at the wide receivers travis mcneil the rookie tight end andy heck was their number one draft choice but the offensive line very inconsistent and the seahawks have had a very difficult time getting a running game going 13-yard pickup first down at the 44-yard line and this is williams with a nice slip move and he takes it into buffalo territory and they've got a running game going at the outset tonight as he takes it to the 43-yard line bentley and kelso in on the tackle last year buffalo's defense was dominant not as good this year and we'll take a look at their front three still smirless and the great one bruce smith number 78 again bennett is out radicek takes his place conlon back after an injury bentley and tally the other linebackers and the secondary burroughs will have to retire jackson and odom at the corner smith and kelso the safety derrick burrows heard in game three this year final injury and the bill is suggesting he retires at the end of the year officially at the 42-yard line first down for seattle as craig hits largent at the 20-yard line for another first down tackled by kirby jackson and the seahawks come out smokey and frank they don't waste any time getting steve large and catch number one the streak continues that's precise routes he's working against kirby jackson takes it down little move like he might take it upfield jackson bought it he breaks inside and working with steve large and dave craig they have been together so long it's a little bit different than it was kelly stopper over the past week at denver and the week before that totally different they just worked so well together 174 consecutive games in which largen has caught a pass a first down at the 18-yard line and kurt warner takes it to the 15 for a gain of about three bruce smith in on the tackle it'll be second down and seven it's just mind-boggling to realize that that was the 811th reception for steve larsen and of course we told you he needs that one touchdown pass they don't mind going to him deep down in this area and i think that probably they probably like to get rid of this well and it's no given that he's going to get a touchdown reception in these final four games it's it's not that uncommon to go four games without a touchdown catch second and seven from the 15. opening drive of the game and john l williams tries to get a block from warner and then barrels through down to the 12-yard line he is stopped by scott radichek about three yards short of the first down it'll be third and three again radicek who filled in so capably for marv levy when shane conlon was hurt now spelling cornelius bennett and on third and three with the four wide receiver set coming in for seattle radisson comes out the extra defensive backs come in third and three at the 12. john hagee and mickey sutton into the secondary for buffalo and craig floats it into the end zone and too far intended for lewis clark who has covered very well by mickey sutton and in comes the field goal unit sutton the former rand started this season with the packers and winds up in buffalo and craig after a most auspicious beginning on that drive shakes his head as he comes off and norm johnson comes in but a good drive for seattle to get a little confidence that they can move the ball they did move the ball with williams on the ground and i know they wanted to come in moving the ball on the ground to try and offset a little bit of the pass rush of buffalo and they could do that steve largent to hold it's a 29-yard attempt for norm johnson and the opening drive pays off with a field goal so seattle gets three on a minute and 56 second opening drive at the kingdom at the kingdome in seattle the seahawks are top three nothing and norm johnson to kick off and the average start for the opposition after johnson has kicked off has been the 20-yard line as you saw a second best in the national football league so he normally boots them deep harman and bibi are back to receive and it is a typical johnson kick deep enough to be downed in the end zone by bibi and we'll take a look at jim kelly and the buffalo offense as they commence drive number one at the 20-yard line kelly having probably his best season he started the usfl with houston then to buffalo thurman thomas and larry kennebu a formidable running tandem james watson of course started the season with the raiders was wave picked up by buffalo along with reed the wide outs and the offensive line the veteran offensive line and they begin with a double tight end set keith mckeller and pete metzeler when the keller starting in motion and number two flip-flopping from the 20-yard line kindergarten sets up on a wing and thurman thomas cuts inside kinderbru's block and takes it out to the 24-yard line where jeff bryant makes the tackle defensively for seattle 26 years of experience up front green in his 10th season nash and bryant each in their eighth ryan bosworth on injured reserve with a shoulder problem so there's the foursome the quartet of linebackers for the seahawks harper and hunter of the corners glasgow and robinson are the safety the seahawks have been particularly vulnerable to the run and that has been buffalo's primary strength of late second and six and through the middle goes kennebrew the one-time bengal who sat out last year after a contract dispute and now has a second life ml johnson makes the tackle you touched on the running of buffalo they are second in the nfl whereas seattle is 25th against the rush both teams coming in here tonight trying to run the football however buffalo much more capable of doing just that sherman thomas having a great season over a thousand yards last week and the great receiver as well 47 catches harmon and bibi come in out of the shotgun third and three kingdome gets noisy and kelly has it batted back and incomplete and knocking it down at the line of scrimmage joe nash and jeff bryant fulfiller and we also have a penalty i think paul starts 68 it's actually 69 will wolford the left tackle rolls out of his stance early there's wolford and that may be attributed to the crowd noise the offensive tackle is the guy in the formation that's pretty well removed from the quarterback it's awful difficult to hear the signal and wolford no no question rolls out early he's to the right side of your screen and a classic head start and you just have to attribute that to not hearing the quarterback clearly a false start negates the play of course there was no play so it's third and eight from the 22. kelly protected well and the pass is incomplete leading reed a bit too much and the bills are forced to catch andre reid one more catch will tie him with elbert dubinian for the all-time buffalo receiving record and of course a second catch gives him the mark alone in the kick john kidd in his sixth season out of northwestern [Applause] and david hollis back to receive at the seahawk 30-yard line [Music] rush was on but he gets it away it bounces at the 40-yard line and hollis lets it bounce out of bounds at the 37 until the seahawks begin their next drive at that spot with 9 minutes and 13 seconds to play in the opening quarter at the kingdom in seattle [Music] monday next week on abc sports well there it is with seattle having the ball steve largent last week touchdown catch number 99 tying don hudson for that mark you saw the other names in the top five and there he is split out to the right on first and ten and sent in motion from the 37-yard line as dave craig retreats under some heat and then slings the ball to the 50-yard line caught by travis mcneil and the tight end ambling inside the 30 the 20 to the 16-yard line hello what a play by dave frank sensing bruce smith coming from the backside stepping up and then delivering the ball off ballast bruce smith i'm sure thought he had a sack seattle which hasn't had a play over 32 yards long all season gets their longest play of the year that's a bernie kozar toss frank and then watch mcneal rumble 6-3 248-pound rookie 48-yard pickup to the tight end his fourth catch of the season first and ten seattle at the 15-yard line and here's john l williams taking it to the 13 for a gain of a couple stopped by shane conlon and i think right about now is when it's beginning to dawn on marv levy in the buffalo bills that they may have a game on their hands well dan mentioning the longest play of the season had been 32 yards no team has ever gone through a season without a pass play of 40 plus yards and seattle goes to week 13 before they pull one off second and eight from the 13-yard line it's larger than the slot to the right craig looking to the right throwing to the corner and off the fingertips of scancy he was covered by nate odoms it'll be third and eight give an assist to kirby jackson the cornerback of buffalo craig wanted to go to largent jackson with outside coverage help on the inside and he was able to take away larger than so craig tried to go back to scansi here's large at 47 kirby jackson and he went right into jackson playing it just super to the outside he had a little help on the inside so he could stay to the outside that's about as slick as a tandem you'll see the way odom's and jackson twitched receivers in the secondary that's as good as it gets third and eight with both largen and glade wide to the right craig out of the shotgun and looking left and wide open is scancy and stancey's still on his feet a flag goes down and he's out of bounds inside the five i would assume that's a face mask penalty leonard smith number 46. and that that really you can't blame on leonard smith he's coming in to make the tackle and scancy kind of ducks his head smith i'm sure felt it was the only way he could save the touchdown we'll take it on halfway to the goal line it is it comes up underneath and he can't hardly help it that's not a face mask he really never grabbed hold of the face mask and finally mickey sutton comes in and saves the touchdown but boy leonard smith granted he got the hand up alongside the helmet but he never actually grabbed the face mask he hit him so hard in the helmet it looked as the head popped back that it caught that hand in the face mask that's nothing new leonard's hitting someone hard first and goal at the one warner and williams are the setbacks and it's kurt warner and he can only get to the line of scrimmage and maybe a couple of inches beyond shane conlon and when we saw conlon in week two being taken off the field with that knee injury at buffalo in the denver game we figured that was it for the season but he missed six weeks and i don't think i've ever seen anything well i have seen other things happen in pro football that was sickening that night you just knew he was never going to play again much less come back this season and he's back marv levy the coach says he's back at full strength now and if any evidence was last week he came up with seven tackles a block pass and interception so he is back out of the eye three tight end set second and goal and warner looking for a seam in the middle he's a touchdown kurt warner and then mark levy and the bills didn't know a short while ago they know now marv is thinking to himself i'm sure didn't i see this in atlanta and foxboro recently well we we talked to marv last evening what's the first thing he's told us how all week long he's been trying to sell his ball club on how we stumbled earlier this season against teams we probably should have beaten and well they're off to about as bad a start as a team could get off to and look at the second effort there by kurt warner hit by a couple of bills they say he was in we'll have to take their word for it he was under there somewhere but that was as fine and effort as kurt warner can get steve has trouble with the snap it was a low snap and steve larsen scores the extra point how great is that the second time in his career he has done just that great presence too and you don't mean christmas he knew he could never get that ball it snapped a little low and the way he handled it he knew right away that he could never get it up in time for the conversion you'll see it again the ball just a little low he short hops it and he knows right there i got to get out of here well he knows where the end zone is that's for sure yeah grant feazel the snapper clearly delivered it low and it was very good work by larger just handling the ball getting it up to the point where johnson could kick it if he wouldn't have already passed it but as you mentioned that's just fine presence of mind and another reason they have the sure-handed types handling the ball as a holder there it is you know that's also a smart play by johnson finding himself in that situation and not going ahead and making some half attempt at trying to kick it if he if he knocks that ball out of largest hands it's got no chance of going through the uprights he was the one who really had the presence be he just didn't even go through with it reading that from johnson takes it off into the end zone get the feeling that things might go right for seattle tonight we certainly have so far well steve larsen has been in the end zone 99 times as a receiver twice running the ball in his career and twice on extra points as johnson puts it in the air it bounces at the two and bounces into the end zone and harmon will run it out and they'll take it at the 20. one time in his career largent rushed for a touchdown once 99 of course receptions tying hudson forth for that honor and now the second time he's done it on an extra point seattle on top there it is 602 points i wonder what would be talking about at the 1976 houston had not decided to trade their fourth round draft pick to seattle for an eighth-round draft pick that draft pick of course steve large buffalo begins at the 20-yard line first and ten 6 49 to go in the quarter thomas to the outside tries to cut it back and gets wrapped up by the seattle defense led by m.l johnson and what a difference a week makes last week seattle played a horrible first half trailed 39-38 to nothing at intermission in denver and tonight on top 10-nothing second to nine at the 21. james lofton wide of the left that's thomas split out to the right along with reed kennebru stays in the block and the catch is not made by reed at the 29-yard line it's incomplete he never had control nesbi glasgow in on the coverage boy that's the tackle by glasgow that pulls reed away from the ball now reed should have caught it it's an excellent pass right there right in the hands but watch how glasgow pulls him away as he's trying to pull it in towards his body ball just a little bit behind but very catchable for a receiver as gifted as andre reid for on third and nine from the 21. four-man rush kelly under pressure and incomplete under a furious rush out of time jeff ryan and jacob green leading the charge he tried to get it back out to read reid was open but kelly had to deliver the ball long before he wanted to let's pick up the rush again he's going to come in from the right side of your screen here comes jeff bryant right around the corner they call that a twist up front defensive end loops back to the inside and brian comes up untouched and for his efforts is more than happy to put that helmet right in the sternum of jim kelly john kidd his second kick is a beauty palace at the 28 yard line gets a block and is finally run out of bounds at the 40-yard line 51-yard kick and a 12-yard run back it was jeff wright who threw the block springing them and out of the 40 they'll begin this drive with 5 47 to go in the opening quarter and the opening quarter has belonged to the seahawks trying to bounce back they lead by 10. seattle on top 10 to nothing took the opening kickoff drove for a field goal buffalo's really moving the ball aren't they eight yards first and ten seattle from the 40-yard line and craig is going to air it out for a large and but too deep and it is picked off by nate odoms and he steps out of bounds at the 33-yard line the play is over but buffalo gets it back on one play and that is a horrible pass he just locked into him dan and odomes was on the outside kelso was on the inside arjun took it up field broke it to the outside and broke right into odom's and had to break under him and craig threw it where he thought he was going to be and he hits odin's right in the hands well he just overthrows dave overthrows steve largent rather by a good four yards and enlarge it was actually about six or seven yards back behind it put together a tremendous effort just to get close enough to force the out of bounds odom's last year had just one interception he had three in the first two games this year and that's his first since monday night the 18th of september as kelly's pass intended for lofton is well overthrown and it's second and ten a reminder that next week week 14 of beauty from anaheim where the 49ers go south to take on the rams san francisco with a mark of 11-2 after yesterday's win over atlanta and the rams are hot again start of the season with five consecutive wins and a four-game losing streak and now a four-game winning streak next monday second and ten from the 24 yard line the big bulls kennebrew takes it out to the 28th where m.l johnson the linebacker makes the tackle they list kennebrew at 2 56. and uh what are they saying about 265 really depends on what he had for lunch but it's somewhere in the mid 260s for brew and he will just he'll take it out on a on a front seven i mean it's it's not only what he gets on a particular play but it's the wearing down process as the game goes on it the big help to thurman thomas third down and six from the 28 yard line and they give it to thomas on the ground and he cuts it back and he takes it out to the 35-yard line he is pushed back and his forward progress should net him the first down porter and hollis in on the tackle and let's see where they put it down oh it's going to be close it'll be a first down they put it down at the 35. as we've watched him over the last two years it seems he just gets better with the amount of time and the amount of work and the amount of carriage that he gets here he is again and as the season has grown on thomas is getting more calls each week young man carried the ball over 900 times at oklahoma state so he's used to it first and 10 from the 35-yard line kelly over the middle that's the tight end pete metzelars taking it at the 40 where he's tackled by darren cuomo after a pickup of about five and emil johnson also there on the play metzelars glad to be back here at the kingdome originally drafted by the seattle seahawks and then was traded to buffalo so he's no stranger to these surroundings and what a target he makes at six seven a good blocking tight end which you have to be with the buffalo running game but metzeler is also one of those guys with good soft hands that's kelly's first completion jim is one out of five for that six yard gain making it second and four from the 41. kelly pump faking twice and then sliding out to the 46-yard line and it should be enough for a first down green and woods in on the tackle that's where the slide is not necessarily a quarterback's great friend jim kelly that time slid and got hit by three seahawks simultaneously i don't know that that worked out quite the way he planned but nonetheless he does pick up the first down and do not ever question that man's toughness a leader by just the very definition of being a leader he is a leader because he is he steps into the huddle he owns it he does 2 55 to play in the opening quarter 10-0 seattle on first down with mckellar in motion it's thurman thomas taking it across the 50 and tackled at the 47 of seattle by david wyman after a pickup of about seven and keith mckeller one of those tight ends led the way frank we look at running backs all the time i i guess i can suffice to say there are life in them thar legs and al touched on something else not only does he give you this and he got a good brock from kennebru but he is a good receiver he came into tonight nearly 50 receptions and over 550 yards what an offensive machine he's been yeah i mean if you project that out you're looking at a guy that may end up with over 1200 yards and and maybe 60 plus receptions that's that's a lot of talent second and seven the up back kennebrew takes it to the 46-yard line setting up a third down and two and wyman again in on the tackle dave in his third year out of stanford and having a good year bill's down 10 to nothing showing what they would like to do and that is gold a safe pass high percentage stuff and get the running game going the average 151 yards coming into tonight that's what they'd like to see generated here tonight three tight ends in here third and a short two mueller and kinnebrew the two bruisers in the backfield and it's kinderbrew to the outside and tackled by eugene robinson the safety comes up to knock him down in the backfield if you're are going to take a big man down like kennebu weighs about 260 and you weigh about 185 there's only one place to drop him he could leap on his back and get a ride but he'd get the first down and he came in low and down went kennebu short of the first down good tackle by eugene robinson look once again but frank if you're going to tackle kinebrew you'd like to get him going parallel to the line of scrimmage and that's exactly the way that robinson got him there kennebu trying to get around the corner rather than attacking the line of scrimmage so the bills get two first downs this drive stalls and kids kick just does go into the end zone steve pasker was down there to try to knock it down at the one but couldn't and seattle will take over at the 20 with 41 seconds remaining in the opening quarter robinson better to get the big man going the other way beautiful tackle by eugene robinson buffalo stumbling through the opening quarter here at seattle where the seahawks lead it 10 to nothing have the ball at the 20-yard line [Applause] and dave craig leads them to the line first and 10 from the 20. 41 seconds to play in the opening period john l williams coming back from a knee injury he missed last week's game at denver and played sparingly the week before that against the giants picks up one it'll be second down to nine conlon in on the tackle and he was missed so much when he was out of the lineup williams he had almost 900 yards rushing a year ago and 58 receptions and when you're at target like largent that's nate odoms you get this kind of treatment there is no respect for a future hall of fame i can assure you of that that's also called defensive holding i mean you're allowed to give the guy in too you're allowed to give the guy a check but nate uh got away with grabbing the jersey and tossing steve around and the clean sides of the field is the first quarter concludes in seattle seahawks on top by a score of 10 to nothing and abc's monday night football returns after this message in a word from our ebc the kingdom in seattle we begin the second quarter seattle on top 10 nothing it's second and nine for the seahawks at the 21-yard line bruce smith nearly jumps and he does in fact a free play for warner and seattle as he takes it out to the 28-yard line two flags are down and we'll take another look at that jump by smith giving assist to dave craig there with the hard snap count that got big bruce to move and that's you know what i'm having trouble doing is i'm having a difficult time watching the seahawks with the ball and not concentrating on steve largent if you love this game if you have deep feelings for this game like we all do i mean i would like to be here and see history made i i every time they have the ball i'm looking forward to catching have a good shot at it i think that's on the mind too of chuck knox the entire seattle seahawk organization they love this man he has been through the good years the bad years and he has played it one way and that is a hundred percent during the time he was on injured reserve earlier this year actually was not on injury reverse but he had damage to double early in the season and was out he'd come out and work out and when he was ready to come back he started working out with pads even working out by himself going through the game plan all on his own that kind of stuff filters down to the entire ball club seahawks accept the penalty instead of the play which had netted two more yards but would have cost them a down unless it is second and four from the 26 yard line and warner fights his way across the 30 and that's a seattle first down crew smith makes the tackle and let's take a look at the numbers through the first 15 minutes of play weighted over to the right-hand side of that column 120 yards total offense for seattle to 37 for the build but notice that the critical time of possession is exactly the same i mean the two teams came into tonight's game seattle was at ranked 27th on offense in the entire nfl that's next to last buffalo ranks second overall and the numbers are just the opposite first down seahawks at the 31 with larger going in motion and craig looking that way and largent had trouble turning around and it's incomplete off his fingertips and you don't see that very much second down well it's time right now for buffalo and their high-powered defense i mean the heart and soul of this buffalo squad is their defensive unit and now down by 10 points it's time for these guys to to earn their pay it's time for bruce smith and freddie smirlos and art still and all these guys granted cornelius bennett isn't in the lineup tonight but there's plenty of talent on that team to go around when you're down you look for your number one group of guys to make a play [Applause] second and ten from just outside the 30-yard line williams tries to cut it back and gets wrapped up and thrown down by smirles and uh he heard you dance well that's that's really what you look for i mean this is a defensive team that's been somewhat of a disappointment to marv levy and and the buffalo people they haven't always played up to their expectations there is freddie smirless right here and this is nothing more than penetration now he's aided by a blitz all the way along the front you see ray bentley coming in on the blitz as well radasek coming from the outside and that's just good play by the nose tackle fred smurler multiple pro bowl guy and that's the reason why third and 12 out of the shotgun with four receivers and the pass is incomplete out of the 34-yard line off the hands of benny's blaze covered by kirby jackson and seattle is forced to kick early in the second quarter chuck knox two years remaining on his contract is he under some fire well let me coach at four and eight is gonna be under some fire you're gonna have the the letters to the editor and some media pressure and all of that one of the winningest coaches around you with the rams five division titles went up to buffalo won the division up there came here and turned a seattle seahawks team totally around in the playoffs a couple of times won the division a year ago held on hard times this year low snap johnson gets it away and a good kick at the 28-yard line it's mickey sutton and he brings it back out to the 39-yard line you know one of the things getting back to chuck knox he's got the added burden of having a former coach as his general manager tom flores one of the people that's been talked about as maybe a replacement don't look for it to happen [Music] if you're like me you appreciate value whether it's in finding tom flores probably waiting for a phone call he says i've never seen more rumors about what i'm going to do with nobody calling me standard practice at the 39-yard line first and ten buffalo kelly off the fingertips of andre reid it'll be second and ten and we can tell you that coming up saturday abc's college basketball and we'll present two great matchups for you two o'clock eastern time duke against defending national champion michigan and then following that for eastern time we'll be taking a look at north carolina dean smith in your picture right there taking on the iowa buckeyes we are going to be hearing a lot about michigan as we head down to the bowl games in the rose bowl and the man on my right i'm quite sure [Applause] like your team's not playing in the rose bowl let me get around to the wager second and ten from the 39 yard line and the catch is made and that's reed flipping tackles getting inside the 30 the 20 the 10 and andre reed scores the touchdown breaking tackles along the way and tying albert duvenian for most receptions in the history of the buffalo bill franchise well you have to wonder how a white shirt can be in the midst of that many blue shirts and not be brought to the ground the first guy to hit him was nesby glasgow first thing he did right was he kicked the ball from kelly with the fine catch now just concentration here look at them stripped off him you had a couple glancing blows but glasgow's the guy that actually got in position to wrap him all the way up and boy a lot of seahawks futilely chasing reed into the end zone talked about it early he is a control ball player ball control or a game breaker scott norwood with kid holding kicks it through so a 61-yard touchdown reception by andre reid melvin jenkins number 24 is the corner to slide up initially and after jenkins allows reed to get to the inside everyone else takes the turn and watch andre go andre reid no doubt one of the premier receivers in the national football league drew kelly on the other end of that pass and buffalo is within three one of the critiques of the bill's offense a year ago about the wide receivers none of them had any speed andre reed maybe isn't one of the fastest around but he had enough foot speed on that location norwood puts it in the air and angles it fielded at the 10-yard line this is kevin harmon brings it out to the 26-yard line where the tackle is made by mark pike who is a special teams demon for them look how jim kelly threads that pass in there and andre reed just breaks tackle after tackle there's eugene robinson sliding in nesby glasgow is all over him and slides off and hey guys remember when we saw andre reed earlier in the year and we were talking about what a powerful muscular structure he has he's got some of the most powerful legs of any wide receiver in the national football league and he really showed how he can use it there a very strong wide receiver almost looks like a small version of a first intense seattle from the 27-yard line it's warner picking up three kirk takes it out to the 30-yard line he is tackled there by jeff wright and a flag is down and the indication against seattle for a whole hold 65 offense first down edwin bailey marv levy leading buffalo last year into the playoffs but again uh seeking this time home field advantage but it's going to be difficult because even if he wins tonight they would still be a game behind denver for best overall record in the afc if denver and buffalo would have finished with the same record the best in the afc the home field would still belong to denver if they were to go to the afc championship game because of a monday night game on first and twenty the catch is made by warner and he is wrapped up and taken down by scott radicek remember the first first to first tie breaker in the playoffs would be head to head if the two teams had played each other and wind up let's say with the best records in the conference there it is the bills have won the sixth straight at home three losses on the road so the home field would be very important but denver would have the home field because they beat buffalo in a monday night game week two now the ironies of irony is that's the only home game the bills have lost in two years and it's a team that they could lose a home field advantage to because they lost her home [Applause] second and 20 from the 17-yard line just over that again after certainly in slow motion warner makes the catch at the 20 and takes it out to the 29-yard line where kirby jackson makes the tackle and he's about eight yards shy of the first down third and eight spotted closer to the 30-yard line caught a third down and seven under 11 minutes to play in the first half with seattle on top 10 to 7. [Applause] and the whistle blowing the play dead before its inception and it will go against seattle so that will back them up five more and create a third down and 12. false start number 66 offense well they're flagging andy heck the left tackle this is andy heck right here let's take a look watch the ball oh yeah that's a good call you can see heck starting to rock back in his stance and you know that's easy to do when you're in that two-point stance i call it a two-point stance because you only have your two feet on the ground you haven't dropped a hand and it's easy to just rock back on your haunches a little bit you see it all the time a lot of line judges will let you get away with it not that time third and 12. and craig airing it out down the sideline and knocked away intended for jeff chadwick and knocked away by mickey sutton and knox and the seahawks are furious they want an interference call which they don't get nor should they get from here that looked like just fabulous coverage by mickey sutton the former rams and the former detroit lion picked up a few weeks ago and that's chadwick 6-3 and they are just going up because he has the height over a mickey sutton and he has strived for stride they're little contact but not enough to draw the flag that much contact is allowed they have liberalized over the years what a defensive back can get away with reuben rodriguez feels the high snap at the 39-yard line it is sutton who covered on that last play and runs the kick back to the 48-yard line so near midfield the buffalo bills will begin their next drive with exactly 10 minutes to play in the first half near seattle buffalo coast through the 1982 season then in his second season interesting note here coming into play this weekend in the afc thurman thomas top rusher jim kelly top passer andre reed top receiver no team in the history of the league has had conference champions in all three categories and here we are three quarters of the way through the season as kinderbrew takes the ball across the 50-yard line and just into seattle territory seattle on top 10-7 with 9 45 to play in the half the kingdom it used to be a house of horrors for the opposition but not so this year and relatively quiet at the moment [Applause] seahawks just one victory at home second and seven the fake the kinnebrew and then the catches made on the far side by james lufton and we've talked so much about larger tonight and mr lofton of course up near the top of the charts in so many categories the great years of green bay two of the raiders and now in buffalo and patrick hunter has to respect the speed of james loston he still has it of course a great long jumper in his years at stanford good run around a nine five nine six hundred did that for years and according to marv levy the bill's head coach he's still got it and he thought he just had to get him in there roughly 200 catches behind largemouth you know remarkable first down at the 39-yard line and here's thomas swinging to the outside nearly taken down but stays on his feet and gets to the 30-yard line some things money can't buy and that's one of them the ability to run with a football like that boy it looked to me like he was on his way down look at those thighs look at tony woods number 57 who really gets a good pull on thomas well you just have to think a lot of backs would have been down and it's left to eugene robinson to finally get him out of bounds that's that's sweet by thurman thomas carries a couple of hundred pounds on a five foot ten frame and we talked about andre reed's lower body well frank thomas has got one also huge size and he can just pound two tackles second in a long yard from the 30 and here's thomas again tucked inside kennebu and takes it down to the 19-yard line the first down for the bills ninebrew again leading the way well there's a situation where thurman didn't have to do a whole lot on his own that's tremendous blocking at the point of attack starting with wolford and richard on the left side he gets a great lead block from larry kinnebrew and this is just thurman thomas not even being challenged until he's about nine or ten yards into the secondary [Music] and the bills are going back to what they came into this game trying to do and they are starting to click they're starting to be able to move the ball on the ground the second leading rushing team in the nfl into the night that's 39 yards on six carries for thomas who tries to pick up a few more and gets about three where tony woods makes the stop at the 16-yard line so he's averaging about six yards of carry is thomas coming in tonight averaging 4.4 of course that used to be seattle's strong point but the seahawks one of the reasons for their problems this year the lack of a russian game seattle averaging 3.6 yards a carry as a team and the bill's 4.4 and that is a huge [Music] difference [Applause] at the 16. on second and seven kelly throwing knocked away picked off at the two-yard line by eugene robinson who plucks it out of the air for the turnover wayne harper dwayne harper number 29 is the guy that makes it happen though what coverage and timing by dwayne harper on flip johnson boy now that's how there's harper seeing right at the bottom of your screen he'll come back into play the quick slant to johnson and look at that play by harper and then it's just alert play by eugene robinson good pressure in the part of the defense of seattle to push right into the face of kelly kelly had to throw that ball high and that set off a whole string of events that comes up with the interception chuck knox lamenting the fact seattle with very few interceptions this season that's only their seventh in week 13 four of them by robinson and as you saw their first in over a month from the seven yard line warner takes it after the 12. stop by ray bentley the inside line back in number 50. funny how it takes a combination of things to all make up what happens in a particular play you get the rush that time you get the high throw by kelly you get the aggressive play on a corner by harper you get the alert play by a safety and eugene robinson and it all adds up to an interception a lot of components going to make this one particular play in the course of the football game second and five seattle from the 12-yard line large in motion with odom staying with him and warner tries to find a little gap and takes it out to the 15-yard line setting up a third and two scott radicek in on the tackle so third and two for the seahawks with six minutes to play in the first half these two teams last year both going to the playoffs buffalo beating houston at rick stadium before losing to cincinnati and it was seattle winning the afc west but having to go on the road for their first playoff game at cincinnati and the bengals won it third and two from the 15-yard line it's warner on the inside handoff has to get to the 17 gets to the 19-yard line a first down pretty much doing it on his own mark kelso coming up to spill him wither warner in his sixth year and banged up and uh of course he had an operation a career threatening injury a few years ago but what about kurt in 1990 that's one of the key questions in terms of the future of this franchise into the night averaging just 3.3 yards per carry and under 500 yards he's going over that now but he's had four 1000 yard seasons and as you said it out there a lot of people thought his career was over that second year when he tore up the knee also some talented young backs on his seahawk route from the 18 on first down the catch is made by warner and he goes out of bounds kirby jackson forcing him out but not until he picks up 11 and gets to the 29 first down this is something seattle started to do against denver and that is go to warner on the pass ordinarily they take him out in a passing situation but they went to him five times against denver and they've been looking for him tonight and they've been finding him in key situations like that and he gets the first down well they're locking him up one on one with scott radasek the outside linebacker and i think that's something seattle's going to try to take advantage of if warner can get to the outside of radissek radastech's not going to catch it here's john l williams tackled out at the 31-yard line by ray bentley after a minimal game it will be second down and nine running with 4 20 to play first half [Applause] for the victory tonight buffalo would be two up on miami in the afc and again they'd have the second best record in the entire conference second to denver's ten and three second to nine from the thirty-one trade under pressure and sacked back at the 20-yard line leon seals got to him first number 96. seal's coming in in past rush situations and does his job that time actually plenty of time for craig to hit a receiver ordinarily you would think that he could release the ball but he had all three of his men into a deep pattern no checkoff man whether or not by mistake it's hard to tell but they were also deep that craig had nowhere to put it yeah and that's the that's the case frank where by not having a check off man it's not so much completing it to him but you've got to have someone nearby to at least sail it over his head to throw the ball away absolutely it would lead one to believe that maybe somebody blew it third and 20 and they set up a screen over the middle and it's williams down past the 30 and he takes it to the 35 but they get only 15 of the 20 and will be forced to kick as kirby jackson comes up to make the tackle yeah but a good call is his high percentage you're not going to turn it over with that kind of a pass a little screen pass you have a chance to get the first down in a safe way and as it is they get the ball up to the 35-yard line a much better area to kick the ball and they did not have to take the risk it's one of those drives that doesn't net any points but it sure tacks a lot on after that interception by robinson you get a couple of first downs and rather than kicking it away from your own 10 you're clear up by the 35. that's that's a big big difference a successful drive for seattle parker level's snap is high and rodriguez covers up back at the eight yard line but it is buffalo ball first and goal so much for the drive that netted several first downs a couple of bad snaps now by labelle ironic that we were talking to chuck knox this morning about people who snapped the football he says you have to keep someone on your roster just to do this that's a good way to get off of it we've seen a bad snap of the conversion now a bad snap on the punt that's steve tasker that gets all the way back in there and smothers the ball pretty easy play by tasker chasing a punter who's rolling around on the ground and a critical error by the seahawks gives the buffalo bills excellent field position first and goal just inside the they block 10-yard line ends to kennebu on a wing and give it to thomas to the strong side and he takes it down to a boppy six yard line it'll be second and goal with 228 to play in the first half and i guess when the 1989 season comes to a close that'll be one more play that chuck knox can talk about that kind of characterizes everything that's happened this year it is i said coach has it been a bad year and he looked at us and said no it's been the worst and of course he was able to go back and pinpoint things not in a way of making a whole lot of excuses but i think he was just trying to dramatize what has happened all the things that have gone so well for the seattle seahawks particularly last year over the years seemed to have gone totally wrong this year and there is another example of it and buffalo is threatening now to take the lead as we are at the two-minute warning second and goal when we come back [Music] after the barn door has been closed practice makes perfect i guess harper labelle snapping on the sidelines rusty tillman the special teams goes for the seahawks and his unit has given buffalo a golden opportunity it's second down and goal from the six with kinnebru sent in motion and thomas running that way has to come back the other way in a great play by number 22 nesby glasgow that is a nine yard loss puts it back to the 15. emma johnson running through kinebrew to help set it up for glasgow do you know who really makes that happen though is jacob green watch jacob green number 79 look at the head start he gets right in the middle of your screen and then he takes away the cutback from thurman thomas so thomas is forced to do that 180 spin all the way around and glasgow makes the play give the credit to 79. jacob green kelly shouting as they come up in the gun on third and goal too long intended for ronnie harmon who goes out bo jackson's tunnel last time we saw somebody run through that tunnel it was beau at the end of his 93-yard stamper here pressure again by greene on that play and good coverage by the rookie chris hale who took the pass away from kelly and kelly had to hurry it and he just threw it out of the end zone to save the interception or the sack so scott norwood now will attempt a 32-yard field goal john kidd holding hey somebody tell this crowd that their clubs only won four ball games will you it's perfect norwood boots it through but they can't get into the end zone with a first and goal have to settle for three and they tie it up with a minute and eight seconds to play in the first half and marv levy takes very little satisfaction from that field goal that's a situation where you'd like to see a touchdown you expect a touchdown from an offensive team as talented as the bills that's a that's a victory for seattle and their defensive team and thanks to the defense for seattle they make the best out of a bad situation could have put them behind so the game tied 10-10 next week of course will be in anaheim 49ers against the rams and the rams began the year with five victories and four losses and now four wins and number four yesterday in the current streak against dallas and everett does it again as he did in new orleans the prior sunday two late touchdowns this one to aaron cox putting the rams ahead for good at the end they had a tough time with the cowboys but the rams prevail 35-31 rams go to 9-4 and we see them against the 49ers a week from tonight i think the beginning of the rams losing streak frank was a game uh up in buffalo it was buffalo that started the rams on their losing streak with a tremendous comeback orchestrated by frank wright who was filling in for uh for jim kelly and led the bills to three straight win and from there they went from bad to worse they lost four straight as al pointed out streaky in both ways they certainly do appear though to have it back together again carmen and hollis back to receive the kick norwood putting it in the air fielded by harman near the goal line and he gets buried at about the 17-yard line all three time-outs remain for the seahawks with a minute and three seconds left in the hand well what will make you laugh make you cry in his three hours long besides tonight's game that's what it says here it's abc's all-star tuesday with who's the boss the wonder years roseanne coach and 30-something that's tomorrow night right here on abc also at halftime we've been talking a lot about steve largent we're going to take a close-up look at a extraordinary young man both on the field and off from the 17-yard line frey going right to the air and he winds up hitting brian blades and blades is out of bounds out at the 28-yard line the brother of benny blades and i'm not the first or last i'm sure to have called him i think benny one time before brian blades making his own very large mark here in seattle that's his 62nd catch of the season if you look at him again the leading receiver for the seahawks i'm sure he'll never forget last week against the denver broncos it was a 38-nothing blowout in the first half of that game by denver but he had a chance right in his hands kelly stopper put a pass that he could have taken 96 yards for a touchdown and he dropped it from the 29 yard line again it's a shirt tackle lewis clark the receiver and john hagee dragging him down well on the last one it was nate odoms that showed a little tenacity hanging onto the jersey of blades and that time lewis clark gets flung by his jersey might be time for these receivers from seattle to start wearing some tighter jerseys something like the offensive lineman wear look at this that's that's just making it easy to be tackled with a baggy jersey or the tearaway jobs if this was alabama we'd have seen two touchdowns on the last two plays a tearaway jersey is illegal in the next year it is certainly saves on the wardrobe and alabama we'll be seeing them i guess huh new year's night in the sugar bowl against the miami hurricane who's number one i guess colorado is the only team that has it in their own destiny and everyone else michigan miami alabama everyone i guess still alive miami number two right now although alabama after their lost auburn clearly needs a whole lot of help second and five from the 34-yard line craig fires to the far side and no at the 42-yard line yes the catch was made and then out of bounds brian blades made the catch he made a remarkable catch i don't know i'm sure we'll take a look at it whether he got both feet down but it's worth watching just to see the way he's stretched out knowing where he was knowing what he had to do and that is to get both feet inbound take a look both of them have to come down the ball hit before he did i don't think so left knee was down but not the right leg but no review they'll let it go at the 42-yard line clock is stopped with 44 seconds four-man rush prey going deep too deep and a lot of contact and a lot of action but all after the play was over and that's no flag intended for louis square nicki sutton and leonard smith doing a tag team number on him sutton as we pointed out on a couple of other occasions with these bills really put together this bill's defense what they might have been lacking when they got leonard smith it really changed things for them he is one of the real power hitters and jeff chadwick has gone to the bench for seattle it is steve largely largest who's going to defend right now who has who hobbled over to the the sideline and timeout is now called by seattle and let's take a look at what happened to steve larger here's the last play working against kirby jackson gets tied up with chadwick there you know sergeant it didn't nothing appeared he got hung up there with uh brian blades it did not appear to be anything severe that he has limp to the sidelines and now he looks to be all right [Music] what will steve do next year we were talking to him before the game he's already auditioned with the nbc and cbs for a respective analyst job he still makes his home in tulsa yeah you can see you know a lot of times that's when a player will get hurt he's he's looking ahead he doesn't see his own man coming in there he didn't see brian blades at all and alertly it looked like rather than find himself in a compromising position largent fell to the ground instead of trying to land in some sort of an awkward situation as you see he comes back out and goes back into the seattle huddle what a gifted player meanwhile the seahawks spent the time out there they are down to just one with second and ten upcoming from the 42-yard line and craig firing over the middle blaze makes the catch she's in the buffalo 40 to the 35 and tackles it to 32 by hagee and kelso and again they are down to just one timeout they've used it and they take it right here with 32 seconds and you hate to leave yourself without a timeout but that's really the only call that dave craig had he had to take that time out there would have taken a good 12 seconds or so to get his club up to the to the line of scrimmage and run a play that would have put you down to 20 seconds or less so they picked up all this yardage on the pass to brian blades the buffalo defense playing entirely too soft of an umbrella dave craig alertly throwing underneath it letting blades do something with it and this has been a very effective drive at the end of the first half by seattle as so often you see when you go with a pass pattern into the middle of a prevent defense you're going to get big yardage out of it the team gambling that uh you'll run out of time and particularly they're going to gamble when you only have one timeout that you're going to try to work the sidelines and that time seattle with brian blades it's good yardage right up the gut you know who's been playing a good ball game so far is is big andy heck he's been battling bruce smith he's been getting some help but the big guy from notre dame is holding his own holding his own against big bruce and you can tell because i've barely mentioned smith's name to this point that's the sign of the offensive lineman doing a good job first down and it's incomplete intended for williams another reason too they're taking care of smith is because he's getting double-teamed a lot well i mean that's the price you pay if you're bruce smith or you're reggie white or howie long you're gonna get a double team there's andy heck knowing that he has help back to the inside that's a that's just a fabulous spin move by bruce smith that would have beaten heck but there's edwin bailey his guard helping him out to the inside pretty good of heck too when you say dan he protected the outside that was the only place he could get hurt that's exactly right receivers three of them set to the right side on second down from the 32-yard line and freight goes the other way and it's nearly picked off by nate odoms who was one-on-one with scancie and odums is shaken up 24 seconds remaining in the hand boy that would have been a just a tremendous interception by odom's he really had to stretch for the ball and almost look like he landed on the ball made a diving attempt and so often that will happen and he is in obvious pain let's take a look again he dives in for the football and either came down on the ball or on his hands that were under his body yeah he lands right on the ball right on the top of it right on the sternum and that's uh that will take the wind right out of you well even more than that you could do some ribs on it or some rib cartilage and he is in obvious pain so time out while they work on odom's and we have a moment to go back to yesterday at cleveland stadium on a frosty day and particularly frosty for the browns here was james brooks doing a wonderful job selling the run flipping it back to osiason he finds tim mcgee and mcgee is able to roll into the end zone for the touchdown the bengals very much in the hunt of the afc central a game back of houston right now 21 to nothing the final score houston on top in the afc central by a half game over cleveland and one over cincinnati and cleveland actually playing like a female it's got one foot in the grave looked terrible against seattle i mean look terrible against the lions on thanksgiving day and then really pitiful against cincinnati team in trouble the cleveland grounds meanwhile you saw craig a milestone on that last uh pass the last pass completion going up and over and over mark odom's will be all right the wind knocked out of him we'll see him again chris hale replaces him a rookie out of usc it'll be third and 10 with no timeouts remaining for seattle 24 seconds on the clock right now if they don't move a yard you're looking at about a 49-yard field goal as norm johnson warms up his longest this season 50 against san diego you saw a quick look at chris hale it will not be lost upon the seattle coaches that chris hale or rookie is in their right cornerback replacing one of the veteran cornerbacks and wouldn't be surprised if they somehow try to isolate hale on a receiver and go to it and they isolate him on blades with four receivers on third down and ten and craig going deep and looking for blades and it is incomplete and knocked away and there is hail number 26. it's an age-old rule if you got a new kid let's test him and boy with chris hale up to it he really was he had great position in the end zone he was just behind let's take a look at it again not big he's only five seven about 160 pounds number 26 chris hale he was beaten but this would have had to be an absolutely perfectly thrown ball and it wasn't absolutely perfectly thrown ball that should have been caught well you saw hale get his hand up and actually got it on the arm of blades and restricted the catch from that way it's just good defense and a good throw [Applause] large and spots it for johnson this is a 50-yarder it has the distance but no it's wide and the clock stops with 14 seconds remaining in the half let's go back and take a look at the third and ten play there's chris hale coming in boy dave craig drops it right in there bobbled for a moment by blades and before he can pull it into his body hale strips his arms down i think we'll get a good look at it here actually hale actually gets his right hand on the ball that's a great bluff that angle is totally different he didn't interfere with him at all he got the hand on the football again he's only about five seven and he went up with brian blaze and knocked that football away one of your trojans friends i wasn't gonna bring it up but i'm glad you did hey will also be going to the rose bowl for the third time and there was really meeting them the team they lost to last year thank you cost me a hundred as it will again bring that up as it will again frank as it should be i don't have my fight on song with me kneel down but kelly ends the half you take uh a look at steve largent as part of our halftime feature tonight and the bills and the seahawks go back to the locker room tied 10-10. that's the end of the first half and monday night football returns after a commercial a message from the national football league in a word from our abc state and back we come a little play on words there the house of pain in houston the house of rain here in seattle nice and dry inside but it's been pouring outside for the entire weekend and inside the kingdome a 10-10 tie as we start the second half norm johnson puts it in the air and it's a deep kick fielded three yards in the end zone by don beebe who thought about it nice space good stutter step there looks like somebody tied a chain to his belt so kelly and the bills take over at the 20-yard line and there are the numbers through the first half of play seattle with a big passing half with 175 yards and about an 80 yard advantage in total yardage but a 10-10 time nonetheless the long play from jim kelly to andre reid the broken tackles the big play of the first half 61-yard touchdown reception first and ten from the 20-yard line kelly faking to thomas and he's going to air it out on the first play for a loss in and laughton can't get free covered well on the play by dwayne harper throw back to the old usfl days of jim kelly dwayne harper pretty good position on the speedster james lofton i'm sure they've talked it over at halftime said we're going to come out we're going to open up with this good position by dwayne harper the cornerback on lofton close to 60 yards in the air and it'll be second down and 10. that's a pattern that five or six years ago often would have been three yards past harper that's a big difference in james watson's game between now and then here's thurman thomas on the second down play picking up close to four and it will be third down and six in seattle is saying it was a fumble and they have recovered but there's been no indication of that from the official and there won't be third down get on the tackle jeff bryant we mentioned that's a a long in the tooth defensive line for the seahawks jacob green in his 10th year joe nash in his eighth jeff bryant in his eighth third and sixth from the 24 yard line kelly is 3 out of 11. four out of 12 now and a first down as reed gets thrown out of bound by patrick hunter [Applause] at the 43-yard line there is a flag down back at the 13-yard line it had nothing to do with the end of the play well yeah i believe it it almost looked like hunter made a shot out of bounds but this is a flag clear back the flag is actually laying at the 13. hunter took a real shot at reed when he was out of bounds the flag is 11 yards behind the line of scrimmage offensive hold number 69 unsportsmanlike conduct number 67 on the defense replay the down seattle was going to prevent defense four down lineman they did a little stunt over in the right side and they picked up wilford on the hole yeah there's rufus porter this is porter right here he's working against will wolford let's take a look at that rufus porter with 10 sacks on the year already and wolford there with the left arm the way he reaches out and holds boy that's a major league hold on on rufus porter keeping him from getting anywhere near jim kelly but then a personal foul called down field against patrick hunter and thus no play let's do it again so you can wipe out a 19-yard pickup and back we come to third and six from the 24-yard line kelly protected well and a wobbly pass is nearly intercepted and all james jefferson could see was six points i think that ball was too ugly to intercept it's tough to catch a ball that's going end over in jefferson not able to handle the knuckleball that's a uh there's a there there's a pitch that any of the old knuckleballers would have been proud of [Applause] and again i hearken back to what chuck knox said add one more this is a secondary that only had six interceptions coming into this game robinson had one in the first half but that's a that's a dismal total for a secondary his kick is fielded at the 38-yard line by hollis who eludes the first man and brings it back out to the 45-yard line he alluded steve tasker seven yard run back ball at the 45 with 13 47 to play in the third quarter in seattle [Music] well there it is last week in the revised tally it was dan destroying simpson and rashad you're big in the northwest needless to say a very intelligent and discriminating audience here in seattle no wonder they're such excellent football fans recount yeah seattle takes over after the punt at the 44-yard line and craig goes right to the air and has it intercepted at the 40-yard line by art still who takes it to the 30. the defensive end aren't still and craig can't believe it this is shades of phil sims yesterday throwing it right to clyde simmons still had to catch this one no way he could avoid it hit him right smack in the numbers and again put that one in here let me what's going wrong watch art still there to the right of your screen working on brian millar i mean on mike wilson rather and just takes a little step to the right it finds the ball right in his chest bart still has been in the national football league since 1978 and that's his first career interception well he's never had a quarterback throw it right into it before here's thomas and he is dragged down he didn't want to make craig look bad and l johnson makes the tackle bart's still his career resurrected after all of those years in kansas city some thought he was finished marv levy who drafted still he was the second player taken in the draft for marv levy had the first round pick back in 1978 and we've got an injured buffalo bill and that is thurman thomas who is the man shaken up so here is the workhorse the the durable key to their attack thus far this season with what he has done on the ground and as a receiver as well in a very anxious moment for the buffalo bills it looks like they're looking at something with the legs can't tell if it's an ankle or a toe or a knee or tough to tell let's take a look at it if we could there's thurman thomas and she gets brought down by a couple of bills jeff bryant ml johnson joe nash in there so thomas will come off and ronnie harmon will come into stella at least for the moment [Music] heavily padded as you can see the left leg so could be aggravated something that he had hurt before coming into the night he had a huge pad on that left calf and coming down on top of the joe nash and haml johnson they don't lose a whole lot with ronnie harmon in there because he used to be the starter before thurman thomas was drafted two years ago so he knows what it's all about back there second and eight from the 28 yard line harmon out into the pattern and they swing it out to harmon and he takes it down to the 23-yard line where he is three yards shy of the first down patrick hunter makes the tackle harmon a good receiver perhaps a better receiver than he has a running back they use him many times as a flanker this time he's the check off man kelly looks downfield nothing's happening down there and goes to harmon at a good open field tackle by hunter they can are working on the left leg now with thurman thomas [Applause] carmen making his 20th patch of the season third and a long two at the 22 and kelly will go up top to try to get it and the pass is incomplete intended for lofton [Applause] and in comes norwood now for what will be close to a 40-yard attempt well james lofton running a full-blown slant to the inside jim kelly anticipating lofton to sit down and run a curl and by the look of frustration on the part of james lofton after the play you kind of sense that he made a mistake he read two different defenses yep 40 yard attempt for norwood kid to hold that is good so is the spot and so is the kick and the buffalo bills for the first time in the game take the lead that's one of the problems with the modern passing game where it's all sight adjustment quarterback sees one thing the receiver sees another but this is easy to see right down the middle [Music] seahawks led 10 to nothing that was the score at the end of the first quarter it was 10-10 at the half two more norwood field goals he has three in the game have given the bills a six-point lead and kevin harmon is back to receive along with hollis as norwood will put it in the air 6 40 to go in the third quarter david hollis got past the 20 and then pays for it and his forward progress has him out to about the 24-yard line well clearly the san francisco 49ers the clash right now of the the nfc denver with the best record in the afc but uh it appears we're at this point of the season heading for maybe a buffalo denver showdown in the afc championship game what do you guys think and of course the home field event is still up for grabs buffalo surprisingly having a tough time here tonight i mean they've had a couple of turnovers deep into seattle's territory great field position and they've had to settle for three field goals down there and seattle doing a fine job defensively it's going to be hard though for buffalo to unseat denver from having the home field advantage because buffalo would have to finish a game ahead of denver because of that denver win in buffalo at the beginning of the season so by and large you'd have to say that it's going to be denver's denver's job at home as long as they keep winning one of those terrifying figures about denver in playoff games at home we've talked about just about a couple of weeks ago when they were playing washington almost unbeatable in playoff competition at denver that's darren miller who is the injured seahawk and his play will resume at the 24-yard line and well we had a beauty last week in san francisco and it should be more of the same next week in anaheim rams 49ers a week from tonight and as uh dan pointed out one of the san francisco losses to los angeles early in the year by what one point 12 to 13. and when we talked to the rams earlier didn't both jim everett and john robinson look at that game as as the game where the rams might have won a season's worth of confidence in beating san francisco here seattle on first and ten in the past it's intended for a larger incomplete ray bentley in the area covering on the play will be second down and ten it's been very frustrating for the seattle offense after a most auspicious beginning on their first two drives of the game you get back to the 49ers for a moment i mean you look at the way they're playing right now it would be i mean it's difficult not to say that they're the best team in the game the way they are firing on all cylinders but a lot of people myself included i thought at the beginning of the year that really the rams would be the team to beat in that division i'm not ashamed to say so i i thought the rams would be there second and ten as craig pass intended for blades and brian blades can't hold on as kirby jackson covers and bruce smith gives craig his own special greeting now there's something unusual number 78 lying on top of a quarterback this man for man the blitz is on it is jackson against blades blades across the middle jackson with a hand in there pulling his left hand away and jackson didn't get the flag that he had his hand inside pulling away blade's arm before he could get it up yeah that's a that should have been interference and boy look at bruce smith crawl all the way in there that's grant feasel the center fighting bruce all the way in there but you know jackson really got away with one there that that's flagable if that's such a word for receivers it is now and on third and ten it's lewis clark who makes the catch but he is tackled short of the first down he is stopped at the 32-yard line and they're forced to kick mickey sutton makes the tackle and they are restless in the kingdom i mean really restless well they're wondering why you throw a three-yard pattern when you need much more than that to get the first down and mickey sutton one of the better tacklers in the buffalo secondary he's made a couple good open field stops tonight he was there had the good coverage and he gave it up he knew how much room he had and he took advantage of it reuben rodriguez to punt labelle snapping again this time the snap is good and the kick is a good one it backs up and up to the 21-yard line and he brings it back out to the 30. tackled by glasgow rodriguez is boot that time 46 yards and we have five minutes and 24 seconds remaining in the third period boy that's a face mask looks like there was a face mask on that last kickoff return by glasgow we're seeing some guys get away with some penalties there's that left hand of nesby glasgow right on sutton's face fast spun him around like a top yeah went down without him being hit that's where that's so dangerous when you get that hit yank like that that's that's why they try to enforce that face mask a player is very vulnerable first and 10 from the 30 here's thurman thomas behind kennebroo and he takes it out to the 34-yard line woods and glasgow converge on the tackle boy old howard the house ballard at right tackle that time must have been looking for a payback on jacob green he takes jacob green only about 10 yards away and puts him on his back about this point i think the strength and power of that big offensive line of buffalo is beginning to tell on hello frankly a very old shadow front three crowd is doing the wave the reason for the noise is thomas takes it out to the 39-yard line m.l johnson in on the tackle it'll be third down and one yeah you make a good point frank about the offensive line of buffalo they're they're giant uh they've got a nice blend of youth and and experience and they are capable of just hammering it out you got big backs in there got guys like mueller and kinnebrew that'll slam it to you and then the quickness with harmon and thomas it's a very nice mix when buffalo wants to run the ball third and one meanwhile the look of a crowd whose team is four and eight amusing themselves with a wave this is a great football town third and one from the 39-yard line kelly off the play fake going deep but too deep intended for butch roll roll a tight end who caught a touchdown pass last week against cincinnati and his only reception of the season you have the second best rushing team in the nfl and you have a third down and one and you get gimmicky with the receivers only caught one all season long and poor throw actually by kelly but now they're going to have to turn the ball over to seattle oh that's that's just a misfire by jim kelly that's almost thinking too much had a guy too wide open and tried to touch it in there too much john kidd to punt high floater fair catches called for david hollis makes it at the 26 yard line and from there will seattle begin its next drive three minutes and 49 seconds remaining in the third quarter kelly upset with himself a reminder against saturday college basketball great doubleheader for you duke against michigan starts it off that's the first half of it two o'clock eastern time 11 in the morning pacific and then the dean smith in the north carolina tar heels against iowa at four o'clock dr tom davis in ireland from the 26 yard line warner spinning but going nowhere bruce smith is there to make sure it's a minimal gain and the blue birds are out again every time chuck knox keeps the ball on the ground as anyone who follows this game knows that he has prone to do this crowd's going to boo i think it's a combination of things they want to see a little air display with them trailing by six points i think the steve largent story comes into play here as well this crowd would like to see steve largent get that 100th touchdown reception not to mention we'd like to see it second and eight craig throws and it is blades making the catch and he has a first down kirby jackson covering on the play first down at the 37-yard line and not all that bad of coverage and craig even though he's not big six 190 pounder he can put the zip on it he had a real frozen rope out there this time to blades and he put it just about the only place he could to get the completion well that's beautiful work by blades getting both of those forearms down on the field to make sure that ball can't hit scooping in the turf bruce smith once again trying to fight double teaming on the other side boy you got to be patient to be a defensive end as good as he is and get tagged by two or three people every time first down seattle at the 38. craig under some pressure and throws it out of bounds intended for larger and the pressure coming in the form of number 78 for a change bruce smith again two men on bruce smith and he still was able to get very close to craig before he could release it that's that's a problem where your back hurts a tackle more than he helps him it's kurt warner trying to help andy heck but watch what happens warner gets in the way and heck can't really deliver a blow to bruce smith uh warner's more he's absorbing more than anything else and that was a situation where kurt would have been better to duck up to the inside and let heck go ahead and stay one on one with bruce smith i mean you give him an a for effort but that's a little bit of a mismatch kurt warner trying to block bruce smith second and ten draw to williams and that doesn't fool anybody the whole middle of the line led by fred smirless stopping that effort and setting up a third down and about eight two minutes to play in the third quarter coming into the game we mentioned seattle averaging 3.6 yards a rush tonight 1.9 league average is exactly four third down call is nine from the 39. four receivers craig out of the shotgun blades in motion four-man rush and going deep and dropped at the 35-yard line steve largent was there and nate odoms was covering brilliant pass to correct by craig to get it in there and that one larger of course he knows better than anyone he should have had that and he would have had the first down good effort by chris the coverage was not bad on lardon four wide receivers you get the man for man coverage odom's locked on there number 37 and craig put it exactly where he had to put it well you don't see that very often that ball is just perfectly thrown and that's just a drop plain and simple steve largent dropped the ball rodriguez to kick sutton sets up at his own 20. and he flag goes down as rodriguez gets decked fair catch at the 21-yard line but a penalty flag is down it was john hagee who came flying through and made the contact with rodriguez rodriguez gave it a stanislavski there too well now it's going to be critical is this running into the kicker or is this roughing the kicker running into the kicker will only be five yards and that won't be good for a first down if it's roughing the kicker that'll be good for a first down for seattle again there's two different classifications here [Music] [Applause] the bills could also be contending that he got a piece of the ball [Music] well they're going to call that the 15-yard variety that's roughing the kicker the personal foul kind and that's going to be a seattle first down that's a judgment call by the official marv levy protesting hagee protesting that he was not intentionally the second guy in now he goes ahead the question is going to be is whether or not patrick hunter pushed hagee i'm sure hagee was saying to rodriguez and if you block him into the kicker there is no foul [Applause] well that is certainly the contention of marv levy and the bill's team was that hagee was run into the kicker so the bills steaming but the seahawks got a huge break and for the 46-yard line they try to capitalize and williams makes the catch bentley with the tackle at the 41-yard line after a gain of about five why don't we go back and take uh another look at that as you look at this keep in mind now that hagee is the second man in he's the second man in from the outside and that's patrick hunter number 27 who makes contact with him that's you know you see hunter with his hands on his back and there's no question that he was that he was pushing him but i don't know that he pushed him hard enough to make contact where there wouldn't have been contact anyway i agree with that assessment as smith starts to come across was he drawn or not is the question i mean when you looked at that thing the last time i don't think you could say that hunter threw hagee into the kicker into rodriguez i don't think that was the case he looks like he's going to get there anyway exactly again in an elway-like move here for craig that head bob approach [Applause] one thing to keep in mind though is that the quarterback when he does this is supposed to remain stationary well that wasn't exactly what i'd call a head bob he jutted his chin clearly john elway getting quite a reputation for this it's been going on for a long time however and if you particularly you get somebody like a bruce smith who comes off that line so quickly and every now and then you can catch him with it i don't know when they changed the rule but remember frank in the old days i mean that quarterback was allowed to really a lot of bend at the waist and jerk his upper body and it was a free-for-all defensive lineman it was a lot easier to judge you just for careful every time from the 36-yard line john l williams ending the quarter with a one-yard pickup to the 35-yard line and this crowd just doesn't want to see anything involving the running game [Applause] and so the third quarter will expire at the kingdome 16-10 buffalo on top and abc's monday night football returns after this from our abc station soviet fighter what do you think best monday night game of the 70s well the majority of you now think it's oakland against buffalo in 74. ahmad rashad as all his nbc colleagues right dying up dialing furiously i bet the buzz still with a couple years left on his million-dollar plus a year contract and very iffy very iffy as to whether or not he'll ever play against league multiple shoulder troubles second and nine as we start the fourth quarter and the catch is made by brian blades at the 25-yard line and that should be enough for a first down ray bentley in on the tackle so the seahawks trying to keep this drive alive thanks to that roughing the kicker penalty talked about the read between the quarterback and the receiver there's a good shot of it from the end zone as blades comes down he reads the zone as craig reads it finds a little opening and craig fires it in blades is caught five tonight there it is for 66 yards and it's 66 for the season for him [Applause] first and 10 at the 25. seattle trailing by six lofted for blaze he stretches out but too far he's gotten behind kirby jackson but couldn't make the play second down keep in mind this is a buffalo defense without shane conlon he's out for the balance of the game because of a bad ankle cornelius bennett didn't even suit up because of the bad knee this is not the buffalo defense you've been used to seeing but i tell you one thing they are getting tonight and that is excellent play by their secondary jackson again with good coverage there that would have had to have been absolutely perfectly thrown ball hey forces craig to go up and over with it because he's close enough on the underneath side second and ten at the buffalo 25 [Applause] and again two deep largest had broken the pattern off at the 10-yard line and now the reason he did because nate odom's just like his counterpart kirby jackson on the other side played him absolutely perfectly man for man bang game coming off arjun was going to take it into the corner of the end zone he's in a kind of a squat there but that's the characteristic of odom's he is total concentration on margin looks like lester hayes when he gets down in that crouch he forces largent to break that off at less of an angle than he wanted to and of course again craig reading and knowing the pattern that should have been run throws it into the end zone incomplete outstanding by nato third and ten four receivers out of the shotgun here [Music] pressured and sacked at the 34-yard line and that may take him out of field goal range or close to it daryl talley gets credit for the sack that's a sack a veteran quarterback just can't take it that is a sack knocking your team out of field goal range that a veteran quarterback like like dave craig just can't take it's third down you know you're not going to get another shot at it you have got to throw it out of bounds got one of the big kickers around he's had some big ones in his time johnson we've watched him tonight kick the ball deep into the end zone but he you're right he took him away from what would have been a 42-yard field goal to one that is really right at the edge of his range career high is 54. this would be a 53-yard attempt as large and puts it down and the kick is wide so johnson misses [Applause] again we have 13 26 to play in the fourth quarter and the seahawks have been shut out since the first period so they cannot capitalize on roughing the kicker and buffalo gets the ball back the nfc west but the everett anderson express has the rams close behind they meet next week on abc sports as you look at ted march of brother the offensive coordinator the bills have not been shut out in the fourth quarter in the last 23 regular season games how unique is that well there's the nfl record new england in 85 and 86 holds the mark at 24. so buffalo can tie it by putting points on the board tonight they have it at the 34 after the missed field goal and here's thomas breaking it for a first down all the way to the hawk 48 yard line where darren cuomo makes the tackle after a 17-yard game boy that's just that's just tremendous blocking on the right side of the buffalo line again it's howard ballard number 75 the right tackle he just buries jacob green to the inside joe nash sealed off and then it's larry kinnibru again with the lead block see number 70 joe devlin all the way down the field with his man that's just dominating the line of scrimmage by the buffalo bills from the 49-yard line here's thomas and he squirts through for a gain of three to the 46. that's just a mirror of the play they ran a moment ago trying it over on this side and this time seattle cuts it off for a couple of yards but it's been effective all night long [Applause] the straightway zone blocking and the big larry kennebrew leading the way second and eight buffalo at the seattle 47 12-15 remaining [Applause] thomas again and this time he can't get out of the backfield 1192 david wyman coming up to stop him [Music] it'll be third down and nine for the bills at the 48-yard line next week buffalo home against new orleans and that's their final home game they closed the year on the road at san francisco in week 15 and then at the jets seattle goes to cincinnati next sunday kelly out of the gun on third and nine fires over the middle and knocked down reaching over is dwayne harper to break up what would have been a flip johnson reception oh we've seen some superb corner play tonight on the part of kirby jackson and odom's for buffalo and dwayne harper with another great play he's made a couple tonight also and patrick hunter has been there we have seen some excellent play in the secondary but look at the timing that time by harper boy reads the break by johnson and then boy he couldn't have timed it any better stays away from the interference [Music] kids to kick [Applause] at the 12-yard line hollis and he pays the price really does as he gets out to the 19. jamie mueller down to make the stop at the 19-yard line with 11 18 and mueller pays the price as well [Music] jamie mueller is dangerous on special teams got his leg underneath him and was hammered backwards and he did walk off the field but it was a vicious twist and they're looking at jamie mueller's left knee seattle has the ball at its own 20. 11 18 to play buffalo ahead by six [Applause] craig swings it to john l williams and he is tackled out of the 24-yard line by scott radicek a gain of about four if you're a little squeamish uh you know cast an eye another direction for a minute here but we're going to take this chance to show you what happened to jamie mueller now here's mueller right there 30 now watch his left leg as it gets pinned clear underneath him and he is bent right over backwards and of course that left leg is still thin he walked off by himself and we can only hope that he's a flexible young man because that he was forced to prove it there second and six from the 24-yard line and here's warner and warner gets it out to the 31 and that's a first down for the seahawks [Applause] seattle 10 points tonight early on shut down since phil's got 10 in the second quarter two norwood field goals in the third as mueller continues to walk it off well he's lucky i mean you also don't assume right now that he's fine a lot of times you'll be injured and your leg just goes numb and it's it's a day or two later until you're aware of how fast you've been injured muscles are stretched out you're warm you can do a lot of things in that condition a little later in three details first and ten from the 31-yard line and that's john l williams stopped by leonard smith out of the 36 that's a five yard gain and it'll be second and five good move by john l face to the sidelines could have easily just stepped out of bounds and not taking the big hit instead tries to spin back to the inside and pick up a couple more yards for his club that's a that's the kind of move you'd expect to see from a player whose team is eight and four sometimes on a team that's four and eight you don't see that kind of effort second and five from the 36. [Applause] [Music] craig for blades and he can't hold it at the 45-yard line good tight coverage by kirby jackson on the play third and five now been that way all night it was a good read by craig he read the blitz and he changed the play at the line of scrimmage he knew he was good getting individual coverage he knew the blades was going to be all alone on jackson he changed the play and it was just fine coverage again by kirby jackson yeah the blade should have caught it as well craig delivered a good ball third and five blaze and large and both go to the left large and has not caught a pass since the third play of the game only reception of the night craig looking to the right and nearly has it intercepted it was knocked down by leonard smith intended for jeff chadwick that time you just changed the coverage you give craig a different look you get double coverage out on the wide receiver the passing game of seattle does not appear to be mystifying the past defense of the buffalo bills these guys are covering the seattle receivers like they're being shown to play in advance like they're in the huddle they seem to know exactly where it's going [Applause] [Music] reuben rodriguez rush was on he gets it away it's a line drive end over end taken at the 26-yard line mickey sutton and a good run back for sutton as he takes it into seattle territory and tackled at the 48-yard line by darren cuomo and here's a guy they plucked off the waiver wire released by green bay mickey sutton doing it all tonight fine all-around game our boxing expert here are a couple of uh early season combatants tom bresnahan on the left nick nicolau on the right and as sometimes assistant coaches are prone to do they got in a little skirmish fresno han is the offensive line coach and a guy really responsible for a lot of the rejuvenation of the bill's running attack here's kelly on first down from the 48 and somehow someway he's able to fire it in between the defenders and into the arms of keith mckeller and we have an injured seahawk back at the 43-yard line and that is tony woods the outside linebacker i think he twisted his legs somehow trying to dance around the file they immediately start to take a look at the left knee there he is number 57. oh and he catches his left knee right there he throws it out in front and runs it up against kent hull the buffalo center a lot of times that causes a hyper extension of your knee it gets knocked backwards a little bit while your foot's planted tony woods a number one draft choice for the seahawks back in 87 another one of their fine young players only a third year guy out of pitch and it looks like he's wounded but not hopefully not too seriously as he's walking off able to put weight on his leg meanwhile a great play by mckellar the tight end to a very high audit buffalo ninth round draft pick in 87 and he gets it inside seattle's 30-yard line good catch and a good effort in running the football another big man 6-4 245 pounder that's standard now for tight ends joe kane comes into the game for the moment replacing the injured woods there are the numbers on kelly not too pretty but he has the lead and he has a first and ten at the 29 yard and it's larry kinnibru taking it to the 25 for a gain of about four and we have eight minutes to play a reminder sunday on abc sports a special tennis event for top american stars played not only to win money but to keep from losing it agassi connors chang and gilbert in the itd stakes max sunday 4 eastern three central and pacific tennis for you this sunday here on abc that's what we need i think we ought to take that concept into all sports the losers got to come up with some cash there's tony woods back in the ball game second down and six at the 25 yard line thurman thomas finds no opening that time wrapped up by jacob green and jeff bryant among others the 720 now remaining well the way seattle has been moving the ball offensively especially here in the second half even a field goal by buffalo at this point in time looks huge as it would give buffalo a nine-point lead chuck knox knows it and of course jim kelly we're all aware of that too he may well put the ball up in the air but he'll be very careful with it he won't try to force anything and he won't try to he'll try to avoid the sack at all costs too on third and six thomas escapes one man but that's all stopped at the 30-yard line by jefferson after the play was in effect stopped by jacob green and that's one out of 11 on third down for buffalo tonight might as well have been a sack again a third down play that loses yardage and buffalo this time returning the favor although they won't force quite as long a field goal there is jacob green slows down thomas doesn't make the tackle jefferson comes in and wipes it up 48-yard attempt for norwood trying to give buffalo a nine-point edge and he's wide this time seahawks are still alive and they take over through line of scrimmage and that's out over the 30-yard line and chuck knox is a man who's been around a long time five years with the rams five more with buffalo now in his seventh with seattle he has never had a five-game losing streak but he's on the edge right now chuck knox one of uh the game's great coaches you know his philosophy is is simple uh run the ball play it close to the vest offensively don't put your defense in a compromising position and it's paid off as that graphic shows you when you play that style of football you're not prone to lose very often from the 30-yard line on first down craig and the cash is made on the run by warner great pass and warner skirting the sidelines takes it out to the 49-yard line you know that the last couple of plays we've seen by dave craig are kind of the essence of his entire career in the league taking a sack on a critical third down that forces your team out of field goal range and yet at the same time capable of throwing just brilliant passes like that sideline toss to kurt warner i mean that that is as beautiful a pass as you will ever see well the last time we saw craig on a monday night he was as beautiful as a quarterback yes five touchdown passes against the raiders last year [Applause] from the 49 looking for a large in and steve can't get there and again he was covered like that proverbial blanket by kirby jackson for jackson this is a good way to get to honolulu he has had an all-pro night not only covering steve largely but also taking on brian blades and this is picture perfect once again and you force large outside you're just right on the fringe of the rules but to force large and outside where he has no path through the ball and avoid the flag my question is this frank who in the seattle passing attack thinks that steve largent is going to run by kirby jackson on a fly pattern steve largent is not that type of receiver he doesn't have that kind of speed speed that's a pattern that's not going to work second and ten and craig losing it for williams he's inside the 20. he's inside the 10. john l williams same pass he had just thrown to warner the same touch chased out of the pocket and it's not that easy dave craig scrambling away from the pass rushing pressure and to put this right in stride with williams well it looks awfully simple but it is awfully difficult boy look at the block downfield by brian blades he makes the block on kelso that allows williams to cut back to the middle longest playing of the season for seattle extra point by johnson gives the hawks a lead again dave craig fighting for time look how he buys it sends john l williams down field points him out and now watch at the conclusion of this play when williams will make his cut to our right here here comes brian blades knocks kelso out of the way and the rest is john l and right now marv levy has to be sick to his stomach again bruce smith forcing craig out [Applause] and right on stride i mean he did everything to catch the ball for williams and a great look good work guys on the cameras there's the block by blades williams holding it together getting into the end zone how does williams keep from going out of bounds there at about the three or four yard line i mean what body control by john ill being able to stay inbound i mean this is a big man 230 pounds he's got some momentum headed towards that sideline marker and yet he's able to stay in bounds and lunge into the end zone so two big plays tonight for seattle after they've gone three quarters of the season without having a play cover more than 32 yards reggie mckenzie there in that last shot former great guard for both of these clubs for both buffalo and seattle johnson puts it in the air a little adrenaline and that's what was going to say looks like that was kicked in denver four kickoffs tonight and four touchbacks for norm johnson there's big reggie cheering the crowd on of course great lead blocker for o.j simpson he and joe delamalor forming one of the game's great guard tandems and then finished his career here for chuck knox in seattle and of course a former partner of mine at michigan we played side by side on a pretty good offensive line i would have to say so buffalo at the 20. and for your info frank we lost the usc in the road i wasn't going to bring that to be there reed makes the catch great spin move that's the first down and a 16-yard pickup out to the 36-yard line andre reed run out by eugene robinson and again let's go back to the fact buffalo has not been shut out in the fourth quarter of a game in the last 23 games there's a zero up there right now and they're down by a point and boy you gotta look back to that missed field goal that would have given buffalo a nine-point lead and norwood pushed it wide to the right female with a lot of confidence though at the 36-yard line here's thomas and let's not let the moment pass without acknowledging andre reid with that catch now in front of dubinian and the all-time leading receiver in the history of the buffalo bills and he's put it together in five years 71 last year when he really emerged as a top flight receiver went to the pro bowl and just having a spectacular year now well it's really indicative of how the games the reliance so much more today on the passing game the rules have been changed defensively to make it easier to get open second and seven kelly throws it over the middle to the tight end mckellar and he is wrestled down at the 46-yard line and that's very close to a first down you see the marker right there at the bottom of the screen and they may have to measure it's that close thirds took him back inside the 45 but he was out for what appeared to be first down yardy somebody forgot to tell mckellar that he's supposed to go down when somebody hits him he's got three seahawks tugging on him trying to get him down and he won't go como wyman and ml johnson were all there well that's your prototypical tight end and a first down for buffalo looking ahead they have all of their timeouts remaining 4 27 to go there's wyman in comes ml johnson aaron como and still mckellar stays he won't go down you like to see it you like to see it first and ten at the 46. kelly to the safety valve that's kinebrew and kenderu keeps fighting his way loses the ball it's loose at the 49-yard line seahawks think they have it no call yet nothing yet [Applause] jim kelly thinks seattle has it and he's wrong buffalo oh now look at kelly trying to change his mind did you see kelly's looking over his own bench kind of pointing the other way jim richard is the guy who comes up with a football no there's still some confusion here now [Applause] [Music] we haven't seen a celebration yet now we get a wild celebration on the part of the seahawks let's get the worst thing official from hagerty he's going to tell us we hope yep oh first down it is seattle's ball hamburger trying to pick up extra yardage that's jeff bryant there's the ball it's on the field the ball is underneath jeff bryant boy does it attract a crowd well there was initially a a signal that it belonged to buffalo but that was reversed there's the ball down ml johnson is the guy who's on top of it eventually there he is cradling it richter wrestles it away from him but after johnson had recovered it [Applause] and seattle has it at the 49-yard line with a tick under four minutes to play in warner skirting to the outside and warner has a first down to the 37-yard line [Applause] and now seattle's put buffalo in a position where the bills are going to eventually have to take their timeouts on defense clock running 333 to play well you're not going to take your timeouts when they run one play and pick up another first down they're going to have to see some light at the end of the tunnel they're going to have to stop them defensively you know this is why we go ahead and play the games isn't it do you think buffalo would have walked away with it look that way and seattle taking as much time off the clock as they can john l williams now buffalo has to take its time out its first of three meanwhile largem if you joined us late has not scored a touchdown tonight he still has 99 career touchdown receptions but he does have a point on an errand snap he's able to pick it up and this was worth one with an assist from the kicker norm johnson with the ball was snapped low argent and johnson both realized and were in perfect harmony on it johnson didn't kick through it missed the kick large and realizing that johnson wasn't going to pick it up and got it in for the conversion well this is the type of situation now guys where buffalo has got to assume that seattle's going to take the ball keep it on the ground use the clock and this is where a play-action pass has a high degree of success and that play action pass if we lived in a very fairy tale world would be thrown to steve larsen of course the people in buffalo i don't think are all that interested in fairy tale endings that would be a grim ending they like the fairy tale endings more reminiscent of when jim kelly ran it in against miami earlier this year on the last play of the game that's their version of a fairy tale [Applause] second and ten it is warner with some room as he cuts it back and he takes it to the 25 and that's a first down finally stopped by leonard smith as warner reverses his direction finds the open space to the right and picks up another first down two major efforts by warner a moment ago flashing off the left side this time he tries to go there again nothing happening it's all stacked up he brings it back to the right spins away from smearless number 76 and another first down and despite that first down buffalo is forced to spend another time out and they're now down to one meanwhile one other little footnote on that large in play we just showed you where he ran it in this is a one point game largent running that extra point in is the difference in the game right now sure is sure is 17 to 16 is our score 247 to play and tonight on nightline should there be a system to decide who is or which is the top college football team in the nation is it time for a national playoff that's the subject matter tonight on nightline following your late local news oh boy what are those shorts worth and there's richie westline the guy has given out more autographs tonight than any of us richie working the end zone next week he'll have his own t-shirt i don't doubt it here's warner picking up two taking it to the 23 and buffalo spends its final time out so the clock will stop once more at the two minute warning buffalo is out of time outs 240 to play i guess most of our viewers didn't recognize ritchie without his dog mask on richie that pulls the duty and works the dog pound sam weisha's favorite place might be after yesterday weiss likes cleveland now 21-0 cincinnati well levy can hardly believe it i mean four weeks ago they go into atlanta to play the falcons and get beat at the end 30-28 two weeks ago they go into england heavy favorites in that game wind up losing 33-24 here they come into seattle and on the short end again and ali has to be thinking back last year when they clinched at the division uh the afc eastern division after 12 games they had four games remaining three of them are on the road they lost all three of them you really have to admire chuck knox though the way he's handled this disaster in seattle which is what it's been this year he hasn't lost the school hasn't lashed out at his players or the fans it's been classic second and eight warner and he wants to stay in bounds and he just does barely stays in bounds as he takes it to the 16-yard line he's short of the first down by a yard and that will take us to the two-minute warning bentley gets credit for the tackle well this is a team that really hasn't had a great deal of success this season running the football and yet now when they have to they're just ramming it right down the throat of the buffalo bill i think this is a situation where the absence of conlon the absence of bennett right now it's not doing buffalo any favor look for the first down on third and one when we come back after the two minute warning [Applause] [Music] look at the vote tally best game of the 70s uh the majority of you favoring oakland against buffalo back in 74. and tonight buffalo live down by a point two minutes to go it's as simple as this third and one seattle gets the first down here they can run the clock out [Music] and they come in a tight formation with one of the tail back and on third and one it's kurt warner picking up the first down and that will right an end to this one at the 12-yard line buffalo cannot stop the clock dan touched on it a while ago the 4-8 ball club you like to see it in this game not that you went to see buffalo go down but at four and eight these guys have played like they were contending for the division well what the crowd would really love here but there's no way you can do it i don't imagine you throw the ball the largest no no i i think chuck knox thinks records are wonderful but he's more concerned with his one loss record than he is with steve largest record they set large enough that's the largest as the safety valve at the 22. no they're not going to do anything with this ball other than sit on it fred smirles comes across and makes contact meanwhile did kurt warner in the running game have it when they needed it before this drive encroachment defense before this drive warner tonight had picked up 21 yards on 11 carries and on this money drive 36 yards on five carries big night for kelly of course he's a traveler's man of the year for buffalo and he's done so many great things for that community jim kelly's end zone club kelly for kids program he's quite a man he is a fiery one he is a traveler's man and of course the leagues travelers man will be announced with the super bowl see one thing fred smirles did there by coming across and taking that penalty was stopping the clock looking at the standings in the afc east right now buffalo will lead miami by a game but there's ken baring the seattle owner congratulating chuck knox there it is in effect though buffalo has a larger advantage because they have beaten miami twice so were they to finish with the same record buffalo would win the east so it's pretty much it's like having a two-game advantage over the dolphins in effect with three weeks to go but again but below losing three of their four last year home for new orleans and they're in san francisco and then at the jets this will be the final play of the game and wouldn't you know it for the first time in 24 games buffalo does not score a point in the fourth quarter they had a chance to tie the nfl record and couldn't and that zero on the board spells a zero for the night for the buffalo bills so the bills and their road woes continue they will not be known when the season is over as as road warriors it's road woes more than anything else ten weeks they've won six lost four they've won six at home and they've lost four on the road well gentlemen we show

Channel: Jean-Paul Müller

Views: 686

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, 1989

Id: OYgu9aGQuGI

Length: 136min 12sec (8172 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021