Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [140]
As the Giants quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in the two years after the Super Bowl XXV victory, Fassel knew his skills as well as anyone. He also knew that in order to be a success, in addition to a good running game, capable receivers, and a solid offensive line, Jeff Hostetler needed a change of scenery.
“I went to talk to him, and I could see it in his eyes,” Fassel said after the Raiders’ playoff victory. “I don’t think he ever could have gotten that look in New York. His team, no questions asked. Even if Phil had gone instead of Jeff, there would still have been Phil’s ghost. A bad game or two, people would’ve said they should’ve kept Phil. Who knows what that would’ve done? Chemistry is something you never can predict.”
The wild-card victory advanced Los Angeles to the AFC divisional round and set up Hostetler’s personal rematch with Buffalo. This time, however, instead of balmy west Florida weather, Hostetler would face the Bills on a much different stage.
As much as the Bills stout defense—still anchored by Bruce Smith, Darryl Talley, and Cornelius Bennett—and a thoroughly partisan crowd, Hostetler would have to contend with frigid temperatures and sixteen-mile-per-hour winds. Throwing the football was going to be extremely difficult.
“You’ve just got to go out there and play,” receiver Don Beebe said. “Marv Levy says it all the time that championship teams have got to play in all the elements.”
The forecast was so bad that, on game day, nearly one-quarter of the tickets went unused. Nevertheless, more than sixty thousand Bills fans roared when, early in the second period, the Bills scored to take a 6-3 lead. A pair of touchdowns by running back Napoleon McCallum gave Los Angeles a 17-6 edge, but Jim Kelly then marched Buffalo seventy-six yards in the final two minutes of the quarter. Thurman Thomas’ eight-yard touchdown run cut the deficit and the Bills headed into halftime behind 17-13.
“It was very important,” said Smith, who sacked Hostetler twice, although neither came in the end zone and produced a safety. “It was probably the most important drive in the game. There’s a tremendous difference being down four points as opposed to 11 points. That motivated us to come out in the second half and achieve the things we did.”
The first-half offensive malaise—the weather contributed to Buffalo totaling just 102 yards—did not carry over to the third quarter. Kelly tossed a touchdown to retake command of the game. Napoleon McCallum’s fumble on the ensuing Raider drive produced three more points by way of a short field goal.
At that moment in the game, with three touchdowns and a field goal, the Bills expected to have twenty-four points on the scoreboard. But the minus-thirty-two-degree wind-chill factor and snow showers that covered western New York that day hindered more than just the passing game. The AstroTurf at Rich Stadium was extremely slick, making it nearly impossible for kickers to secure their plant foot. Each team’s kicker missing forty-plus-yard field goals—which they did—should have been expected. What astounded football fans was the uncertainty that crept into the game’s so-called easiest way to score: the point-after-touchdown.
Steve Christie—signed for the 1992 season to replace Scott Norwood—missed two of his three extra points that day. But Christie persevered and his twenty-nine-yarder late in the third period extended the Buffalo lead.
“You get in there and you’re thinking, ‘Well, I’ve had trouble today. I don’t know where to line up. I don’t know where my plant-foot is,’” Christie said. “I couldn’t feel my kicking foot. So you just bear down, just keep swinging.”
Now trailing 22-17, Hostetler broke the Raiders’ huddle with under a minute to play in the third quarter. On second and ten from their own fourteen-yard line, Hostetler danced around