Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [35]
Within two years of hiring Marv Levy, Buffalo was competing for that title. They lost the 1988 AFC Championship Game, on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals, and suffered a frustrating wild-card loss the following year. But Buffalo’s Januaries were now filled with more than just snow. Talk of the Bills playing in a Super Bowl swirled through the air in western New York. And by Christmas 1990, the Bills and their fans did more than simply dream of playing in the Super Bowl. They expected it.
The Bills’ 17-13 regular-season victory over the Giants in December 1990 had been merely a prelude to the most critical game of the season: a rematch against Miami with the division title awarded to the winner. A third consecutive AFC East crown was not nearly as important to the Bills as the other prize on the line in the season’s second game against the Dolphins. Home-field advantage came with the conference’s top seed in the playoffs.
Chilly temperatures and nearby Lake Erie–effect winds and snow made Rich Stadium intimidating to any opponent who came to Buffalo in winter. So did the Bills’ record of twenty-two wins in the previous twenty-four home games.
Defeating Miami would secure the added bonus of a first-round playoff bye. An MRI of Jim Kelly’s ailing left leg revealed a partial tear to both the medial collateral ligament and knee cartilage. Doctors deemed him able to “practice in three weeks and play in four.” The bye in the opening round meant that Kelly would be able to return in time for the start to Buffalo’s postseason. Until then, Frank Reich quarterbacked the team.
Before a record crowd (80,235) at Rich Stadium, the Bills squashed Miami 24-14, as Reich played “a near-perfect game,” according to Dolphins head coach Don Shula. He completed fifteen of twenty-one attempts and tossed a pair of touchdowns. But Thurman Thomas’ performance was the main reason why Bills fans triumphantly stormed the field and tore down the goalposts. The recently named pro-bowl starter ran for 154 yards on thirty attempts. And despite muscle spasms in his lower back in the fourth quarter, he carried the ball on seven consecutive plays, the last one a thirteen-yard touchdown that pushed the Buffalo lead to 24-7.
“[He] ran as hard as I’ve ever seen him run,” center Kent Hull said. “When that happens, I think the offensive line plays a little harder. There’s a guy who weighs 190 pounds taking on the big guys. When we see that we’ve got to go get after somebody.”
A meaningless regular-season finale against Washington coupled with their bye during the opening wild-card round gave the Bills three weeks to rest and prepare for whoever their opponent would be in the second round of the playoffs. Coincidentally, that team turned out to be the Miami Dolphins.
“If we get complacent and think we’re going to beat them because we beat them before, or they’re not going to want to play because of the cold weather, we won’t win,” guard Jim Ritcher said. “It’s as simple as that. Miami’s too good a team to be complacent about. The fact we beat them in the last game is going to give them a lot of incentive to play harder.”
The season’s third showdown went much like the second: a ten-point victory by Buffalo during a cold winter day at Rich Stadium. Apart from a hefty brace on his left knee, Jim Kelly showed no signs of the recent injury. Kelly completed a twenty-yarder to Thomas on the game’s opening snap, ran two more quick plays, then hit Andre Reed for a forty-yard touchdown. Less than two minutes into the game, Buffalo led 7-0.
In freezing temperatures, the offense was practically flawless, racking up nearly five hundred total yards and eight scores (five touchdowns, three field goals). Miami’s offense was equally stellar, however, recording twenty-four first downs (the same number as the Bills) and only sixty-three total yards fewer than Kelly, Thomas, and the K-Gun.
Early in the final period, Marino