One of the hardest things about making my Classic Bills schedule work out -- each game fitting in on the calendar in order, two games against each division opponent, etc. -- was figuring out where I was going to fit Foxboro in.
The Bills haven't won in Foxboro since 2000. When the Bills were a Super Bowl team they rarely played a good, interesting game on the road in New England. Bottom line -- it wasn't easy for me to find the right road Patriots game for this project.
I went with 1996, a 28-25 Bills loss.
To call the game a "classic" is an admitted stretch on my part. It was close, and both teams were good that year, with New England winning the division at 11-5 and the Bills making the wild-card at 10-6. The Patriots went to the Super Bowl, beating a Jacksonville team in the AFC Championship that had knocked the Bills out two weeks earlier.
The Bills trailed 13-0 at halftime. But they woke up in the second half and played some of their best football of the season. Thurman Thomas (26 carries, 119 yards) ran in from 1 yard out early in the fourth quarter to give the Bills their first and only lead, and the ensuing 2-point conversion made it 18-15 Bills.
But Curtis Martin countered with a touchdown run, and Willie McGinest made it a 10-point Pats lead with a 46-yard interception return for a score. Jim Kelly's late 48-yard touchdown bomb to Andre Reed provided the final points.
I have one prevailing memory of the '96 season. In those days I worked for Shout!, the Bills' newspaper, and two colleagues and I would drive together from Rochester to the stadium for games. On the way to the stadium for the regular-season finale, a win-and-get-in showdown with Kansas City, we listened to a radio talk show on which analyst Bob Trumpy said the winner of that game would be the worst team in the playoffs.
At the time, I found this an outlandish statement. The Bills had so much history of winning in the postseason, especially at home, and Jacksonville, another playoff prospect, had none. I refused to believe that the Jaguars could be better than the Bills, and I carried that thought around the entire week before the teams' wild-card meeting. Of course Jacksonville won the game, becoming the first and only road team ever to win a playoff game in Orchard Park. I guess Trumpy had a point. I remember his comment more than anything else about that season.
(Another bit of trivia about the Bills-Patriots game: Who was the TV play-by-play announcer? He's not known for broadcasting NFL games. Answer -- Verne Lundquist, on TNT. It was a Sunday night game, and TNT had the Sunday night rights for a few years in the 1990s.)
Have your own memories of this game, or the 1996 season? Email them to me if you like.
To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 1 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy tips.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 2 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy tips.; tournament; WGR; Jeremy White; Golf; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 3 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy tips.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 4 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy.; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 5 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 6 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 7 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala; To prepare you for the WGR Celebrity Golf Tournament 2008, this video focuses on Hole 8 at Tri-County Country Club's course. Video hosts Jeremy White and Steve Warzala will share each hole's layout and strategy.; Golf; WGR; Jeremy White; Tri-County Country Club; Steve Warzala;
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