Who Choked Harder: Oilers vs. Falcons.
Who Choked Harder: Oilers vs. Falcons.
Choking in Sports is one of those double-edged swords. If your team holds a sizable disadvantage and is able to come back and win, that’s the most satisfying type of victory. Conversely, if your team loses after holding that advantage, the anguish one feels afterward is far worse than any other loss would be. Most often, this sort of thing leads to a “Did the one team win or did the other team lose?” type of question.
When it comes to Pro Football, there are two of these situations that stand out most. One is the 1992 AFC Wildcard Game and the other is Super Bowl LI. The culprits are the Houston Oilers (now known as the Tennessee Titans) and the Atlanta Falcons. Let’s get down to business.
1992 AFC Wildcard Game:
Being a Bills fan is never easy. We can look to the four straight Super Bowls as a beacon of pride but we’re brought back down to earth by the four straight losses. Right in between the four Super Bowls was January 3rd, 1993’s Wild Card game between Buffalo and the Oilers. The Oilers had trounced the Bills the week prior but most ruinous to the Bills was the loss of Jim Kelly.
In his absence, Frank Reich stepped in as Quarterback. He already had College Football’s greatest comeback under his belt but that couldn’t have been on his mind once the game started. What was on the mind of the Bills was Warren Moon, and how they were going to stop the stately Run N’ Shoot Offense.
For 30 minutes, they didn’t. The Bills were pummeled in every conceivable area as they walked into Halftime down 28-3. The Bills Coaching Staff was rightfully infuriated with the team’s effort (or lack thereof.) With a fresh mindset and approach, the Bills started off the second half by throwing a pick-six.
Now it was 35-3.
Yet, when regulation ended, the game was headed to overtime deadlock at 38. How did it happen? How did the Bills comeback? How did the Oilers allow that huge lead to slip away? A nicely put together drive after Houston’s fifth touchdown made it 35-10 for the Bills. An onside kick recovery and a long pass made it 35-17. An ill-fated series by the Oilers and another Buffalo touchdown made the score 35-24. A Houston interception and key fourth-down conversion by the Bills made it 35-31 with time still left in the third quarter.
Houston had no answer for the Bills in the third but seemed to get back on track with the fourth quarter starting. Warren Moon passed his Oilers into Field Goal position once their long drive stalled. All hope seemed lost once Craig Montgomery botched the snap. Buffalo’s fifth touchdown of the day followed and only a clutch drive by the Oilers prevented their loss in regulation.
In overtime, despite an apparent hold by Darryl Talley of the Bills, the Oilers threw an interception deep in their own zone. A penalty on Oilers receiver Haywood Jeffires all but put the final nail in the coffin. Steve Christie’s 32-yard field goal sent the Bills to Pittsburgh for the next round while the shell-shocked Oilers walked off the field dazed.
How do you blow a five-touchdown lead?
Simple, the Oilers lost the game more than the Bills won it. I give the Bills all the credit in the world for fighting back but Houston (and God) gave the game to them on a Silver Platter. Houston got complacent with their big lead so when the snowball started rolling, the Houston leadership and coaching staff didn’t know what to do. Warren Moon kept passing with Houston in the lead when Lorenzo White probably should have been running.
On top of botching the field goal snap, Craig Montgomery had one of the worst performances a punter could ever have with punts going for 27 and 33 yards. The Bills, even when behind big, always started off their drives with excellent field position. On the Oilers attempts in the fourth quarter, they let a touchdown pass get away from them (despite excellent coverage from Nate Odomes) and chose to play it safe when the clock got below a minute during their final regulation drive.
Houston was playing not to lose while the Bills were playing to win. The Bills did win and carried that momentum with them all the way to Super Bowl XXVII. When Jim Kelly was knocked out of that game, it looked like Frank Reich would be saving the day once more. It wasn’t to be. Dallas slaughtered Buffalo 52-17.
In Buffalo, the game is routinely listed as the Bills greatest ever win. To date, it remains the biggest NFL comeback of all time. For the Oilers, it’s a subject of great shame. It played a part in their eventual departure from Houston to Tennessee. It’s interesting to note that the Bills got a lot of slack from the referees in the Comeback game so when “Music City Miracle” is brought up (a rematch of this game), I just point to the tape and say “Well…”
The Four Super Bowl losses hurt as a Bills fan, but what hurts even more so is the rise of Tom Brady in New England. Every knock against those Bills is something Brady and the Patriots have made an advantage, which is why Brady has won six Super Bowls. They’ve lost some Super Bowls but they were in them all, plus the six wins somewhat outweigh the three losses. His most incredible coming in…
Super Bowl LI (Which as luck would have it, was held in Houston):
I remember once Atlanta made it 28-3, I didn’t question Brady. He’s broken my heart too many times for me to label him soft. He’d been knocked around like Ali in the Jungle but he was hanging in there. If the Patriots were going to do anything, this needed to be the time. They did, making it 28-9. Gostkowski missed XP seems like a blessing in disguise now but his onside kick failure was only bailed out by the Defense. His semi-redeeming field goal made it a two-possession game. Atlanta’s chance to put them away had come but a Donta Hightower strip sack changed the tied. New England got within one possession on the ensuing drive.
Getting the ball back for the second last time, Atlanta kept it together. Especially after Julio Jones’s catch, it seemed the Patriots would go down swinging but a sack, penalty, defensive stop, and Falcon punt put the ball on the nine-yard line of New England. From there, the greatest drive in NFL History took place, as we all knew it would.
Once they tied the game, we all knew it was over. Older football fans watched Unitas handoff to Ameche to end “The Greatest Game Ever Played” but our generation got to see Brady hand it off to White. An eerily similar ending to
“The Greatest Game I’ve Ever Seen”.
Oddly enough, amidst watching Super Bowl LI, I was noticing a lot of things I noticed when watching the film of the 92’ Comeback. Like the Oilers before them, the Falcons were giving the Patriots excellent field position despite their lead. The Falcons were taking penalties left and right and Dan Quinn taking a random time out when his team had the momentum showcased a red flag to me. There was also the fact that Atlanta kept passing the ball when they should have been running but did they choke?
I guess there’s no way I can say no, for they blew a 28-3 lead with two minutes left but I’d say that the Patriots won the game more than the Falcons lost it. Things just weren’t going New England’s way in this game. Everything seemed to be just an inch beyond their reach. Gostkowski missed the extra point, then failed attempt to redeem himself on the ensuing onside are examples. Did the Patriots fold? No, they did their jobs instead.
Despite the missed block by Freeman, Hightower’s strip sack of Matt Ryan was more about Hightower’s power than any mistake of Ryan. New England was able to cut the game to eight but it felt like the Falcons had regained control. What did New England do? They made the big play and a penalty was on their side.
A strip sack, sack, and a penalty were the three things that killed the Falcons. The Atlanta defense’s failure to stop Tom Brady was because of how Brady and Bill Belichick methodically moved the ball. They did it slow and precisely which wore down the Falcons. They knew the game was in reach. Speaking of Tom Brady, what better Quarterback to have in this situation? Buffalo did have Frank Reich…but is he better than Brady? Atlanta may have put their guard down but they didn’t fumble the game away quite like Houston did.
You can use the argument about the Bills Stadium vs. a dome but that’s irrelevant. No weather accounts for the number of mistakes Houston made. Their mindset up 35-10 was evident by the response of their return unit, going backward to set up blocking rather than expecting the onside kick.
Breakdowns in communication led to wide-open Don Beebe and Andre Reed scores for Buffalo. Thurman Thomas and Jim Kelly were both out of the game yet Frank Reich and Kenneth Davis played like they were Canton-bound. Shagged punts and a botched snap mixed in with all of this is bad enough. A 15-yard penalty by Haywood Jeffires was bad enough but having to sit with the realization of choking so horrifically…well, at least the game was blacked out in Buffalo.
Still, that was a Wildcard Playoff Game and not the Super Bowl. Listen, I have no problem naming that game the best Football game of all time. The headlines going into that Super Bowl made it all the sweeter. Tom Brady had been suspended due to deflate-gate but had come back, leading the Patriots to a 14-1 record in response. Matt Ryan was named MVP but this game showed all who the real MVP was.
Frank Reich wasn’t leading his team on a 90-yard drive to tie the game, this is something meant for only the all-time, all-time greats. The Patriots won this game because they knew they could do it. When the ball landed on the nine-yard line of New England, I was immediately envious because I realized the incredible stage Tom Brady was about to act on. The catch by Julian Edelman? All I can say is that if you don’t believe in a higher entity than I don’t know how else that catch can be explained. When New England tied the game, we all knew it was over.
That leads me to the final point about all of this. Houston and New England each got the ball first in their historic performances with New England having rallied, Houston having unraveled. New England marched down the field and won the game while Houston committed their final and fatal turnover.
Also, I don’t see the Falcons leaving Atlanta, period.
-By: Thomas P. Braun Jr.