Bengals Lower the Boomer on Bills, Snap Win Streak

CINCINNATI —  When the old American Football League was on the rise a couple of decades ago, 8-touchdown games were routine.

Some days, nothing stopped the AFL’s best teams but the final gun.

In a cool, misty Ohio rain, there was a throwback to that era here Sunday when the two teams of 1988 in that league--known now as the American Football Conference--combined to score 56 points in a game that the Cincinnati Bengals won, 35-21, to end the Buffalo Bills’ 7-game winning streak.

If they meet again in the playoffs next month, you’d probably take the Bills. Their offense is improving with quarterback Jim Kelly. And their defense played this time without three injured starters, and without much intensity.

So, this time, the difference was the passing of Bengal quarterback Boomer Esiason, the running of Bengal fullback Ickey Woods, and the last of 4 Buffalo turnovers, a fumble that cut off a promising Bills rally after they closed from 28-7 in the third quarter to 28-21 at the start of the fourth.

Accepting his last and biggest break gratefully and gracefully, Esiason, who had been temporarily thrown off his feet in the second half by the blitzing Bills, marched the Bengals 65 yards to their final touchdown, and it was all over.

“The Boomer is getting to be a better reader every time out,” Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche said after Esiason threw 13 perfect passes in the first half and enough in the second half to keep the Bengals in front from early in the first quarter to the end.

“Overall, they outplayed us today,” Kelly said, noting that Esiason’s team outgained his, 455 yards to 353. “But hopefully, we’ll face them again.”

In a game of long drives and short scoring plays, Esiason moved the Bengals 40, 63, 65, 80 and 65 yards to their 5 touchdowns.

Kelly moved the Bills 80, 68 and 50 to their touchdowns on an afternoon when Buffalo trailed in the first quarter, 7-0, in the second, 21-0, at halftime, 21-7, and in the third quarter, 28-7, before the surge that scared most of the 58,672 in sold-out Riverfront Stadium.

And so with three 3 left, 1 of them in Houston, the Bengals (10-3) are still 1 game up on the Oilers in their division.

The Bills, still the class of the league with an 11-2 record, and already in the playoffs, could have clinched the home-field advantage all winter with a victory here. But as a team, maybe they’re too young to realize fully what was at stake this time.

Having breezed to the playoffs, they possibly weren’t playing as hard as they should have.

Secondly, they lined up without two starters, linebacker Shane Conlan and cornerback Derrick Burroughs, and soon lost another starting linebacker, Darryl Talley.

Thirdly, and maybe most significantly of all, Buffalo was contending for the first time with Wyche’s Cincinnati offense, which is probably the most imaginative in the league.

“We adjusted somewhat in the second half,” said the Bills’ Scott Radecik, one of their three linebackers from Penn State. “But they caught us by surprise (in the first half). We weren’t ready for what they gave us.”

Asked what was so difficult about that, Buffalo’s Ray Bentley, a linebacker from Central Michigan, said:

“The main thing is the style of (Cincinnati’s) offense. They huddle so close to the line, or (go) without huddling, that I think they rattled (us). They created a sense of urgency in (us). We weren’t playing our game.”

It looked that way.

Wyche agreed that in a game widely assumed to be a contest between the AFC’s best offense--his--and best defense--Buffalo’s--he won the first round. But he didn’t think Cincinnati’s style explained it.

“The thing I took pride in today was the play of our offensive line,” he said, identifying Anthony Munoz, Max Montoya, Bruce Reimers and the others who so often neutralized Buffalo defensive stars Cornelius Bennett, Bruce Smith and Art Still.

The thing Esiason took pride in was the smoothness and swiftness of the Cincinnati attack. In Wyche’s offensive scheme, the Bengals are always on the move. As a rule, Esiason takes the snap and slips instantly to one side or the other, handing off to a back who, when he gets possession, is already on the move at full speed.

Even Cincinnati’s draw plays and play-action passes are rolling draws and throws, presenting Esiason as a generally rolling quarterback.

Wyche’s game plan was to run the ball directly at Smith on Buffalo’s right side or Bennett on the left side while double-blocking the other star to keep him out of the pursuit.

This helped rookie fullback Woods average 4.9 yards, getting 129 in 26 carries.

On Cincinnati’s five touchdown drives, Woods and halfback James Brooks, who had 93 yards in 22 carries, ran the ball as effectively as Esiason passed it. Even after the Bills sacked him a couple of times in the second half, Esiason finished with 18 completions in 25 throws for 238 yards.

He was delivering sharp, short passes and an occasional bomb to two of the league’s better wide receivers, Eddie Brown and Tim McGee.

In the Buffalo offense, Kelly, who completed 24 of 35 for 265 yards, couldn’t match Cincinnati’s depth of talent.

Indeed, the Bills, despite their fast start this fall, appear to be one star short of what they’ll need to win the championship.

They are lining up only three blue-chip offensive performers, Kelly, gifted wide receiver Andre Reed, and rookie halfback Thurman Thomas, who, though he was playing hurt Sunday, averaged 7.1 yards in 10 carries.

A year ago, Thomas was the running back who kept Barry Sanders on the Oklahoma State bench.

Cincinnati’s Woods, who was at Nevada Las Vegas last year, and Thomas finished 1-2 in 1987 Division 1-A rushing.

Woods won this time, on a day when the Bengals had more to lose than the Bills. Next time watch Thomas. And Kelly. And their defense. They’re coming.