The Great Buffalo Choke - 13 Years Later

I watched the whole game with my dad at home, as I was a school kid at the time. We had gone to the Oilers game the previous weekend at the Dome. The Oilers had to beat the Bills in Houston to even make the playoffs. I'll never forget seeing Jim Kelly being carted off of the field thinking the Oilers had the next two weeks in the bag (even though the playoff game was in Buffalo). As the second half of the playoff game went on, my dad would complain about how the Oilers were in prevent and not really trying on offense.

My dad was never really an Oilers fan after that..... He would always talk about how the Oilers would choke again.

I can remember not even watching Oilers games during their last year in Houston, almost like they were a band of misfits walking blindly through the night. Or in their case, trying to get through a forgetable season.

 

I still remember that day, everytime that the Oilers scored I would go to the bedroom and tell my wife at the time the score. At halftime, I went and got us some hamburgers, then things went to hell, I was sick.

 

i went to that game the week before, too. i remember coming home and watching sportscenter, listening to a couple of analysts pick the oilers to get to the super bowl.

when kelly came out of the playoff game, i was worried. i had a huge group of friends over at my parents' house watching the game...they were all excited when kelly came out. i wasn't. my thought was that the status quo was good...kelly clearly didn't have it..and who knows what might happen with someone else in there. at halftime i looked over to a friend and said, "they can't choke THIS ONE away, can they?" he responded, "no way..not even the Oilers."

but they did. and my dad called it as soon as buffalo scored their 2nd TD. he literally walked out of the room saying, "that's it...they're gonna lose." i was pissed at him. but he was right.

i remember sitting there completely numb after the game. just a few of my friends were still there and i remember thinking it couldn't be real. like they were gonna come back on and say, "we're just joking..the oilers really won." because no one could blow a lead like that. could they?

 

I watched the first half at home and it looked like it was in the bag. I had to go to work for the second half so I missed seeing the debacle live, but boy was I mad when I found out what happened!

 

Thanks for the memories. I think the 500th anniversary of the black plague is coming up pretty soon...

 

I still don't want to talk about it. You may have just ruined my day on the only day I get to go watch the Rockets in person this season.. maybe work will let me forget

 

He was out of bounds damnit!

Thx for bringing back one of the worst sports memories of my childhood. Way to start off going back to work.

 

My thoughts exactly.

BTW, I was in my college dormroom, in between two rooms with Cowgirls fans in them.

 

Why in the hell would someone bring this up? What is wrong with you? It's not enough that we have to hear about it every year during the playoffs when someone makes a comeback?

.

 

I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and I was in bed with the flu and 102 degree fever.

I managed to stay awake for the first half, and after the Oilers went up by 35 points, I turned the game off, content in knowing the Oilers had won.

I woke up later that day and turned the TV back on....just in time for the Bills winning field goal.

I thought I was hallucinating.

I remember calling home in Houston a couple of hours later, and I remember my Mom saying Oy Vey! This is the worst thing to happen to the city since Hurricane Alicia! It's a shondah and a hoppah!!!

Shondah and hoppah are Yiddish terms for shame and disaster.

 

I had to come into work 3 hours early this morning, I had a huge crisis with our Crystal Reports servers this morning thanks to a corporate snafu and to top it all off I am as sick as a dog. I'd personally like to thank you for making this day even worse then before by bringing this up.

 

It was a very depressing day for my family. We were partying our butts off throughout half time and then Buffalo dropped the bomb.

 

I was the biggest Oiler fan you can imagine, I remember being up 28-3 at halftime, and then us intercepting Reich's pass early in the 3rd and taking it to the house to go up 35-3....

I also remember Beebe ran out of bounds on one of his TD catches, and I remember Jerry Gray knocking the ball out of a Bills receivers hand as he lay on the ground - UNTOUCHED - and thus the ball was live.......should have been a fumble, and I remember Earnest Givens being held on a Warren Moon pass in OT which caused the intereception.

The football Gods were against us that day, and I never recovered as a pro football fan.

DD

 

I think I am in the same boat. I was only 14 in 1993, but I was the biggest Oiler's fan of all time. I remember saving up my lawn mowing money to buy a $125 Oiler's Starter jacket and tickets to two home games that season. After that day my love for the NFL was never the same, I even stopped playing organized football in school even though I was pretty damn good. After that day I pretty much gave up on the Oiler's and moved on to the Longhorns.

 

But there is. There was a different answer for Dallas that year. There was a different answer for Cincy back in '87 (was it '87?). Denver finally broke through in the late '90s. The Rams went from NFC doormat to repeat champions. The Chargers made the Superbowl back in, '84 was it? '84 is when the Padres went to the 'Series, but I remember the Chargers going to the Superbowl.

So YES, there is an alternative. It just never happened for my Oilers.

 

I'll never forget that day. After half time (score 35-3) I decided to take the leaf out of a HUGE dining room table since our holiday guests were leaving. Damn thing was stuck, so I crawled under the table to pull the legs apart. The leaf fell on me and opened up a massive gash on my forehead. I spent the entire second half glued to the TV, holding bloody towels to my head while my wife pleaded with me to go to the emergency room. I still have the scar..

Another twist — Jim Eddy (the defensive coordinator who was fired after the game) was my neighbor's father.

 

I was 14 & watching it on TV in Atlanta. Since our football team stank, I kind of adopted the Oilers as my team. Always wanted to see Warren Moon in the Bowl.........This game was horrible. I remember that I thought we would still squeak it out when we won the coin toss in overtime.....this is too painful to recollect.

 

Thanks for the memories....JERK!!!! jk