Monday Night Thriller
By Cam Boon
In this new weekly column, Cameron Boon will take the new sensation of Throwback Thursday for a Bills twist, as he looks back on a game or event that happened on this date in Bills history. It will help some of the older fans relive the glory days and some of the newer fans learn some Bills history.
In the last game of Week 6 of the 1989 season, the Buffalo Bills played host to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football at Rich Stadium. The game was hyped up tremendously as the Bills came in at 3-2 off of a devastating loss to the Indianapolis Colts 37-14 the week before. The Rams came into the game undefeated at 5-0, fresh off a 26-14 over rookie Deion Sanders and his Atlanta Falcons.
Live Feed
Saturday Blitz
Frank Reich played in this one for the injured Jim Kelly and played pretty well, throwing for 214 yards and a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, along with an interception.
Buford McGee only caught two passes in the entire game, but his three yard touchdown catch from the hands of Jim Everett gave the Rams the lead at the end of the first quarter at 7-0. For those who don’t remember, Everett was the one who was “phantom sacked” during that year’s NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, and then subsequently got in a fight over it with Jim Rome five years later.
Everett finished the day completing only 15 of his 36 pass attempts, accumulating 219 yards with 2 touchdowns and a pick.
Nevertheless, nobody would be able to find the end zone until the fourth quarter, as Scott Norwood and Mike Lansford would trade field goals. Norwood would drill three, from 38, 47, and 40 yards respectively. Lansford would put two through the uprights, one from 34 and one from 36. At the end of the field goal frenzy, the Rams held a 13-9 in the fourth quarter.
Fans at Rich Stadium could not have possibly predicted what would happens next. After Lansford’s next field goal, Reich led the Bills down the field and gave them the lead, when he hit Thurman Thomas for a one-yard touchdown to make it 16-13 Buffalo.
Everett and his Rams did not waste any time taking the lead back, as he and Flipper Anderson hooked up for a 78-yard touchdown and LA took the lead right back at 20-16.
But Reich had one more big drive left. He marched the Bills back down the field, with the drive ending with him finding Andre Reed for an eight-yard touchdown and a 23-20 victory.
Reed finished the day with eight catches for 106 yards and that TD. Thomas ran the ball 24 times for 105 yards, and caught 9 Reich passes for 67 yards and that score.
This would start the downword spiral for the Rams in what would be a roller coaster year. They would proceed to lose the next three games to drop to 5-4, win six of their last seven games to finish the season 11-5 and one game behind the 49ers for the division title.
This started a three-game winning streak for the Bills, as they would improve to 6-2 on the season. They would then lose five of their last eight regular season games to finish the year 9-7 and then heartbreakingly lose the AFC Wild Card game in Cleveland to the Browns.