Sunday, Dec. 28
War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo
Patriots 26, Bills 8

By Anthony Holden
CBS SportsLine Historian
Buffalo coach Lou Saban, who had begun his AFL career with the Patriots, admitted that his team was lucky to have qualified for the league's first divisional playoff game.

Following a 17-7 loss to the Patriots in Week 12, the Bills were mired in last place in the Eastern Division with a 5-6-1 record. Houston was 6-5, Boston was 6-5-1, and the New York Jets were 5-5-1, and the Bills' postseason hopes looked awfully dim.

Gino Cappelletti hit four field goals for Boston. (AP)

But in a wild three-week stretch, all the planets aligned perfectly for the Bills and they wound up tied for first in the division with the Patriots with a 7-6-1 record. This necessitated a playoff tiebreaker to determine who would be Western Division winner San Diego's opponent for the AFL championship.

The Bills took care of their own business by whipping the Jets in back-to-back games to close their season. They then sat back and watched Houston lose its final three games, and saw the Patriots lose a shocking 35-3 decision to Kansas City that dropped Boston into a tie with the Bills.

The playoff game was held in Buffalo's rickety War Memorial Stadium, which was an obvious advantage to the Bills, but on a snowy day, Buffalo was completely shut down by a rugged Boston defense and lost, 26-8.

"I want to thank every player personally, they did their best," Saban said. "We had a good season and we were very fortunate to get as far as we did. We lost players like Wray Carlton, Dick Hudson and Roger Kochman, who could have made us stronger. We had a lot of rookies come through and help us."

The Bills received a bad omen on the opening kickoff when Elbert Dubenion fumbled and Billy Lott recovered for Boston. Although the Pats didn't convert Ray Abruzzese's interception of a Babe Parilli pass into points, it was only a matter of time before the Patriots took control.

Gino Cappelletti's 28-yard field goal opened the scoring midway through the first quarter, and on Boston's next possession, Larry Garron took a swing pass and raced through the Buffalo defense for a 59-yard score.

"We were in a hole immediately," said Saban. "Boston gets three points and then Garron breaks a couple of tackles and goes 59 yards. Ten points on that field was like a mountain."

After a Buffalo punt, Boston drove 75 yards to Cappelletti's second field goal, a 12-yarder, early in second quarter. Buffalo defensive lineman Sid Youngelman actually got his hand on the ball, but it still made it through the uprights.

Parilli then had a TD pass to Lott called back due to a penalty and had to settle for another Cappelletti field goal and a 16-0 lead. Dubenion returned the ensuing kickoff 62 yards to the Pats 27 and it looked like the Bills had life, but Daryle Lamonica -- who replaced Jack Kemp after Kemp completed just 3 of 10 passes -- couldn't produce a first down and Cookie Gilchrist's 39-yard field goal missed.

During the third quarter, the Bills' first three possessions were squashed by a Boston defense that ultimately allowed Buffalo just seven rushing yards and forced six turnovers. But finally, the Bills struck when Lamonica fired a bomb to Dubenion and the man nicknamed Golden Wheels made the catch and out-sprinted the Boston secondary to the end zone to complete a 93-yard touchdown. Lamonica passed to John Tracey for the two-point conversion and suddenly the Bills had trimmed their deficit in half.

But the rally never materialized as Parilli hit Cappelletti for a 52-yard pass play which set up his 17-yard TD pass to Garron 5:06 into the fourth quarter. And a Lamonica interception set up Cappelletti's final field goal from 36 yards.

"Blame it on the quarterbacks," said Kemp. "We are either the heroes or the bums."

Said Saban: "They played an excellent game on offense and defense. We had a very poor day, that's about the game right there. We just didn't look good. We intended to run a lot more, but on a field like that, you could run all day and not catch up. Boston knew we had to pass and they blitzed and blitzed and we couldn't get a drive going."

Watching the game on TV, the Chargers had to be licking their chops. They had voted as a team, 31-2, that the Patriots would beat the Bills.

"We didn't disappoint them," Boston coach Mike Holovak said.

However, perhaps the Chargers were just hoping that Boston would win the game because maybe they felt Buffalo was the better team. Happy that the Patriots would provide the opposition, the Chargers put on a dazzling offensive display the following week and embarrassed the Patriots, 51-10, to win the league championship.