The Best of One Bills Drive: Sept. 29, 2002

(Greg D. Tranter and Budd Bailey have written a book about the history of the football stadium in Orchard Park called "One Bills Drive." It has been published by Reedy Press (https://reedypress.com/shop/one-bills-drive-the-buffalo-bills-greatest-home-games/). The books covers the top 50 games played in the stadium's history from 1973 until January 2025. However, there are several other games that qualified as thrilling - but they couldn't crack the top 50. Those contests deserve to be remembered too, so we'll offer them in this space a couple of times per week during the season.)

Score by Quarters:

                                           1       2       3       4       OT   Final

Chicago (L, 2-2)                     7        7       3       10      0       27

Buffalo (W, 2-2)                      7       10     3        7       6       33

Scoring Summary:

Quarter – Team Play

1 – Bills – Bledsoe 2-yard pass to Price (Hollis kick)

1 – Bears – Brown 62-yard fumble return (Edinger kick)

2 – Bills – Hollis 48-yard field goal

2 – Bills – Bledsoe 4-yard pass to Moulds (Hollis kick)

2 – Bears – Miller 5-yard pass to Terrell (Edinger kick)

3 – Bills – Hollis 49-yard field goal

3 – Bears – Edinger 46-yard field goal

4 – Bears – Edinger 24-yard field goal

4 – Bills – Bledsoe 1-yard pass to Moore (Hollis kick)

4 – Bears – Miller 3-yard pass to Davis (Edinger kick)

OT – Bills – Bledsoe 26-yard pass to Henry

Recap:

After more than 10 years of mostly good play, the Bills fell into a crater during the 2001 season. Admittedly, the team had juggled the salary cap a bit in order to stay competitive in previous years, and it paid a price for that under new coach Gregg Williams. However, it was rather obvious that during that long season that the Bills didn’t have a worthy quarterback. The Rob Johnson Experiment had come to an end, and Alex Van Pelt didn’t seem to be the answer either.

In response, the Bills took a big swing in obtaining someone who they hoped could fill that void. They traded a first-round draft choice to the New England Patriots for veteran Drew Bledsoe, who had lost his starting job to Tom Brady. Bledsoe was 30 years old, so he figured to still have plenty of gas in the tank – not to mention plenty of motivation to play well.

"If we're flabbergasted, we're flabbergasted that there weren't more teams that got involved in it," Bills general manager Tom Donahoe said shortly after the trade was announced. "Everybody talks about the need for quarterbacks. ... All we know is, we're happy to know that we were in that position and had a chance to do this."

Bledsoe showed what he could do in his second game as a Bill. He threw for 473 yards and three touchdowns in leading his new team to a thrilling 45-39 overtime win in Minnesota. This was more like it. But the Bills couldn’t follow that game with a win, losing to Denver, so a home victory over the Bears was needed for the team to get back to .500.

At that point, no one from Buffalo was fondly reminiscing about the days of Johnson and Van Pelt. The Bills were averaging 33 points per game in their first three weeks. Bledsoe led the team in its next game in a back-and-forth matchup that again needed more than 60 minutes to decide.

Bledsoe struck first on a short TD pass to Peerless Price. But that lead was erased when Mike Brown rambled 62 yards with a fumble recovery. It was the second straight week that Travis Henry’s fumble had turned into an opposing touchdown, and his fourth fumble of the season. “I was angry and a little bit frustrated because we had made such a big deal of it (fumbling),” Bills offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “I wasn’t going to play him.”

The ping-ponging of the scoreboard continued in the second quarter, as Buffalo had a field goal and another short scoring pass by Bledsoe – this one to Eric Moulds. But the Bears scored on their own short pass in the final minute of the half to make it a 17-14 lead for the Bills.

The teams traded field goals in the third quarter, and Paul Edinger tied the game with a 24-yard three-pointer with 12:39 left in regulation. Bledsoe responded with a drive and another short touchdown pass, this one going to Dave Moore. Undaunted, Chicago replied with a 3-yard scoring pass from Jim Miller to John Davis with 2:46 left. There was more football to be

played after the two teams were tied at 27-27 after 60 minutes.

It didn’t take long for the Bills to send everyone hope happy. The Bears went three-and-out, and a poor punt put the Bills in good position. Bledsoe’s fourth touchdown pass went to Henry – yes, back in the game in spite of that fumble - for 26 yards only 1:58 into overtime. Bledsoe’s throw was right on the money, and Henry made a nice cut into the end zone. It was a vindicating moment for Henry, who showed what he could do when it mattered most. “I felt real good, because as a football player you want your coaches and teammates to believe in you. That’s basically what happened,” he said.

Drew finished the day 28 of 36 for 328 yards with no interceptions. It sure looked like Buffalo had its quarterback for the foreseeable future.

“It’s like you’re never out of it with him,” offensive tackle Jonas Jennings said. “He’s never on the sidelines saying ‘Damn.’ If he’s saying ‘Damn’ it’s because he wants to do something better. That’s his attitude. We like that. What we have to do as a unit, he’ll take us there. When we’re all moving in sync there’s no telling what we can do. We can be special.”

On the other side of the ball, the Bills only gave up those 27 points – their lowest such figure of the season. Seven of those were scored by the Bears’ defense, so they don’t really count.

“We talked all week about taking pride in doing our jobs,” defensive tackle Ron Edwards said. “We just took it to practice and prepared for whatever the Bears tried to throw at us. Everybody took care of their responsibility and when we do that, we can stop anybody.”

For the moment, hope had returned to the Bills’ organization … even if all of the overtimes were taking a bit of a toll on team owner Ralph Wilson.

“Mr. Wilson said we take two years off his life when we go to overtime,” linebacker London Fletcher said with a big smile.

Noteworthy: Bledsoe set a team record by throwing for 1,345 yards in the first four games, and became the 23^rd quarterback to pass 31,000 career passing yards. He also set an NFL record with his fourth career touchdown pass in overtime. “I’m not doing enough in regulation, I guess,” Bledsoe said with a smile after hearing about the record. … It was Buffalo’s third overtime game of the season, as the season opener against the Jets also needed extra time to be decided. The Bills did not play another overtime game in 2002. … The Bears were coached by Dick Jauron, who later coached the Bills.

Legacy: The Bills piled up the points in the first half of the 2002 season on their way to a 5-3 start. But Bledsoe’s performance didn’t stay at that very high level after that, as the team only scored more than 21 points once in the final eight games. Buffalo finished 8-8 for the season. Drew spent a total of three years with the Bills before he was released. The veteran played his final two years with Dallas, retiring after the 2006 season.

The Bears’ problems mounted after this loss. Chicago, which had started 2-0, lost eight straight games after that. They finished 4-12 after going 13-3 the year before.