Marv Levy: the hall of fame coach says a miraculous victory over the Oilers in the playoffs in 1993 summed up the tenacity of his Bills - The Game I'll Never Forget

Football Digest, June, 2002

THE BUFFALO BILLS TEAMS I coached in the early 1990s were--and I know this term is probably overused--the most resilient bunch of individuals ever put together on an athletic field. And I think our playoff game against the Houston Oilers in January 1993 was the quintessential example of the resiliency of that team.

We came out that day at Rich Stadium and just played terribly. Going into that game, our starting quarterback, Jim Kelly, and our best linebacker, Cornelius Bennett, didn't suit up because of injuries. In addition, running back Thurman Thomas had to come out of the game with injuries of his own.

So without those vital players, we were getting crushed. You hope to come out for the second half and turn things around a little, but in the first series of the second half, we threw an interception that the Oilers returned for a touchdown. We were down 35-3, and people in the stadium were leaving and those at home were clicking the game off their television sets.

Because of a miskick following that score, the ball hit one of our front five on the kickoff return team and bounced back to the Oilers. It looked like more of the same for us. But somehow we recovered the ball in the scramble, and we had good field position. We went on and scored a touchdown.

We decided to go for an onside kick, which we recovered. We scored again--and suddenly, we had some momentum going. We were starting to get the big breaks we needed.

Frank Reich, playing in place of Kelly, did a great job of getting us back into that game. He kept finding Andre Reed open; they were connecting on pass after pass. We'd get the ball back and--boom--we'd score again. We'd get the ball and--boom--another score. In a period of seven minutes, we scored four touchdowns.

That type of play was typical of the Bills back then. To come back after losing the Super Bowl--after losing one and losing another and fighting to come back--well, I think that team showed a lot of character over the years.

One key to our resiliency was that the players were very close to each other. A lot of them were there for a long time and developed close friendships. They really cared about each other as human beings, not just as players. We had some great players such as Kelly, Thomas, Reed, Bennett, and Bruce Smith, just to name a few. But some of the lesser-known names were just as important to us. Guys like Kent Hull, a great offensive lineman, and Steve Tasker, who to me was the greatest special teams player ever, were crucial to whatever success we had.

And these guys were playing great as we stormed all the way back and took a 38-35 lead over the Oilers. But the Oilers had a great team, too. Jack Pardee was an excellent coach, and with Warren Moon at the controls of that run-and-shoot offense, a defense had to be ready to play.

After we took the lead, Houston put on a go-down-the-field drive. It looked as if the Oilers were going to score a touchdown and win. We couldn't stop them--Moon was finding his receivers.

The Oilers got down deep into our territory, but one of the least-remembered plays of the game was made by defensive end Phil Hansen. They threw a screen pass that looked like it would go for a touchdown. Hansen had rushed the passer, was chop-blocked, and hit the ground. But Hansen got back onto his feet in the blink of an eye, somehow got downfield, and dove to make a game-saving, shoestring tackle at the seven-yard line. That forced the Oilers to settle for a scoring-tying field goal, which sent the game into overtime.

The team that wins the coin toss in overtime usually wins, and it went in Houston's favor. I was hoping that Moon and company wouldn't pick up where they had left off and drive down the field. But finally, our defense came up with the big play we needed: We got an interception down at about their 30-yard line.

We next had to decide what we were going to do. We figured we would just nurse the ball and get into field goal position. Eventually, Steve Christie came in and kicked a 32-yard, game-winning field goal.

We went on to the Super Bowl again that year, facing the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl 27. We didn't win, but just getting there was a real testament to our fortitude and heart. These guys never quit--they never gave up. Beating the Oilers in the playoffs was proof of that.

--As told to Chuck O'Donnell

The Thinking Man's Coach

MARV LEVY WASN'T YOUR typical NFL coach. He used such big words that sometimes his confused players would write them down and look them up in the dictionary later on.

But the world "retirement" apparently isn't in Levy's vocabulary, even as he approaches his 74th birthday. For starters, you've probably seen him working as an analyst for Fox Sports' "The NFL This Morning." Levy loves the studio work because it keeps him in football. He admits that he "missed the competition side of football" after he retired as coach of the Buffalo Bills in 1997.

In some ways, his current job is a lot like his old one. "I plan like I'm preparing for a game when I was coaching." he says. "That's how you have to tackle it."