Ralph Wilson had a premonition in 1993 Bills beatdown over Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (Dec. 19, 1993) - Ralph Wilson had a feeling about this one.

As the Buffalo Bills owner walked around his team’s locker room before yesterday’s AFC East showdown against Miami, the 75-year-old patriarch could feel a magical performance on the horizon.

“You can’t always sense what’s going to happen in pro football, but you could hear a pin drop in this locker room before the game started,” Wilson said. “Nobody was saying anything and when they’re like that, they usually come and play like heck.

“When nobody is smiling, nobody is cracking a joke and you can hear people breathe, that means they’re really ready to go out and beat the opponents. You saw what happened.”

What happened was the Bills swaggered into rabid Joe Robbie Stadium and kicked the living you know what out of the Dolphins 47-34 in front of 71,597 feint-hearted fans, many of whom gave up on their team and were on their way home midway through the third quarter.

The victory moved Buffalo into first place in the AFC East with a 10-4 record and a win next week at home against the New York Jets will clinch the AFC East title, which would be its fifth in the last six years.

The Bills are now tied with Kansas City and Houston for the best record in the AFC, but due to tiebreakers, the Bills do not control their own destiny in the race for homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

Even if the Bills win their final two games (they close the year at Indianapolis Jan. 2), they need a Kansas City loss to stay home in January because the Chiefs beat them 23-7 last month. Head-to-head is the first tiebreaker. The Chiefs play at Minnesota next week and close at home against Seattle.

Wilson wasn’t the only one who sensed the Bills were due for a command performance.

“You could feel the energy in the locker room,” center Kent Hull said. “I made a comment last Wednesday that I’m feeling something around here. You could just tell.

“(Today) You could feel that energy and when that’s happening, you know good things are going to happen.”

Said defensive end Bruce Smith: “I was a tad bit surprised because usually a few of the players try to motivate everyone else. But this time, nothing needed to be said.

“Everyone knew what had to be done and they went out and took care of their job. Everytime we play against the Miami Dolphins, there’s not too much that has to be said. If you need a pep talk to play against the Dolphins, you’re in the wrong business.”

The Bills set the tone for the game on their first possession. They took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in 10 efficient plays with Kenneth Davis scoring on a 1-yard run.

“We realized that all this year, we haven’t been scoring the way we used to on the opening drives,” quarterback Jim Kelly said. “We picked up the tempo and it definitely worked.”

Miami answered with its own 73-yard touchdown drive, which was aided by a non-call on an obvious fumble by Terry Kirby that was recovered by Marvcus Patton. Because Steve Christie missed the conversion on Buffalo’s TD, the Bills trailed 7-6.

The teams exchanged field goals on their next possessions, then Thurman Thomas had a Kelly pass bounce off his fingertips and right into the hands of Miami’s J.B. Brown. Brown’s 29-yard return to the Bills’ 16 set up Scott Mitchell’s 16-yard TD pass to Keith Jackson and a 17-9 Miami lead.

Here is where the Bills showed their mettle.

Kelly led them on an 80-yard touchdown drive, and after the defense forced a Miami punt, the Bills drove to a go-ahead field goal by Christie with 1:27 left in the half.

Then, eight seconds later, Mickey Washington turned the tide in Buffalo’s favor for good as he stepped in front of a Mitchell pass and sped 32 yards for a touchdown to make it 26-17.

The Dolphins got a field goal on the final play of the half, but that was as close as they would get as the Bills erupted for 21 points in the first 5:59 of the third quarter.

Darryl Talley forced Jackson to fumble on the first play after the kickoff and Nate Odomes returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

After a Matt Darby interception and 32-yard return to the Miami 19, Davis plunged in from the 1 to make it 40-20. And following Mike Lodish’s recovery of a Keith Byars fumble, Kelly hit Don Beebe with a 27-yard TD pass.

The offensive outburst (374 total yards, 245 passing, 28 first downs and 11-of-17 third downs converted) brought back fond memories of the way the Bills used to play offense.

“This brought back 1990 and ‘91,” said wide receiver Andre Reed. “We controlled the line of scrimmage, Jim was making good audibles at the right times and like I said, it was the Bills of ‘90 and ‘91. And it comes at a good time because you need the offense to be clicking now.”

Mitchell was pulled in favor of veteran Steve DeBerg, and the oldest player in the league led the Dolphins back with touchdown passes to Kirby and Mark Ingram.

That wasn’t nearly enough and the Dolphins lost their third game in a row, all at home, and saw their playoff position take a perilous turn.

“Well it just goes to show you we’ve gone from the penthouse to the outhouse,” said linebacker Bryan Cox, who was his usual abrasive, out-of-control self on the field. “It seems like every year when it comes down to a game that we need to put ourselves in position to control our own destiny, we fail. It’s even more disappointing that it comes from the same team every year.”

The Bills’ locker room was anything but quiet after the game and adding to the ruckus was a singing performance from coach Marv Levy.

“I talked to them last night and I told them ‘Many of you guys probably haven’t even heard of Bing Crosby, but he had a brother who had a group way back in the stone age when I was in high school named Bob Crosby and the Bobcats,’” Levy explained. “They had a song called ‘It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way What You Do It.’

“I said ‘If we win the game tomorrow, I’ll sing it for you.’ They all groaned and I said ‘OK, if you win the game, I won’t sing it.’ But then they wanted me to so I sang it.”

And based on the reviews, Levy could have a second career in the offing.

“Marv has a pretty good baritone, he can hold a note pretty good,” linebacker Cornelius Bennett said. “I don’t think he expected us to make him sing, but we did and he did a pretty good job.”

Said wide receiver Don Beebe: “That was hilarious. I thought he was going to start rapping there for a minute. He did a good job, I have to admit it, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t understand what he was saying.”

Beebe and the rest of the Bills did understand how big this victory was, though.

“It’s kind of where we’ve been the last five years and where we want to be,” tight end Pete Metzelaars said. “Now it’s just a matter of going out and playing to the level that we played at today.”

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs. Dolphins history: Buffalo offense magical in 1993 beatdown