THE ROAD TO MIAMI: SUPER BOWL XXIII : Bills Make Oilers Pay a High Price for Option : Third-and-1 Gamble Leaves Houston at a Loss, 17-10

What Napoleon learned in Russia, another macho little general named Jerry Glanville learned again on the steppes of the Niagara Frontier:

It’s tough out here in winter.

Where was the old Oiler fire?

Those high elbows?

Those late hits?

Maybe that twin bill they just split on the tundra of Cleveland took it out of them? At any rate, it was a subdued Oiler team that showed up here Sunday and lost, 17-10, to the Bills in a ho-hum American Football Conference semifinal.

The Bills advance to next week’s AFC final at Cincinnati.

The Oilers? Once again, they’re the contender that came in from the cold.

“Unfortunately a very good football team isn’t going to play anymore,” said Glanville, his voice little more than a whisper.

Unfortunately, his very good football team lost a late season game at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers, blew a 23-7 lead at Cleveland in the regular-season finale and lost its chance to welcome the playoffs to the House of Pain.

Even so, the Oilers upset the Browns last week and were competing on even terms Sunday until another of their vintage flourishes backfired. Last season in Denver, it was Stagger Lee, the lateral pass they threw into the end zone that became a game-turning fumble. Sunday, it was a third-quarter option on third and 1 at the Buffalo 2-yard line in a 7-3 game that became a wild pitchout . . . and then a missed field-goal try.

“Well,” said Glanville softly, “we felt it would score.

“We sent a guy in motion, they followed him and they had one guy to take two. That’s what we wanted.”

The question, as always, remains, if the Oilers are so big and talented, why not just forget about the tricks and play football?

“The option has been very good for us,” Glanville said. “It’s what we do down there. It’s how we score.”

Yeah, well, win some, lose some. The Oilers played last week, and the Bills rested . . . and plotted.

Had the Bills been going backward for a month?

Losing three of their last four?

Getting out-rushed in three of their last four?

Sunday--surprise!--the arch-conservative Marv Levy let his hamstrung prodigy, Jim Kelly, come out firing and Kelly’s pulse danced.

The Bills passed on 15 of their first 21 first downs . . . and Kelly went 11 for 15.

Was Kelly happy, or what?

“Oh yeah, definitely,” he said. “I was a throwing quarterback coming out of the USFL. I love to throw the ball. That’s why I’m a quarterback.

“At times during the season, we ran the ball extremely well, so we didn’t throw it. Our defense played so well, our offense kind of took a back seat, but we were No. 4 in total offense. I think that speaks for itself.”

However, Levy was having a little trouble himself, guessing right on calls near the Oiler goal.

It was 0-0 when Kelly talked him into going on fourth and 1 at the Houston 3 in the first period.

Kelly threw an incomplete pass.

Levy and Kelly were going to guess wrong again later, but not before the Bills took the lead. Early in the second period, Leonard Smith blocked an Oiler punt by Greg Montgomery and the Bills took over at the Oiler 46.

Kelly promptly threw a couple of first-down passes to Trumaine Johnson for 18 and 9 yards. Then Thurman Thomas broke free over the right side for 16 to the Oiler 3. A couple of plays later, Robb Riddick jammed over from the 1--after Kelly fell down handing off and Riddick bobbled the ball and guard Jim Ritcher blocked Eugene Seale, who had stacked up Riddick at the goal line.

The Bills were still clinging to a 7-3 lead when Kelly came out firing in the second half . . . and drilled one into the chest of Oiler nickel back Tracey Eaton at the Buffalo 47.

Moments later, the Oilers were at the Buffalo 2, with third and 1.

Where to run?

Off the left side behind 320-pound Bruce Davis and Pro Bowl choice Mike Munchak?

Off the right behind Pro Bowl selection Bruce Matthews and blue-chip No. 1 pick Dean Steinkuhler?

How about around right end, where quarterback Warren Moon would have to make a read, risk injury if he turned it up, or get the ball out to his trailing back, Mike Rozier?

The Oilers chose the option. Moon may have made a bad read, and he certainly made a bad pitchout. Rozier never touched it, and it rolled over the sideline for a 12-yard loss.

Tony Zendejas then came out to try a 31-yard field goal . . . and duck-hooked it, and the Oilers had nothing to show for the trip.

“It kinda slipped out of my hand and got away from me,” Moon said.

“It was a matter of either me taking it into the end zone or Mike. I’m not sure, they said from upstairs that I might have made it myself. I didn’t think I could.”

Why not run straight ahead?

“Well, I’ve got 5 TDs running the option this year,” Moon said, “and our backs have scored more. We’re going to do the things that got us here. We can’t throw it out now.”

The Oilers use a lot of the old USFL: Houston Gamblers/Jim Kelly/Mouse Davis run ‘n’ shoot, and the option, too, which may be imaginative of them. The argument against the latter, on the pro level, is that defenses will try to take out your quarterback, and if they do, it won’t be worth it.

Indeed, Moon threw for 195 yards in the first half, and 45 in the second. Why? He had come into the game with a sore right elbow and injured it again--running an option.

Let’s just say that when Zendejas missed, the air went out of the Oilers with a whoosh you could hear on the Gulf Coast.

Each defense held twice.

The Bills then put together a 59-yard drive, including Kelly’s first-down pass to Chris Burkett for 26 yards, and a third-down Kelly scramble with a face-mask penalty against ex-Raider Sean Jones tacked on. Thomas bolted the last 11 yards off the right side, and it was 14-3.

It could have been 17-3 early in the fourth period after Kelly completed a 53-yard pass play to Andre Reed. However, Kelly talked Levy into trying to go again on fourth and 1 at the 1, and Riddick was thrown back, again.

“Heck, it’s the playoffs, let’s go for it,” Kelly said.

“I said that to him twice, and we came up short twice. The second time, I apologized to him.”

They didn’t have to worry, this wasn’t the Oilers’ day. Moon promptly threw an interception to Mark Kelso, who returned it 28 yards to the Houston 18.

This time, when the Bills got to fourth and 1 at the Houston 9, Levy sent out his field goal unit. Scott Norwood kicked the 27-yarder and it was, finally, 17-3.

Did the Oilers have anything left? Moon took them 80 yards, completing passes for 65 yards of the drive. Rozier ran straight ahead this time and went over from the 1 with 5:12 left, making it 17-10.

The Oilers even got the ball back . . . briefly.

They forced a punt, but Curtis Duncan came running up to field a line drive by John Kidd, bobbled the ball, went to one knee, got up and tried to run before he was hit by ex-Oiler Steve Tasker and fumbled the ball to the Bills.

The Bills ran out the clock as the fans sang and threw their last snowballs at the Oilers and the police on horseback, 22 years of pent-up yearnings fulfilled at last. The Bills hadn’t played a home playoff game since 1966, when the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development-designate, Jack Kemp, who was watching upstairs, was the quarterback, and they were teeing it up in a downtown pile of bricks called War Memorial Stadium.

In Jerry Glanville’s heart, it may have been wintertime, but it’s summer in Buffalo.