Bills Extend Streak With Blowout Win Over the Cardinals : Interconference: Buffalo beats Phoenix, 45-14, in 29-m.p.h wind for its seventh consecutive victory.

The wind that whips across Rich Stadium is notorious for the unpredictable gusts that affect the game-plan and performance of every NFL team.

“Sometimes in this stadium, the wind hits like a wall out of nowhere,” said Steve Tasker, Buffalo Bills wide receiver. “You’re walking around and it just about knocks you over.”

The Bills, however, are accustomed to practicing and playing in the wind. And it was evident Sunday during the Bills’ 45-14 victory over the Phoenix Cardinals.

Despite the 29-m.p.h wind, quarterback Jim Kelly passed for four touchdowns as the Bills (8-1) won their seventh consecutive game.

Phoenix linebacker Garth Jax said the Cardinals (2-7) hadn’t faced such difficult conditions since a game against the New York Giants at East Rutherford, N.J., in 1986. And Cardinal running back Ron Wolfley, who grew up in Orchard Park, N.Y., said he had “never seen weather like that.”

Kelly, who completed 11 of 16 passes for 165 yards, connected with Tasker, Keith McKeller, Butch Rolle and Don Beebe on touchdown pass plays and engineered a methodical scoring drive that began against the wind in the third quarter and concluded with the wind at the start of the fourth.

Timm Rosenbach, who completed five of 10 passes for 74 yards, pulled the Cardinals to within 21-14 when he connected with Ernie Jones on a 29-yard touchdown pass play with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

The Bills responded with a 64-yard drive that ended with a 25-yard field goal by Scott Norwood on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“The thing that we didn’t want to do is make a critical mistake with them having the wind,” Buffalo center Kent Hull said. “We wanted to basically keep the ball on the ground and move the football and keep moving the sticks and hopefully that clock would keep running so we could turn it around and get it going the other way.”

Said Cardinal Coach Joe Bugel: “We’re in the hunt right there. We had to get the ball back, but unfortunately we didn’t.”

Things started well for the Cardinals. Kelly was sacked by Cedric Mack and fumbled the ball on Buffalo’s first possession. Mack recovered and three plays later, Johnny Johnson scored on a one-yard run with 10:16 left in the first quarter.

But the Bills got the wind in the second quarter and took command. Kelly connected on scoring plays of 18 yards to McKeller, one yard to Rolle and 24 yards to Tasker.

Tasker’s touchdown was his first in six NFL seasons and his first in five seasons with the Bills. He had two receptions with Houston before the Bills signed him as a free agent.

After Norwood’s field goal made it 24-14 early in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals tried to rally, but the wind kept them from going very far.

“When the fourth quarter came, we were through,” Cardinal safety Lonnie Young said. “We couldn’t throw the ball.”

The Bills poured it on with Beebe catching an 11-yard touchdown pass, Jamie Mueller scoring on a one-yard run and Ken Davis adding a 13-yard touchdown run.

Buffalo’s Andre Reed, the AFC’s fifth-leading receiver, left the game with a sprained left ankle midway through the first quarter.

The injury occurred when Reed was trying to block for Thurman Thomas after he had broken into the Phoenix secondary on a 43-yard run.