Bills’ Offense Looks Unstoppable Against Dolphins : AFC: Kelly, on sprained ankle, leads Buffalo to 35-31 victory over Miami.

It was a big afternoon for sports fans who are partial to wide-open football--to the game that has been called basketball on artificial turf.

At the same time that Houston’s run-and-shoot players were running away from the Raiders Sunday, the Buffalo Bills sped for nearly 600 yards in their fast-break, no-huddle offense to turn back their division rivals, the Miami Dolphins.

It was a game that quarterback Jim Kelly won for Buffalo with five touchdown drives, 35-31, bringing the Bills from behind in the fourth quarter after Miami had opened leads of 14-0 and then 24-21 on a three-touchdown passing day by quarterback Dan Marino.

Kelly did it on a sprained ankle that had him limping from the first and that once sent him to the sideline in the midst of a scoring series--which backup quarterback Frank Reich finished off with a starter’s skill.

Houston and Buffalo were both playing what could be termed the game of the future:

--The Bills bypassed the old-fashioned huddle in order to hit the Dolphins quickly with a mix of hard, short passes by Kelly and surprise draw plays by halfback Thurman Thomas.

--Halfway across the country, the Oilers bypassed power football to surprise the Raiders with a similar mix of passes and draw plays.

The Raiders have now lost their last two to Buffalo and Houston. What’s more, in the Super Bowl last January, another old-style team, the New York Giants, won from the Bills by only one point when a last-moment Buffalo field goal attempt missed.

Was that Giant victory the high-water mark for old-fashioned football?

There will be an answer of some kind tonight--unless the Giants play a different, livelier game with passer Jeff Hostetler against the San Francisco 49ers.

At the critical points of Sunday’s Buffalo game before a crowd of 80,252, the Miami defense was helpless against Kelly and Thomas.

Kelly threw for a career-high 381 yards, completing 29 of 39.

Thomas ran for 165 yards, averaging 6.6, and caught eight passes for another 103 yards

As Buffalo netted 583 yards--its all-time high--wide receivers Andre Reed and James Lofton caught 11 and five passes, respectively, mostly on short crossing patterns that befuddled the Dolphin defense.

The Bills, in other words, built impressively on the offense they had introduced last year, using more draw plays this time, as well as shorter passes. Most of Kelly’s shots were carried another 10 to 50 yards.

“We just couldn’t stop that offense,” Miami Coach Don Shula said.

In the last 2:23, after Miami’s final touchdown pass had closed the score to 35-31, Thomas ran out the clock on five plays--gaining three, seven, one, one, and 20 yards.

Said Shula: “We couldn’t hold them in a situation where everybody in the stadium knew they were going to run with the football.”

At that moment, the Dolphins’ problem was fatigue. They had been chasing Kelly for three hours.

“We tried to get our substitutions in (against the no-huddle),” Shula said. “But we had to leave our base defense in (too often).”

Thus the no-huddle.

Buffalo Coach Marv Levy, calling Kelly “a unique individual,” predicted that his quarterback will miss no starts.

“He’s a tough son-of-a-gun, and he heals fast,” Levy said.

But Kelly said: “You wouldn’t want to have this ankle right now.”

Kelly’s scoring passes were thrown to Reed and Thomas on plays that, before they stopped running, gained 54 and 50 yards, respectively.

Marino, completing 17 of 28 passes for 267 yards, drove the Dolphins 80 and 65 yards to take a 14-0 lead, then matched Kelly down the stretch with scoring moves of 67, 44 and 60 yards. Mark Clayton caught six passes, two for touchdowns.

Scott Norwood, whose missed field-goal attempt cost the Bills the Super Bowl, blew another one, shanking the ball from 25 yards out.

Demonstrating that the Buffalo defense isn’t yet in championship form, one Mark Higgs gained 146 yards for Miami.

The Buffalo offense, however, has everything, including a backup quarterback--Reich--who can come in for Kelly and complete two for two--one for a touchdown.