COMMENTARY : Bills’ Effort Is Nothing Short of Super

The New York Jets played their Super Bowl Sunday. From the national anthem that preceded the opening kickoff to an offense that denied the Buffalo Bills the ball to the failed field-goal attempt in the waning seconds, it looked a lot like the masterpiece fashioned by the New York Giants eight months ago. Only an examination of the final score identified it as a forgery.

It was the equivalent of an artist slavishly copying every detail of a Monet, then misspelling the name in the signature. The result was an aesthetically pleasing fake of little or no value. “We have to play well and win,” defensive end Jeff Lageman said. “We’re not getting paid to come close.”

Damn, but they did come close to beating the mighty Bills, who hadn’t been challenged like this since, well, the Super Bowl. They did such an uncanny imitation of last season’s champions for the first 55 minutes, in fact, that it appeared the Giants might have left the main body of their team behind at Giants Stadium and sent the reserves to Chicago. The latter’s constipated performance in Soldier Field didn’t do anything to indicate otherwise.

Buffalo’s no-huddle offense hadn’t been stopped since the start of the playoffs a year ago. The Giants, however, contained the Bills in Super Bowl XXV by retaining possession for a remarkable 40 minutes and 33 seconds. Not only did the Jets take a page from the Giants’ book, they lifted the entire game plan and almost improved on it. In one sense, they outdid the Giants, holding the ball for 40 minutes, 35 seconds.

“I’d like to say it was a good game and a moral victory,” safety Lonnie Young said. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it; neither could linebacker Kyle Clifton. “Right now it doesn’t seem that way,” Clifton said.

At the end of the game, saddled with a 1-2 record and the thought of a lost opportunity, the Super Bowl was the last thing on the Jets’ mind. The Bills couldn’t make the same statement, if only because they were so many reminders, starting with the appearance of Whitney Houston on the big replay screens at each end of the stadium.

Of course, Norwood denied it. “I only heard the chant one time,” he said. “It was some kind of timeout. They were awfully loud, calling my name.” But he denied his primal scream had anything to do with the fans. “It was just the excitement of the moment,” he said. “It wasn’t directed at them.”

Norwood has worked hard to place the Super Bowl miss behind him. “I don’t want to talk about that any more,” he said. And despite a 48-yard slip in the fourth quarter, the team continues to rally behind him. Not only was he awarded a game ball yesterday for his part in the Bills’ 23-20 victory but quarterback Jim Kelly, sighting a couple of reporters at the kicker’s locker, made a point of tapping him on the shoulder and saying in a loud voice, “Good job, Scotty.”

This time, Norwood’s miss did not stop the Bills because Kelly kept alive their ensuing drive with a fourth-down completion to James Lofton and then tossed a touchdown pass to Thurman Thomas. It was the Jets who had the ball for the final drive and it was Pat Leahy who failed on a game-tying attempt from a distant 51 yards.

Lofton decided that it “was almost a championship-level game.” Thank the Jets for that. Off the reputation they established at the end of last season and in the first two weeks, the Bills can expect future opponents to approach them with Super Bowl intensity. “We bring out the best in everybody,” Bentley decided. “We’re going to have to play well, to play 60 minutes every week.”

When Leahy’s kick fell short, there were 16 seconds left on the clock. Norwood’s attempt at the end of the championship game in January sailed wide right with four seconds left. What a coincidence.

“The only time I thought of the Super Bowl (Sunday),” Norwood insisted, “was when Whitney Houston sang the national anthem. I’m getting tired of hearing that, to tell the truth.”