Bills Turn Incentive Into 20-16 Victory : Interconference: Pass-interference penalty keeps drive alive against Saints, who don’t have as much at stake.

With half the fourth quarter still ahead in the Superdome Sunday, quarterback Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills was ordered to throw a fourth-down pass from the New Orleans Saints’ 30-yard line, and, with no other good options, he threw it into double coverage.

The ball fell incomplete, as it often does in such a circumstance.

But at the same time, an official called a New Orleans defensive back for pass interference at the two-yard line. And on the next play, the Bills won the game on halfback Thurman Thomas’ touchdown sweep.

Eventually, they added a field goal to score a 20-16 upset over a good New Orleans team that led at halftime, 13-3, and in the fourth quarter, 16-10, on an afternoon when, in the end, the differences in motivation and incentive were probably decisive.

For the Bills (11-4) had the most to lose. An up-and-down team this year, they came to New Orleans at the height of their season-long fight with the Miami Dolphins for first place in the AFC East. The Bills were, in a word, ready. As for the Saints (11-4), they had been ousted Saturday from the race for first in the NFC West. They were eliminated thousands of miles away in San Francisco, where the 49ers finally overcame the stubborn Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So as it turned out, the Buffalo-New Orleans game was a nothing game for the Saints, who played like it, and an everything game for the Bills--who also played like it to move a giant stride closer to their third Super Bowl appearance in three years.

“It was a courageous performance by our guys,” said Buffalo Coach Marv Levy, noting that his team entered the game without defensive end Bruce Smith, and then lost linebackers Shane Conlan and Cornelius Bennett, among others, during the second quarter.

Although Conlan returned during the second half, it was a makeshift Buffalo defense playing fired-up football that the Saints couldn’t budge. With, at most, a halfhearted effort, the Saints rushed and passed for a total of only 28 yards during the second half.

As New Orleans Coach Jim Mora said: “We didn’t play good in any area. We tackled as poorly as I can remember.”

Those charges, when leveled against a good team, are usually indications of lack of incentive. Another indication here Sunday was the absence of protection for New Orleans quarterback Bobby Hebert by a normally first-rate offensive line.

After 14 games in which Hebert was sacked only 11 times, the Bills got him four times.

Hebert completed 17 of 32 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown, a marginally better performance than that of Kelly, who completed 13 of 28 for 135, but it was Kelly who threw the big one on the turning-point interference play.

Nearly eight minutes remained when, with New Orleans nursing a 16-10 lead, Buffalo threw the ball on fourth down.

“It was my call,” said Levy, who waved off his field-goal team.

The next call was back judge Ken Baker’s. As Kelly’s high pass dropped quite harmlessly into the neighborhood where Buffalo wide receiver Andre Reed was heading, two first-string New Orleans defensive backs had him bracketed. They were cornerback Reginald Jones and free safety Gene Atkins.

The official flagged Jones. And the game, considering that New Orleans was to total only two first downs during the second half, was over.

“(The ball) slipped out of my hand,” Kelly said. “It (didn’t go) exactly where I wanted.”

But close enough.

The player who switched the momentum to Buffalo, after Hebert had produced the only touchdown of the first half with a 20-yard throw to rookie wide receiver Torrance Small, was running back Thomas.

“We rely on Thurman Thomas,” Levy said.

During the second half, notably, they did. The Bills had run and passed for only 100 yards during the first half--scoring only three points--and Kelly had been smothered on his first two passes of the third quarter, when, on third and 10, Thomas made it a new game.

Running a draw play from shotgun formation at a time when the Saints clearly expected another Kelly pass, Thomas broke down the middle for 41 yards to the New Orleans 28.

That was the beginning of the beginning for the Bills, who scored a touchdown on that drive--on Thomas’ six-yard run--before winning it on Thomas’ second touchdown run.

In total offense, Thomas had a 177-yard day, gaining 62 yards on six catches to lead every receiver on both sides, and adding 115 yards from scrimmage--a 4.8 yard average with 24 carries--to more than double the rushing net of the entire New Orleans team.

The Saints, with one of the NFL’s worst ground offenses, were held to 48 yards on running plays, a 2.3-yard average.

Said Thomas: “Knowing how (the Saints) rush the passer, I knew there would be some running lanes for me.”

There were more and more of those during the second half--after Thomas had run for only 28 yards in the first half--because players who aren’t highly motivated tend to fall apart as a football game progresses. The Saints, for example, were probably thinking about all the things they lost Saturday, when the 49ers belatedly pulled it out by seven points against a 20-point underdog.

The Saints are a better team than the Bills. If they meet the Bills again in the Super Bowl--and they might--don’t put too much on Buffalo.