NFL PLAYOFFS : Reich Makes Might for Buffalo : AFC: Reserve throws four touchdown passes as the Bills mount biggest comeback in league history to beat Oilers in overtime, 41-38.

No team in the 73-year history of the NFL had ever done this.

Not the Baltimore Colts with John Unitas. Not the Miami Dolphins with Dan Marino. Not the San Francisco 49ers with Joe Montana, Not even the Denver Broncos with that master of miraculous comebacks, John Elway.

No team had ever come back from a 32-point deficit.

Certainly not a team with a backup quarterback such as Frank Reich.

Certainly not a team playing without its key linebacker, injured Cornelius Bennett, and with only six sound defensive backs.

Certainly not a team that had lost its star running back, Thurman Thomas, during the third quarter.

Certainly not a team that had, seemingly, lost its heart somewhere during the first half.

Certainly not when the opposing quarterback had already set a team record with four touchdown passes before halftime.

But despite trailing by 28-3 at the half and 35-3 early in the third quarter, the Buffalo Bills, with Reich at the controls for injured Jim Kelly, pulled off the biggest comeback in league history Sunday, storming back before a Rich Stadium crowd of 75,141 to beat the Houston Oilers, 41-38 in overtime, in an American Football Conference wild-card game.

Wild it was.

The Bills scored 28 points during the third quarter, a league record for a postseason third quarter, and seven during the fourth quarter to temporarily take the lead with Reich throwing four touchdown passes.

After Houston tied the score on a 26-yard Al Del Greco field goal with 12 seconds to play in regulation, Buffalo won it on Steve Christie’s 32-yard field goal 3:06 into the overtime.

“You can coach a long time and you don’t get involved in a game like this,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “There’s no quit in this team at all.”

Not even when Buffalo needed five touchdowns to regain the lead?

“It was humiliating,” Levy said, “but there was a glimmer of hope. I figured we had the same chance as we would have to win the New York lottery.”

During the first half, Houston quarterback Warren Moon seemed as carefree as a lottery winner.

This was his first start since he suffered a broken arm in mid-November. But if there was any rust on Moon, he shook it off before the national anthem. He completed 19 of 22 passes during the first half for 218 yards.

He threw touchdown passes of three and 27 yards to Haywood Jeffires, a seven-yarder to Webster Slaughter and a 26-yarder to Curtis Duncan.

All the Bills could manage in response was a 36-yard field goal by Christie.

Levy was using six defensive backs, pretty standard operating procedure against the run-and-shoot. Shortly before halftime, he decided to scrap that disastrous plan and go to a more conventional 3-4-4, hoping the four linebackers in the middle could provide more pressure on Moon and slow the short passing game and bruising running back Lorenzo White.

But Levy knew it was going to take more than a change in strategy. It was going to take a serious change in attitude.

“You have 30 minutes left,” Levy told his players. “You have to live with yourselves. Whether you win or lose, you want to feel proud of yourselves. It’s a long off-season.”

As Reich, an eight-year journeyman backup who hadn’t started a game in a year, sat in his locker stall, backup quarterback Gale Gilbert put an arm around him.

“Hey, you did it in college,” Gilbert told Reich. “No reason you can’t do it here.”

Indeed Reich had.

Playing for the University of Maryland in 1984, Reich entered a game against Miami in the second half with Maryland trailing by 31-0, and engineered one of college football’s greatest comebacks, Maryland winning, 42-40.

So Reich went back on the field after halftime Sunday and promptly threw a touchdown pass--for the Oilers.

His pass to Keith McKeller went through the tight end’s hands into the arms of Houston’s Bubba McDowell, who returned it 58 yards.

Houston 35, Buffalo 3.

To make matters even worse, Thomas, the third leading rusher in the NFL this season, suffered another injury to his hip and was through for the afternoon.

So, it appeared, were the Bills.

But then, it started.

After a squib kick by the Oilers was secured by the Bills at the 50-yard line, Reich threw two passes to Andre Reed to begin Buffalo’s first touchdown drive.

Reed has publicly complained about the Bills’ failure in recent games to feature him in the passing game. But he had no complaints Sunday, catching eight passes for 136 yards and three touchdowns--as many scoring catches as he had all season.

It was Kenneth Davis who scored Buffalo’s first touchdown, going one yard.

Houston 35, Buffalo 10.

Buffalo then recovered an onside kick and scored four plays later on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Reich to Don Beebe.

Houston 35, Buffalo 17.

After holding the Oilers on their next possession, Buffalo scored again on a 26-yard pass from Reich to Reed.

Houston 35, Buffalo 24.

On the Oilers’ next possession, Moon’s pass was intercepted by Henry Jones.

This Buffalo drive came down to the crucial play of the game. With a fourth and five at the Houston 18-yard line, Levy ignored the field-goal opportunity and gambled.

“The reasoning was that if we made it,” Levy said, “we were still down by eight. That quarter was nearly over. We’d be going into the wind in the fourth quarter, and you’d have to get very close to try a field goal.”

Levy looked like a genius when Reich responded by not only getting the first down but a touchdown as well, passing 18 yards to Reed in the middle of the end zone.

Houston 35, Buffalo 31.

The Bills had scored four touchdowns in 6 minutes 52 seconds. They had held the ball for 10 1/2 minutes. And they had taken the soul out of the Oilers.

During the fourth quarter, Reich, who completed 21 of 34 for 289 yards, threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Reed with 3:08 to play.

Buffalo 38, Houston 35.

Moon, who completed 36 of 50 for 371 yards, rallied Houston for a tying field goal.

But after getting the ball in overtime, Moon gave it back in Oiler territory as Nate Odomes intercepted a pass.

Christie did the rest.

“I never thought we were out of it,” Reich said.

Asked if his Oilers had choked, Moon thought for a moment.

“Choked?” he said. “I will not comment on guys choking. I will give credit to Buffalo for coming back. You could say Buffalo choked in the first half. But this game is not played for 30 minutes. It’s played for 60 minutes.”

It was played for slightly more than 63 minutes on Sunday in Buffalo. Like it never has been played before.

NFL’s Biggest Comebacks ALL GAMES 32: Buffalo 41, Houston 38 (OT) Jan. 3, 1993 (playoffs) Buffalo trailed 35-3

* 28: San Francisco 38, New Orl. 35 (OT) Dec. 7, 1980 San Francisco trailed 35-7

* 25: St. Louis 31, Tampa Bay 28 Nov. 8, 1987 St. Louis trailed 28-3

* 24: Mark shared by 11 teams

* PLAYOFFS ONLY 20: Detroit 31, San Francisco 27 Dec. 22, 1957 Detroit trailed 27-7