Bills Do It the Easy Way : AFC: Reich does the job again as Buffalo advances to conference title game with a convincing 24-3 victory over Steelers.

This time, there was no miraculous comeback.

This time, there was no need.

The Buffalo Bills, coming off the greatest comeback in NFL history six days earlier, made sure a repeat of that feat was unnecessary Saturday by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-3, in a second-round AFC playoff game before a record Three Rivers Stadium crowd of 60,407.

The wild-card Bills will travel to the stadium of the winner of today’s San Diego-Miami matchup for the AFC championship game next Sunday.

All week, the Bills had been asked how they would top last week’s 41-38 overtime victory over the Houston Oilers in a game Buffalo once trailed, 35-3.

“Having a veteran ballclub,” Bill defensive back Nate Odomes said, “coming in here with a Houston hangover was not a problem.”

Neither was the absence of starting quarterback Jim Kelly for the second consecutive week because of a sprained right knee.

Frank Reich, the eight-year career backup, provided the same effective relief he did against Houston.

There was nothing as spectacular as his four second-half touchdown passes of the week before. But then Reich mirrored his club. While spectacular was the operative word a week ago, solid was the word for Saturday.

Reich completed 16 of 23 passes for 160 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Turnovers were the key to this game. Buffalo wasn’t guilty of any while the Steelers turned the game over to the Bills with two interceptions and four fumbles, two of which wound up in Buffalo hands.

“You put the knife to your throat too many times,” Pittsburgh defensive back D.J. Johnson said, “eventually you’ll cut it. It never occurred to me that our season would end today.”

It didn’t occur to many five months ago that the Steelers would even be in this game.

Coming out of the Chuck Noll era, they were faced with a new, 35-year-old head coach in Bill Cowher and a team that hadn’t had better than a 9-7 record since 1983.

But behind the running of Barry Foster and an opportunistic defense that led the league in takeaways with 43, the Steelers won the AFC Central.

And the start of Saturday’s game reflected that success.

With Buffalo facing a fourth and one at the Pittsburgh 46-yard line on its opening drive, the Steel Curtain closed rapidly on Bill running back Carwell Gardner, denying him the needed yard. Linebackers David Little and Hardy Nickerson shoved Gardner back, giving Pittsburgh possession.

The Steelers drove and scored on a 38-yard field goal by Gary Anderson.

The trademark Terrible Towels were whipping furiously around Three Rivers Stadium.

But on the Buffalo sideline, it couldn’t seem that terrible. Worry about a three-point lead? Not after last week.

It turned out to be the Steelers who did the worrying. Faced with starting Neil O’Donnell or Bubby Brister at quarterback, Pittsburgh went with O’Donnell, who sat out the last three regular-season games because of a broken leg.

The alternative was Brister, who missed far too many opportunities while filling in for O’Donnell. The erratic Brister threw two touchdown passes, but five interceptions.

So O’Donnell, rusty or not, got the start.

And quickly got into trouble.

After Anderson’s field goal, O’Donnell lost the ball on three of the Steelers’ next four first-half possessions. O’Donnell saw passes intercepted by Odomes and James Williams and also lost the ball on a fumble caused by the Bills’ Bruce Smith, the ball recovered by Buffalo’s Phil Hansen.

Buffalo took advantage of the fumble to score its first touchdown. From the Steeler one-yard line, the Bills lined lineman Mitch Frerotte up in the backfield.

As defensive back Carnell Lake came in on a blitz, Frerotte stepped out of his way, stepped into the end zone and caught a pass from Reich to give Buffalo a 7-3 lead.

“On that play,” Frerotte said, “I just keep my head down as if I’m blocking and then blow past them.”

With Steeler defensive back Rod Woodson temporarily out of the game because of a mild concussion, it was veteran James Lofton’s turn to blow past the Steeler defense on Buffalo’s first possession of the second half. Reich, going to what is normally Woodson’s side, burned second-year player Sammy Walker, lofting a 17-yard touchdown pass over him into Lofton’s arms.

But the key moment of the game came one play earlier. Attempting to hit Don Beebe on a sideline pass, Reich threw a ball instead into the hands of defensive back Richard Shelton.

Shelton, with a clear path to the end zone some 85 yards away, bobbled the ball, only to see it drop incomplete.

“I wanted to step in front of him (Beebe), which I did,” Shelton said. “I wanted to come down with the ball, which I didn’t. You have to forget about it at the time, but I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

Especially when the result turned out to be a 14-point swing. Instead of getting a go-ahead touchdown, Pittsburgh gave up the Lofton touchdown on the next play, leaving the Steelers behind, 14-3.

They weren’t heard from again, Buffalo adding a 43-yard field goal by Steve Christie and a one-yard run by Gardner to give the Bills 24 consecutive points.

Foster, the AFC’s leading rusher, wound up gaining 104 yards for the Steelers in 20 carries.

But Reich, as he did a week ago, had the key numbers during the second half, completing eight of 10 passes to put the game away.

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