Bills Put Raiders on Ice Again : AFC: Buffalo comes back from 17-6 deficit to reach fourth consecutive conference championship game with 29-23 victory.

The Raiders went from a 7-9 record last season to the second round of the playoffs this season.

They went from ridicule to respectability. They went from turmoil to triumph.

But they will go no further.

A season of progress, achieved despite painful inconsistency that featured as many agonizing lows as exhilarating highs, took one final plunge Saturday afternoon at Rich Stadium, where the Buffalo Bills beat the Raiders, 29-23, before a frozen crowd of 61,923 to advance to next Sunday’s AFC title game.

It was the second time in four years that a Raider season ended in Buffalo. But this was nothing like the 51-3 whipping the Raiders took in the 1991 AFC championship game.

This was a game the Raiders were leading at halftime, 17-13, after three quarters, 23-22, and might have pulled out with a few fortunate bounces in the final quarter.

“We should have kicked their butts,” Raider defensive lineman Greg Townsend said. “ We should be representing the AFC.”

All week, the pregame speculation centered on the weather. And it was bad. It was zero degrees at kickoff with 16-m.p.h. winds dropping the wind-chill to 32 below, making it the coldest game ever played at Rich Stadium.

But, as it turned out, only the kicking game was affected. The passers were able to throw, the runners were able to go.

And the Bills were able to do what they do best, which is dominate the AFC in the postseason.

The rest of America outside the city limits might not want to hear this, but that sound that reverberated across the football world Saturday was the Bills taking their first step toward yet another Super Bowl.

Losers of three consecutive Super Bowls, Buffalo has won eight AFC playoff games in a row and the seven they have played at Rich Stadium. The last time the Bills lost a home playoff game was on New Year’s Day, 1967, when they were defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs in an American Football League playoff matchup.

The Raiders seemed to have a chance to break the streak coming into the game. They had beaten the Bills here six weeks ago, starting a run in which they had gone 5-1, climaxed by last week’s 42-24 wild-card victory over the Denver Broncos.

The only question was whether the Raiders could run on the Bills.

The answer in the first half was a resounding yes.

Ty Montgomery and Napoleon McCallum were able to move down the sometimes slippery field with precision and power in the first 30 minutes.

After a scoreless first quarter, during which Jeff Jaeger missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt, the Raiders finally cashed in a drive early in the second quarter with a 30-yarder by Jaeger.

But, as they would do all afternoon, the Bills responded with a score of their own.

This one was set up by a short kickoff by Jaeger on an afternoon when both kickers struggled with the field and the elements.

Jaeger’s kickoff wound up in the hands of one of the up men, Steve Tasker. Tasker has made his reputation as a special-teams star and he enhanced it Saturday by returning the kickoff 67 yards. Tasker raced down the left side and eluded three would-be tacklers before finally getting shoved out of bounds at the Raider one-yard line by Willie Gault. It was the longest postseason kickoff return in Bill history.

And one of the most important. Kenneth Davis’ one-yard run gave Buffalo the lead at 6-3.

The extra point would have made it 7-3, but on this day, an extra point was as difficult as a 40-yard field goal. Sure enough, the Bills’ Steve Christie missed to the right.

McCallum put the Raiders back in front with a one-yard run, capping a 57-yard drive.

When tight end Pete Metzelaars fumbled on Buffalo’s next play from scrimmage, the Raiders again had the ball in Bills’ territory in the closing minutes of the half.

They got to the Buffalo one, where McCallum, on three carries, gained only half the distance to the goal.

On fourth down, Coach Art Shell sent in the field-goal unit.

Hold on, yelled Jeff Hostetler.

“I told them not to kick until after the two-minute warning,” the Raider quarterback said. “I wanted to have my say.”

With both Hostetler and offensive lineman Todd Peat arguing the case, Shell relented and put the ball back in McCallum’s hands. He scored on his fourth try from the one and the Raiders led, 17-6.

But Kelly quickly marched the Bills 76 yards, aided by a 37-yard pass-interference call on Torin Dorn, who was attempting to defend against Andre Reed. Thurman Thomas scored from the eight-yard line, cutting the margin to 17-13.

In the second half, the Bills went from a seven- to an eight-man line to shut down the Raider running game and opened up their own offense. The Bills rushed for only 14 yards in the first half, 61 in the second. The Raiders rushed for 98 yards in the first half, only 12 in the second.

It didn’t help the Raiders, who were already without defensive lineman Chester McGlockton, that safety Eddie Anderson had to leave early in the second half when his sprained ankle flared up. It also didn’t help that the Raiders were called for being offsides five times, four of those called against veteran Howie Long.

Jim Kelly connected with Bill Brooks on a 25-yard touchdown pass. Christie’s extra point was blocked, but, after a McCallum fumble, Christie kicked a 29-yard field goal to give Buffalo a 22-17 lead.

The Raiders came back in spectacular fashion, Hostetler hitting Tim Brown across the middle and Brown turning it into an 86-yard touchdown, the longest in Raider postseason history.

But it was to be their last gasp.

Kelly came back to Brooks in the fourth quarter for the winning points on a 22-yard touchdown pass with 12:05 to play.

And then Buffalo hung on despite a series of plays that summed up a Raider afternoon of frustration.

On one drive:

--Kelly, hit by Anthony Smith, fumbled, only to have the ball land in the hands of Bill lineman John Fina, who ran for 15 yards.

--Kent Hull made a bad center snap, only to have Kelly fall on it.

--Kelly threw a pass to Davis that bounced out of his hands and hung tantalizingly in the air, only to fall untouched.

It was that kind of a day for the Raiders. And that kind of a year.