Collins Just Doesn’t Have Elvis’ Moves

As the final seconds ticked away and Buffalo quarterback Todd Collins took dead aim at the Kansas City end zone, Elvis Grbac thought about last Monday night.

“My mind was saying, ‘I don’t want to feel like the Raiders,’ ” said the Chief quarterback, the toast of Kansas City all week after connecting with Andre Rison for a 32-yard touchdown in the final seconds to defeat Oakland.

But the Bills couldn’t victimize the Chiefs the way that Grbac did the Raiders.

With a first-and-goal from the seven-yard line with 27 seconds left, Collins threw three consecutive incomplete passes. Then Mark McMillian intercepted the fourth-down pass, preserving Kansas City’s 22-16 victory with six seconds left.

“The defense did a great job,” said Grbac, who was yelling as loud as anybody in the crowd of 78,169 in the climactic final seconds.

Grbac, given good protection most of the game, threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Tony Richardson with 6:55 left to give the Chiefs (2-1) the lead, setting the stage for the final drama on the other end of the field.

Because Phil Hansen blocked the extra point, the Bills could have won with a touchdown and an extra point.

“You’ve got 27 seconds left and you’ve got four passes,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “You know the coverage is going to be tight. You know they’re going to throw a variety of blitzes at you. You either do it or you don’t. We didn’t.”

After Buffalo (1-2) took a 13-9 lead early in the fourth quarter, Tamarick Vanover took the ensuing kickoff on his six-yard line and sped almost untouched to his fourth career touchdown return, giving the Chiefs some badly needed momentum.

“That was a huge boost Tamarick gave our entire team,” Grbac said. “We needed something like that.”