Bills Can’t Kick After 22-19 Win

It took Steve Christie four tries, but he finally got it right.

After missing a chip-shot field goal, an extra point and his first try at the winning kick, Christie made a 33-yard field goal with 5 seconds to play Monday night that gave the Buffalo Bills a 22-19 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

Christie needed - and got - two chances at the winning kick because the Browns’ Pepper Johnson had called timeout moments before Christie pulled the first one wide to the left.

The next one was good.

“The thing that impressed me the most was the way that, no matter how many things went wrong, our team never caved,” coach Marv Levy said. “It was a very atypical day for Steve Christie. He’s very dependable, but he just had one of those days. But he made the one that counted.”

Christie was just grateful.

“The key is, we won,” he said. “I was really fortunate to have the opportunity to come back and hit it. Obviously, I hadn’t done a very good job.”

The Browns called the timeout simply to give Christie a few more seconds to think about the kick.

“The situation was to ice the kicker,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We called the timeout well before the ball was even snapped. I guess they didn’t hear it because of the crowd noise.”

Two familiar names, Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, combined to set up the winning kick. Starting from their own 26 with 3:38 to go, Kelly hit Russell Copeland with a 20-yard pass that got the ball near midfield, and Thomas then carried four times for 33 yards.

Kelly was 27 of 34 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Andre Reed caught nine of them for 97 yards, including a 41-yard scoring reception with 6:30 to play.

Buffalo (3-1) ran up 406 yards of total offense and could have put the game away earlier, but several costly mistakes kept the Browns (3-2) in it.

Matt Stover’s fourth field goal, a 38-yarder, tied it 19-19 with 3:49 to play. One play earlier, Vinny Testaverde aimed a 20-yard pass at Andre Rison that was deflected away at the last second by safety Greg Evans.

Bills 22, Browns 19

Buffalo 10 0 3 9 - 22

Cleveland 7 3 6 3 - 19

First quarter

Buf-Armour 14 pass from Kelly (Christie kick), 5:04.

Cle-Alexander 69 punt return (Stover kick), 8:11.

Buf-FG Christie 38, 14:10.

Second quarter

Cle-FG Stover 32, 14:42.

Third quarter

Buf-FG Christie 31, 3:50.

Cle-FG Stover 47, 8:11.

Cle-FG Stover 23, 11:04.

Fourth quarter

Buf-Reed 41 pass from Kelly (kick failed), 8:30.

Cle-FG Stover 38, 11:11.

Buf-FG Christie 33, 14:55.

A-76,211.

Buf Cle First downs 23 16 Rushes-yards 36-160 20-90 Passing 246 204 Punt Returns 2-26 1-69 Kickoff Returns 6-120 5-136 Interceptions Ret. 1-0 1-0 Comp-Att-Int 27-34-1 18-35-1 Sacked-Yards Lost 1-10 3-20 Punts 2-48 3-39 Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0 Penalties-Yards 9-65 6-48 Time of Possession 32:18 27:42

Individual statistics RUSHINGBuffalo, Thomas 23-86, Holmes 9-62, Reed 1-8, Gardner 2-5, Kelly 1-(minus 1). Cleveland, Alexander 1-29, Byner 7-24, White 5-24, Hoard 7-13.

PASSINGBuffalo, Kelly 27-34-1-256. Cleveland, Testaverde 18-34-0-224, Jackson 0-1-1-0.

RECEIVINGBuffalo, Reed 9-97, Thomas 5-40, Armour 4-46, Johnson 4-24, Copeland 2-34, Holmes 2-7, Brooks 1-8. Cleveland, Rison 6-126, McCardell 5-60, Byner 2-8, Reeves 2-4, Alexander 1-10, Jackson 1-9, Testaverde 1-7.

MISSED FIELD GOALSCleveland, Stover 43. Buffalo, Christie 22.