BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- With the Buffalo Bills watching in horror, the Tennessee Titans almost provided a flashback to "Home Run Throwback."
The Bills survived Derrick Mason's long kickoff return and held on for a 16-13 victory over the Titans in a rematch of their thrilling and controversial playoff meeting from last season.
The games were eerily similar in many respects. Last season's AFC wild card playoff game in Tennessee was dominated by defense before the Bills took a late lead on a field goal by Steve Christie.
The ensuing kickoff produced one of the wildest plays in NFL history. Tennessee's Lorenzo Neal fielded the kickoff and handed to Frank Wycheck, who threw across the field to Kevin Dyson.
The play is called "Home Run Throwback" and 75 yards later it was known as the "Music City Miracle" as Dyson raced to the end zone, giving the Titans a 22-16 victory. The Bills vehemently argued and replays showed Wycheck's toss to be a forward pass but the play was ruled a lateral.
"We should have still won it," Wycheck said. "Obviously, you could bring up my play where I dropped it in the endzone. That is a play a professional should make. That hurt us tremendously."
Christie connected from 33 yards tonight, giving Buffalo a 16-13 lead with 31 seconds left and setting up another kickoff. This time, there was no lateral -- just Mason racing past the first wedge and into the clear before Christie slowed him enough for a pair of tacklers to take him down.
"We got scared for a minute," Bills linebacker Sam Cowart said.
The 52-yard return put the Titans on their 49. Steve McNair threw a nine-yard pass to Eddie George, who was kept in bounds as the clock ran. McNair spiked the ball to stop the clock but Craig Hentrich's 60-yard field goal was way left.
Christie's go-ahead field goal was set up by a 36-yard pass from Alex Van Pelt to Eric Moulds.
"Our defense played well the whole game, Moulds makes a play at the end to win it," Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher said. "That's the kind of player he is. We doubled him. I'll give him credit."
Van Pelt came on after starter Rob Johnson was sidelined earlier in the fourth quarter with a foot injury.
"I think I got kicked and when I got kicked it hit a nerve or something," Johnson said. "They say its more like a stinged that you get in your shoulder and you lose feeling for a little bit. It's just frustrating that I get these little injuries. I spent 3 1/2 quarters getting my butt kicked and it would have been nice to finish what we had started."
"Rob got banged up, but we don't know the extent of it right now," Buffalo coach Wade Phillips said. "I think it was more a nerve more than anything else and he could not get his strength back. He made a lot of big plays for us."
Johnson completed 9-of-18 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown. He also had six carries for 60 yards. Van Pelt was 4-of-8 for 67 yards.
"I knew Alex (Van Pelt) would do well," Johnson said. "We got them spread out a litlle bit on that big play and he just gave it to Eric Moulds and Eric did the rest."
The Bills did a good job of containing George, limiting him to 37 yards on 17 carries. But one of those was a two-yard TD run with 8:44 to go that tied the game.
The score came less than a minute after George was stopped on 3rd-and-goal and McNair threw incomplete into the end zone, one of many squandered opportunities by the Titans.
Prior to Tennessee's second field goal in the second period, normally surehanded tight end Frank Wycheck dropped a touchdown pass. In the third quarter, George dropped a flat pass with plenty of running room, killing a potential scoring drive.
After a scoreless first quarter, Johnson capped a 71-yard drive with a 15-yard TD pass to Peerless Price with 12:29 left in the second period.
"I think Rob called an audible and I didn't get it," Price said. "I saw him rolling my way and I just turned up and he just threw the ball up and I went up and got it. I think we felt throughout this game that we were going to win it at the end. This didn't feel like last year's game."
In the final five minutes of the first half, Al Del Greco kicked field goals of 38 and 27 yards to pull Tennessee within a point. Wycheck's drop over the middle preceded the 27-yarder.
Scrambles of 13 and nine yards by Johnson set up Christie's kick of 42 yards that gave Buffalo a 10-6 lead with four minutes left in the third quarter. Another 15-yard run by Johnson positioned Christie for a 41-yard field goal in the opening minute of the final period.
