MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Gary Anderson became the NFL's all-time leading scorer as the Minnesota Vikings rallied for a 31-27 victory over the Buffalo Bills to remain the league's only unbeaten team.
Anderson capped the Vikings' come-from-behind win with a 21-yard field goal with 1:04 remaining.
The 41-year-old kicker had three field goals and two extra points. The 11 points give him 2,004 for his career -- two more than the previous mark held by George Blanda, who played until he was 48.
"I'm the beneficiary today of a lot of hard work by a lot of guys and I'm really grateful to everybody who has been a part of this," Anderson said. "I had a chance to meet Blanda a couple years ago and he said his standard's awfully high. He set another standard of playing until he was 48. That one may be a little out of the realm of possibilities for me."
"It's one of the records in sports that nobody thought could be broken and he did it in like seven years shorter," Vikings punter Mitch Berger said of Anderson.
The Vikings overcame an inspirational performance from Buffalo's Doug Flutie to improve to 7-0. St. Louis also entered today undefeated, but suffered its first defeat in Kansas City.
While Anderson entered the record books, he would not have had a chance for his milestone kick had it not been for Daunte Culpepper, who three touchdown passes in the second half, including two in the fourth quarter that erased a 24-13 deficit.
"I pretty much just tried to stay relaxed," said Culpepper, who completed 17-of-29 passes for 251 yards. "I had confidence in my receivers. It's hard not to with those guys out there, and they came up with big plays when I needed them to."
The tandem of Cris Carter and Randy Moss proved too much to handle for the Bills' secondary. Carter had seven receptions for 110 yards and Moss grabbed five passes for 110 yards.
Culpepper tossed a 39-yard touchdown pass to Moss, who made a spectacular grab in the back of the end zone to give the Vikings a 28-27 lead with 3:42 remaining. Moss almost lost a piece of his equipment as he prepared to make the catch.
"When I saw Daunte set up, I just smiled," Moss said. "My mouthpiece came out of my mouth and I tried to bring it back in it. I knew it was going to be a big play. Daunte did his job by putting the ball up where noboby could get it and it was up to me to make the catch and put my feet down to make the touchdown."
Culpepper joined Mike Tomczak and Dieter Brock as the only NFL quarterbacks to win their first seven NFL starts.
"Daunte has always been that way, just solid," Vikings coach Dennis Green said. "That was how he played in junior high, in high school and in college. I don't think it would be so much better, otherwise you would have to assume he was perfect. He continues to get better as the game goes on. He's a strong and focused player. He will always be that way and I am excited about that."
Things continued to unravel for Buffalo (3-4) as Peerless Price coughed up the ball on the Bills' ensuing possession following a reception at his 34.
After Anderson's field goal, Flutie drove the Bills to the Minnesota 43 with five seconds left. But his "Hail Mary" pass fell short of the end zone as time expired. Moss played defense on the final play.
"I thought we moved the ball very well," said Flutie, who was 28-of-43 for 294 yards and two touchdowns. "We moved the ball up and down the field and with an offense like the one they have, you can't make any mistakes but we made some mistakes late. With their explosiveness, you can't turn the ball over."
Shaking off early rust, Flutie appeared ready to add another chapter to his legend of storybook performances, sparking the Bills to 17 second-half points and a 27-21 lead late in the fourth quarter in his first start of the season. Starting in place of the injured Rob Johnson, Flutie tossed a 19-yard TD pass to rookie Sammy Morris to give the Bills a 24-13 lead 41 seconds into the final period. Morris also scored on a one-yard TD run in the third quarter.
"It was another tough loss for us, similiar to what we've had before," Buffalo coach Wade Phillips said. "We did a lot of good things in the ballgame, but we made mistakes at the end. I thought we played our hearts out but there were big mistakes and a lot of big penalties at crunch time."
After Culpepper's 11-yard TD pass to Carter made it 24-21, Steve Christie booted a 48-yard field goal to increase Buffalo's lead to 27-21.
After a sluggish first half in which the Bills managed a 10-6 halftime lead, the contest heated up in the second half, when the defenses had a hard time stopping the offenses.
"We just got ourselves out of sync today," Vikings running back Robert Smith said. "There isn't a defense in the league I believe that can keep us from putting up points or moving the ball. I don't think that we moved the ball the way we wanted to. We did enough to win the ballgame, but a lot of that is what the defense did for us."
The Vikings took the second half kickoff and marched 69 yards in 10 plays to go up 13-10 on Culpepper's two-yard TD toss to Carter.
But the Bills answered as Flutie engineered a 14-play, 80-yard march that consumed more than eight minutes. Buffalo took the lead on Sammy Morris' one-yard dive over the top.
The Bills got the ball right back as Sam Rogers picked off Culpepper at the Vikings 34. Four plays later, Flutie hit Morris over the middle, giving Buffalo an an 11-point cushion.
Culpepper shook off his interception, pulling Minnesota within three when he hit Carter over the middle with 9:34 to play. It was Carter's 117th career receiving touchdown.
After Christie's field goal made it 27-21, the Vikings went three-and-out. But Minnesota's defense came up big, holding Buffalo without a first round. Troy Walters, one of the smallest players in the NFL at just 5-8 and 175 pounds, gave Minnesota excellent field position by returning a punt 28 yards to the Buffalo 34 with 3:54 to go.
After an incompletion of first down, Moss beat two defenders and managed to keep his feet in bounds as he came down with the ball.
"Before the play even started, I told Daunte, 'End zone,' " Moss said. "End zone means you put it in the end zone and let me do the work from there." Needing only a field goal to regain the lead, Flutie appeared to convert a 3rd-and-1 with an 18-yard completion to Shawn Bryson at the Bills 47. But a tripping penalty on tackle Marcus Spriggs negated the gain.
"Our game plan was to keep their offense off the field," Phillips said. "You can see why we wanted to keep them off. We had some long drives and executed well on offense, but we didn't make the plays at the end."
On 3rd-and-11, Flutie hit Price for 17 yards, but the receiver fumbled after getting hit leveled by Robert Tate. Orlando Thomas recovered for the Vikings at the Bills 34.
"Tate did a good job on the hit," Thomas said. "He hit him real hard. We knew we had to come up with a big play and it came at the right time for us."
