Bills Blast Chiefs, 37-14, Advance to AFC Final

Everyone knows about their atomic offense. Guess what? The Buffalo Bills can dominate with defense, too.

Sure, they routed the Kansas City Chiefs 37-14 on Sunday to move back into the AFC championship game.

And Jim Kelly threw for three touchdowns and Thurman Thomas, the NFL's most valuable player, rushed for 100 yards.

But it was defense that set the tone. Sparked by Kirby Jackson's two interceptions and strong line play by Cornelius Bennett and Jeff Wright, the Bills yielded just 213 yards. That was in sharp contrast with the Bills' No. 27 league ranking in total defense.

"Rankings are ridiculous," Wright said. "People tell you the defense is worth nothing. We showed what we can do today. We made our statement on the field.

Kansas City was never in the game. Steve DeBerg completed only five passes for 22 yards before leaving midway through the second quarter with a sprained right thumb. Mark Vlasic replaced him and was 9-for-20 for 124 yards and four interceptions.

"We forced them into a passing situation, something we want to do to every team," Bennett said. "We were very determined not to let them run on us. We really concentrated on stopping the run across the board."

Buffalo, 13-3 during the season in winning its fourth straight AFC East crown, will be host to Denver for the conference championship next Sunday.

The Bills, 20-19 losers to the New York Giants in last year's Super Bowl, have lost only once in their last 19 home games--a 17-14 overtime loss to Detroit in the season finale, when Kelly, Lofton and Thomas did not play.

D-E-F-E-N-S-E

While their offense was stalled early, the defense was unrelenting. Kansas City never could establish any ground dominance, which meant the Bills offense got lots of chances to work out the kinks after a week off.

"I think we're one of the best defenses in the league, not one of the worst, when we're all here," Bennett said.

Buffalo's offense got going late in the first quarter. Kelly capped the first scoring drive with a 25-yard scoring pass to Andre Reed.

The Bills held and took over at their 35. A five-yard holding penalty on Jayice Pearson kept the drive going after a third-down incompletion, but Keith McKellar had a pass deflect off his knee. The ball tipped off Lonnie Marts' hand to Eric Everett, who returned it to the Kansas City 40.

Again, however, the Chiefs went nowhere and punted.

And again, Reed victimized Pearson. The Bills' star receiver broke free down the middle in single coverage to haul in Kelly's pass for a 53-yard score, making it 14-0.

"They were different calls, audibles, just man-to-man patterns," Kelly said. "It was just a matter of him beating them."

Which was no problem for Reed.

Scott Norwood's 33-yard field goal with two seconds left in the half made it 17-0.

The Bills clinched it by marching 36 yards after Kirby Jackson's interception to start the second half. Kelly hit Lofton with a 10-yard TD pass.

Thomas's 100 yards was his fourth straight playoff game with at least 100 yards. Norwood also had 47 and 20-yard field goals. Ken Davis scored on a 5-yard run with 4:57 left in the game to close out the Bills' scoring.