Nov. 2, 1964 - “The Buffalo Bills are just too tough a football team,” observed Hank Stram, the Kansas City coach, not long ago. “They can beat you too many ways.”
The Houston Oilers and their coach, Sammy Baugh, are ready to add a rueful “Amen” to that analysis.
They yielded to the undefeated Bills, 24-10, before a standing-room crowd of 40,119 in War Memorial Stadium yesterday afternoon.
It was Buffalo’s eighth straight AFL victory.
The Oilers, wrecked by the long pass three weeks ago in Houston when the Bills scored a 48-17 victory, were determined it wouldn’t happen again yesterday.
They devised a special defense to frustrate the Bills’ passing attack — the best, statistically, in the league.
The defense worked, too. The Bills gained only 107 yards passing.
But there was a little slip-up.
Buffalo’s league-leading running game gobbled up 290 yards, with halfback Bobby Smith running 37 and 3 yards and fullback Cookie Gilchrist (pictured) 60 for touchdowns.
“They were double-teaming Duby [Elbert Dubenion] and Glenn Bass most of the game,” explained Daryle Lamonica, the sophomore quarterback who performed his fifth successful relief job of the season.
“The linebackers were doing a good job of covering in the flat and also holding up Ernie Warlick in the line of scrimmage. But that made them vulnerable to running up the middle.
“We were getting 5 and 6 yards with each run. You can’t turn your back on yardage like that.”
The pressure of Buffalo’s tough running attack wore down the Houston front four. Bud McFaddin, slipping badly at age 37, couldn’t cope with guard Al Bemiller, and he was removed from the lineup.
Scott Appleton, the expensive rookie who had been replaced at defensive end earlier, took McFadin’s place. But Appleton has lost 30 pounds since the start of the season and now weighs just 225, hardly the heft needed to stop Cookie Gilchrist.
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