A lot of us take the week off between Christmas and New Year’s. Matt Haack did not expect to be one of them.
The Buffalo Bills punter did not punt Sunday. That this involved the New England Patriots made it all the sweeter, as it marked the first time that a team coached by Bill Belichick failed to force a punt.
But such a thing had happened before in NFL history. In fact, Buffalo won the first game in league annals in which neither side punted: Bills 34, San Francisco 49ers 31, on Sept. 13, 1992.
Steve Tasker remembers. The special-teams ace of Buffalo’s Super Bowl era got the first start of his NFL career that day, when the Bills opened in a four-receiver set. He thought of that game as he watched on Sunday while the Pats punted three times – and the Bills none.
“It certainly came to my mind,” Tasker says, “when I realized that Matt Haack had a day off.”
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As it happens, Haack didn’t get the whole day off. He was the holder five times as Tyler Bass kicked a field goal and four extra points. So Chris Mohr remains the Bills’ king of the game-day punting bystanders. He didn’t get to play at all on that no-punt day, at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, almost 30 years ago.
“We had a few laughs about that,” Tasker says. “In fact, Ralph Wilson, back in the day, kidded Chris: ‘Hey, I’ve got to pay you? You didn’t show up to work.’ ”
Jim Kelly and Steve Young did: Both passed for more than 400 yards. That kind of thing would be noteworthy even in today’s pass-happy NFL, but was a double rarity then. In fact, Kelly’s 406 yards made him the first Bills quarterback to break the 400-yard barrier.
The teams combined for 1,086 yards of offense – and Bills General Manager Bill Polian joked about how it all seemed less like football and more like a track meet.
“I thought Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Carl Lewis were going to come into the game before it was all over,” Polian said then. “It looked like the 4-by-100-meter relay.”
Bills cornerback Nate Odomes put it differently: “You saw two of the finest offensive teams on the field today, and two not-so-good defensive teams.”
Mohr told reporters it was simply a question of staying ready in case the call came. “You just do your normal routine,” he said. “Get ready, get ready, get ready – and hope they make a first down. Eventually you look up at the clock and say, ‘I guess I’m not going to punt today.’ ”
Years later, Mohr told The Buffalo News that it’s not really true that he didn’t punt that day. “I must have punted 70 times,” he said. “It’s just that they were all in the net on the sideline.”
The 49ers led 24-13 at the half. On the first drive of the second half, tight end Pete Metzelaars scored on a 53-yard play, the longest reception of his career. He ran a hook pattern down the seam, juked the safety and rumbled the last 25 yards in what felt like 25 seconds. You can see the play on YouTube – and hear NBC’s play-by-play voice Dick Enberg say: “He doesn’t have a lot of speed. Enough for the end zone? Yes!”
Metzelaars joked with reporters after: “I was pulling away, wasn’t I?” Then he ’fessed up and said he’d felt as if he were moving in slow motion.
The Bills drove 60 yards in the third quarter to take the lead on another scoring strike to Metzelaars, this one from 24 yards. But the 49ers took the lead once more, 31-27, on a 54-yard Young pass to John Taylor. Then, with 3:37 left, the Bills faced fourth down at the 49ers’ 20. Kelly hit James Lofton for 9 yards for the first, and Thurman Thomas ran 11 yards for the TD. The Bills won, 34-31 – but not before the 49ers missed a 47-yard field goal in the closing moments.
The NFL has seen other no-punt games in the years since, but those don’t have their own Wikipedia pages. The No-Punt Game does. Its page says the game “is now remembered as one of the greatest games ever played.”
Well, sure, unless you like defense.
And punts.
