Greg Bell ripped off an 85-yard run on the first play of the game and the Buffalo Bills hung to beat the Dallas Cowboys 14-3 - over eight years ago.
Different teams, different times.The last time the Bills and Cowboys played, Buffalo was a loser, dropping its first 11 games on the way to its second straight 2-14 record.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, were not only America's team, but could have made a pitch to be Buffalo's team as well. Football fans in Buffalo were looking for any team that had a chance to win a Super Bowl.
Hours before the game, thousands of fans roared into Rich Stadium to watch their favorite team - the Dallas Cowboys - beat up on the Bills.
"It seemed when the game started, there were more people cheering for Dallas than cheering for us," Bills offensive lineman Tim Vogler said after the game.
Dallas played its best game of the season in beating the St. Louis Cardinals the week before, and shared the NFC East lead with Washington.
The Bills had lost 13 straight and 15 of 16, and hadn't won a home game in more than a year. They were 10-point underdogs and admittedly overmatched against the Cowboys.
Then Bell broke the third-longest run in Bills history on an off-tackle play on the first play from scrimmage. Dallas never recovered and Bell went on to gain 206 yards in 27 carries.
Dallas, in fact, lost three of the remaining five games to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs.
"It was the most mortifying game in our history," lineman John Dutton said.
The Bills lost three of their final four games, but most of the 74,391 fans remember beating Big D. It was Buffalo's highest attendance figure of the season.
Jim Ritcher and Darryl Talley are the only Bills remaining from the 1984 team that included Joe Ferguson and fullbacks Booker Moore and Speedy Neal. Moore was dubbed "Booker Less" by Bills fans and was quickly out of football. Neal played that season under coach Kay Stephenson and hasn't been heard from since.
The only three players on Dallas' roster who remain are Jim Jeffcoat, Bill Bates and Mark Tuinei. Jeffcoat is used sparingly, Bates is on injured reserve and Tuinei has played more games than any offensive player.
A roster that included Danny White, Tony Dorsett and Randy White has since been replaced by Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Russell Maryland.
Jim Kelly was a rookie quarterback for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL when Buffalo faced Dallas on Nov. 18, 1984, and Frank Reich was still on Cloud Nine after rallying the Maryland Terrapins to a shocking 42-40 victory over the Miami Hurricanes and their first-year coach, Jimmy Johnson, the previous week.
Aikman was finishing his senior year of high school, and Smith was a 15-year-old high school phenomenon in Florida.