The Tennessee Titans knew they had their work cut out for them when they hosted the AFC East-best Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. The Bills had won four straight games since dropping their opener to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and again looked like a legit Super Bowl contender. The Titans, meanwhile, entered at 3-2, but already had a devastating loss to the New York Jets on their resume.
The Titans tried to recreate the ‘Music City Miracle,’ but messed it up
The Titans brought back the ‘Music City Miracle’ against the Bills. It didn’t go as well this time.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
As six-point underdogs going into the night, Tennessee head coach Mike Vrabel figured it was time to go into his deep bag of trick plays in attempt to catch Buffalo off-guard. On Monday night, that meant dusting off the most iconic play in franchise history against the same opponent they faced on that fateful afternoon in 1999. It didn’t work out so well this time.
Tennessee pulled out a recreation of the ‘Music City Miracle’ when Buffalo punted at the end of the first quarter. This time, it was obviously a forward pass, and the refs assessed Tennessee a penalty. Bills fans sure wish they got this same call back in the late-90s.
Here’s a look at the play.
Of course, the original “Music City Miracle” happened on a kickoff, not a punt. Receiving the kickoff down one point with 16 seconds left, Titans tight end Frank Wycheck threw a lateral to teammate Kevin Dyson, who then ran 75 yards to score the winning touchdown in the 1999 AFC Wild Card game.
Yes, we have a Secret Base video on it if you need a history listen.
This is another reminder that the sequel is never as good as the original. We will however give the Titans an ‘A’ for effort for trying to pull off the same trick play against the same team more than two decades later.
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