PRO FOOTBALL : 5 Touchdown Passes by Kelly Carry Bills to Overtime Victory

HOUSTON —  The Buffalo Bills won’t have to worry about their 1989 highlight films. Jim Kelly provided them with enough for an entire reel Sunday.

Kelly threw five touchdown passes, including a 28-yard game- winner to Andre Reed in overtime, to lead the Bills over Houston, 47-41.

Kelly threw touchdown passes of six, 63 and 78 yards to give the Bills a 34-24 lead early in the fourth quarter, and then hooked up with running back Thurman Thomas on a 26-yard pass-play touchdown with 1:52 left.

But the Oilers kept coming back, finally forcing an overtime on Tony Zendejas’ 52-yard field goal with three seconds left in regulation.

After Zendejas missed two chances to give the Oilers a victory in the overtime, Kelly led the Bills to the Oilers’ 28 and completed the game-winning toss to Reed with 6:18 left in the overtime.

“The Buffalo Bills have arrived,” Kelly said. “When you can score that many points when you have to, you’ve really done your job.”

The Bills (2-1) struggled in their first two games of the season, but Kelly completed 17 of 29 passes for 363 yards against Houston.

“This is my best game as a pro,” Kelly said. “Our team talk this week was that we do not give up. Today our receivers and offensive line did a heck of a job.”

Warren Moon, who hit 28 of 42 passes for 338 yards, guided the Oilers into position after Houston (1-2) won the toss starting overtime.

Zendejas then lined up for a 43-yard attempt, but linebacker Ray Bentley, who missed a key tackle earlier in the same drive, blocked the field goal.

An offside penalty gave Zendejas another chance from 37 yards, but his kick was wide to the left, giving Kelly the chance he needed.

Buffalo’s Thomas, who caught two of Kelly’s touchdown passes, said: “Zendejas is known for missing kicks under pressure, he made the 52 yarder and then he missed a relative chip shot. . . . We work real hard in practice at blocking kicks and applying pressure.”

Moon was intercepted twice in the first half and overthrew several passes in the first half.

“We put pressure on him and he got jittery in the second half,” Bills defensive end Bruce Smith said.

Oiler cornerback Steve Brown returned an interception 41 yards to set up Lorenzo White’s one-yard touchdown run with 4:30 to play for a 38-34 lead.

But it wasn’t enough.

“I told this team at halftime we’d come back but we went out there and more bad things started to happen,” Oiler Coach Jerry Glanville said.

“You stay around long enough in this league and you’ll get stuck in the eye.”

The Bills took a 20-10 halftime lead on a 76-yard touchdown run by Mark Kelso with a blocked punt as time ran out in the half.