The Bills Turned It Over 5 Times and Won. These 5 Teams Gave It Away Even More

On Sunday in Orchard Park, the Buffalo Bills fumbled on the first snap of the game. Josh Allen threw 2 interceptions before the Chargers had broken a sweat. In the second half Dalton Kincaid fumbled inside the Chargers' 20, and in the 4th quarter Allen fumbled at his own 28.

5 turnovers. Buffalo won, 24-16.

"The house was on fire today," head coach Joe Brady said. "That's unacceptable." Allen put it this way: "There's a lot of smoke detectors going off right now."

It shouldn't work. According to NFL Research, teams with 5 or more giveaways and 10 or more penalties, which Buffalo also had, are 41-223-6 all time. The last time the Bills won a game with 5 turnovers was Sept. 21, 1997, a 37-35 win over the Colts, whose quarterback that day was Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh coaches the Chargers now.

How Buffalo pulled it off

The defense took one back, and James Cook took over.

The Bills trailed 10-0, tied it at halftime, then fell behind 13-10. Right after Allen's 4th-quarter fumble, the Chargers drove to the goal line, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson intercepted Justin Herbert to kill it. Allen scored on a 1-yard run with 7:35 left, Buffalo's first lead of the day. Then the defense stopped the Chargers on 4th down, and Cook scored from 3 yards out. He finished with 154 rushing yards, 77 of them in the 4th quarter.

Buffalo is 3-0. Still, 5 isn't the record, not even close. Here are 5 teams that turned it over even more and still won.

5. Cowboys 25, Bills 24 (Oct. 8, 2007)

6 turnovers, including 5 Tony Romo interceptions.

The Bills have been on the other side of this too. On a Monday night in Orchard Park, Romo threw 5 interceptions, tying a Cowboys record, and lost a fumble. Buffalo returned 2 of the interceptions for touchdowns, one by safety George Wilson and one by defensive end Chris Kelsay, and Terrence McGee ran a kickoff back 103 yards. Buffalo's offense scored exactly one field goal all night, and the Bills still led by 8 in the final minute.

Romo hit Patrick Crayton for a 4-yard touchdown with 20 seconds left, but the 2-point try failed. Folk's onside kick was bobbled forward by Sam Hurd and recovered by tight end Tony Curtis at the Buffalo 47. Romo got the Cowboys to the 35, and rookie Nick Folk lined up for a 53-yard field goal. He made it. But Buffalo coach Dick Jauron had called timeout just before the snap. So Folk made it again, as time ran out. 9 points in 20 seconds.

"He got me out of the doghouse tonight," Romo said.

4. "The Catch": 49ers 28, Cowboys 27 (Jan. 10, 1982)

6 turnovers in the NFC Championship Game.

Everybody remembers Dwight Clark's leaping catch in the back of the end zone. Fewer people remember that San Francisco turned the ball over 6 times that day: 3 Joe Montana interceptions and 3 lost fumbles.

Down 27-21, the 49ers got the ball on their own 11 with 4:54 left. Montana drove them 89 yards in 14 plays. On 3rd-and-3 from the Dallas 6, he scrambled right with 3 Cowboys chasing him and threw high, too high, he thought. The 6-foot-4 Clark went up over 6-1 Everson Walls and pulled it down with under a minute to go. Montana didn't see the catch until he watched the replay in the locker room.

It took one more turnover to finish it, this time by Dallas: Danny White fumbled on the Cowboys' last drive, and the 49ers recovered. The Sacramento Union called the whole thing a comeback from "a season-high six turnovers." Two weeks later, the 49ers won their first Super Bowl.

3. Texas 15, Arkansas 14 (Dec. 6, 1969)

6 turnovers, with the national championship on the line.

They called it the Game of the Century: No. 1 Texas at No. 2 Arkansas, in Fayetteville, with President Richard Nixon in the stands and some 50 million people watching on TV. Texas lost 4 fumbles and quarterback James Street threw 2 interceptions. Arkansas led 14-0 going into the 4th quarter.

Street scrambled 42 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the 4th and then ran in the 2-point conversion himself. With 4:47 left, Texas faced 4th-and-3 from its own 43. Street called timeout and went to the sideline to talk it over with coach Darrell Royal. Then he faked a handoff, dropped back and threw deep to tight end Randy Peschel, who had gotten behind Arkansas' Gary Moore. Peschel caught it at the Arkansas 13. Jim Bertelsen scored from 2 yards out a couple of plays later, the extra point made it 15-14, and Nixon went to the Texas locker room with a plaque declaring the Longhorns national champions. He called it "one of the great games of all time, without question."

"I've got to be the happiest guy in America tonight," Royal said.

2. Super Bowl V: Colts 16, Cowboys 13 (Jan. 17, 1971)

7 turnovers. The Blunder Bowl.

"Who would believe the Colts could lose four fumbles, be intercepted three times, play without John Unitas and still win the world football championship?" That's how the Baltimore Sun's game story started the next morning.

Baltimore threw 3 interceptions, 2 by Unitas and 1 by Earl Morrall, and lost 4 fumbles. Unitas left in the 2nd quarter with cracked ribs. The 2 teams combined for 11 turnovers, still a Super Bowl record. The Colts' only touchdown through the air came on a 75-yard pass to John Mackey after the ball deflected into his hands, and even then the extra point was blocked.

Baltimore's defense saved it. Rick Volk's interception set up the tying touchdown in the 4th quarter, and Mike Curtis picked off Craig Morton with less than a minute left. With the game tied 13-13, the Colts' 22-year-old rookie kicker, Jim O'Brien, hit a 32-yard field goal with 5 seconds left. It was Baltimore's first lead of the day.

"I knew we were going to win," O'Brien said afterward. "My mother is an astrologer, and she told me the Colts were going to win by just a few points."

Dallas linebacker Chuck Howley was named MVP, and he's still the only player from a losing team ever to win it. "The award is tremendous," Howley said. "But I wish it were the world championship." Tom Landry put it simply: "We beat ourselves."

1. Purdue 40, Illinois 21 (Oct. 2, 1943)

11 turnovers. And they won by 19.

This is the one nobody will ever touch. In 1943, with the country at war, Purdue's roster was full of Navy and Marine trainees stationed on campus. Against Illinois, Purdue turned the ball over 11 times, 9 lost fumbles and 2 interceptions by most counts. It's believed to be the most ever by a winning team in major college football.

"Actually it was some of the worst football imaginable," the Associated Press reported, "but there never was a dull moment." The 2 teams fumbled 20 times, and 16 of those were recovered by the other team. Purdue punted only twice all day, and both punts were blocked.

Purdue won anyway, because fullback Tony Butkovich, who had played for Illinois before the war, scored 4 touchdowns against his old school. Purdue went 9-0 that year. Butkovich, a Marine, was killed on Okinawa in 1945.

Honorable mention: Bills 6, Giants 3, OT (Oct. 18, 1987)

7 turnovers, in a replacement game.

During the 1987 players' strike, the Bills' replacement team turned it over 7 times, by one count, and still beat the Giants' replacements in overtime. The winning kick came from Todd Schlopy, a local kicker who kicked barefoot. He'd missed from 28 yards earlier in overtime before making one from 27. Bills coach Marv Levy called it the worst game ever played.

And the NFL record?

9. It's happened twice. The Chicago Bears beat the Packers 20-17 in 1947 with 9 turnovers, and the Los Angeles Rams beat the Packers 33-17 in 1953 with 9 more. Nobody has done it since.

So Buffalo has a long way to go. Please don't try.

What's the ugliest win you've ever seen? Tell us in the comments.