BillBoard

Here's another blast from an old notebook on one of the famous plays in Bills history. It was perhaps the best Bills sweep run ever, an 80-yard score by Wray Carlton in the 12th game of the 1965 season, at Houston. The run still ranks tied for the fourth longest in Bills history. Carlton wasn't known as a burner. In his last five years, this was his only run of longer than 23 yards. He was a combo halfback and fullback. Nevertheless, at 225 pounds, he was not a plodder. This was one of the signature plays in the career of Hall of Fame guard Billy Shaw, whose mobility was evidenced by the fact he led Carlton around right end and escorted him all the way down the field into the end zone. Recalls Shaw:

"It was a 49 sweep. It was a double guard pull. (Joe) O'Donnell's responsilbity was to get to the corner and turn in and catch either the linebacker or the safety. I remember that as Joe turned and I turned up the field, it was wide open. The linebacker got tangled up in the mess. The safety had come up too far. It was just Wray and I. It was just one of those plasy that worked to perfection. Wray and I kid each other all the time about who was the fastest. He says he was having to wait on me because I was in front. I said he couldn’t catch me. It ended up being a perfect sweep."

---Mark Gaughan