‘Wide right’: Explaining the Buffalo Bills’ two heartbreaking missed kicks decades apart

As Jim Nantz said on the CBS broadcast, those are the two words no Buffalo Bills fan wants to hear.

Wide right.

History has a tendency to repeat itself – unfortunately for the Bills.

With the Kansas City Chiefs leading 27-24 and less than two minutes remaining, Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass fielded a 44-yard field goal attempt that would have tied the game. The kick, cutting through the harsh winds of Western New York, never had a chance and missed to the right.

“The two most feared words in Buffalo have resurfaced,” Nantz said on the show.

Wide right: Scott Norwood in Super Bowl 25

The Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s, and the first loss was the most painful. Facing the New York Giants and trailing 20-19, the Bills drove downfield for a game-winning 47-yard kick.

Kicker Scott Norwood took his approach from the right hash (similar to Bass). The kick went up with eight seconds remaining and appeared to go through the uprights. Instead, the ball slipped outside the right upright. Al Michaels, the play-by-play announcer for that game, called it: “Not good…wide right.”

In the sports world and in Buffalo, the miss became known as “Wide Right.” The Bills have still never won the Super Bowl.

Who is Scott Norwood?

A Virginia native, Norwood started collegiately at James Madison and began his professional career with the Birmingham Stallions of the premier United States Football League (USFL). He landed with the Bills in 1985 and was named a first-team All-Pro in 1988, the season he led the league in scoring.

After his missed Super Bowl kick, Norwood lasted one more season with the Bills before his football career ended.

Who is Tyler Bass?

Bass has been with the Bills since 2020, when Buffalo selected him in the sixth round (188th overall) of the draft. He beat out Stephen Hauschka for the starting job during training camp that summer.

Bass was 24 of 29 from the field during the 2023 regular season. He was 1 of 3 against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round, which included a blocked attempt. Bass said he should have taken more account of the wind blowing from left to right.

“At the end of the day, it’s all my fault,” Bass said, according to ESPN. “I have to do a better job of hitting my goal. I have to do a better job of playing it a little more left when you have a left-to-right wind. I’ve been here long enough to know that you have to do that …

“You know, I trusted my line that I had in warmups. I hit a good ball, but it didn’t work. I feel bad, you know? I love this team and it feels bad. This one hurts a lot. Yeah, I need to do a better job entirely on me.

As the Bills left the field after the final whistle, quarterback Josh Allen put his arm around the kicker.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tyler Bass Joins Scott Norwood in Buffalo Bills’ ‘Big Right’ Story