NFL PLAYOFFS : Redskins, Bills Emerge Superior : AFC: Buffalo struggles against Denver, but Bills’ Bailey comes home with key interception, 10-7.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills won the AFC Championship on Sunday and now have two weeks until Super Bowl XXVI to figure out what went wrong.

The Bills were supposed to scramble Denver like omelets with their no-huddle offense, but ended up in a no-offense huddle, hoping career backup quarterback Gary Kubiak wouldn’t beat them in the end.

The Bills accepted their 10-7 victory before 80,272 at Rich Stadium, thanked their lucky stars--Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith--and disappeared into the night.

In truth, the Broncos handed the Bills their hats, outplaying them on all fronts except the kicking game, outmuscling them in a tight match while quarterback John Elway watched injured on the bench.

The Bills’ offense, which had averaged 44 points in three previous home playoff games, came up 41 points short of that against a pumped-up defense.

The answer, Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said, was blowing in the winds that swept through a stadium tunnel and made a mess of the machinery.

But the Denver defense did some sweeping of its own, making a mortal of Buffalo’s Thomas--72 yards in 26 carries--and the running game.

“Trying to run the ball against us isn’t like trying to run on Indianapolis,” Bronco linebacker Karl Mecklenburg said, taking a swipe at the competition in the AFC East.

Denver never felt so good about losing. The Broncos dominated the game and might have been on their way to a fifth Super Bowl if not for an errant Elway screen pass and the wicked wind, which pushed aside three first-half field attempts by David Treadwell.

The game’s only touchdown arrived in a flash, with 5:28 left in the third quarter of a scoreless game, when Buffalo nose tackle Jeff Wright tipped Elway’s screen pass into the hands of teammate Carlton Bailey, who returned the interception 11 yards for the score.

Elway had a chance to tackle Bailey at the five, but missed.

“I was as disappointed with that (the interception) as well as not making the tackle, because our defense was playing so well,” Elway said.

Bailey would have none of that.

“If I would have been tackled by the quarterback, I wouldn’t have been able to go to meetings tomorrow,” he said.

Bailey is the Bills’ other linebacker, obscured by three more famous linebackers on his team: Cornelius Bennett, Darryl Talley and Shane Conlan.

But if every man has his moment, Bailey’s was Sunday. He played last year’s AFC championship game against the Raiders with half of his heart overseas, where his father, Sgt. Conway Bailey, prepared for battle in the Persian Gulf.

A year later, his dad safe at home, Bailey could fully savor this moment.

“For some of us, success comes quickly,” the four-year veteran said. “For some of us, we have to keep working harder and harder.”

Elway would question whether either Wright or Bailey saw the pass coming, but blind luck was not the lone factor. Elway had effectively coaxed the defense to him on successful screen passes during the first half.

This time, though, Wright read the screen and backpedaled toward the line to close off Elway’s passing lane.

“This time I read it just right,” said Wright, who said he tipped the ball twice before it fell into Bailey’s hands.

The game was short on points, but not on subplots. There were the quarterbacks to consider, Elway and Kubiak, and the kickers, Treadwell and Scott Norwood.

Elway, king of the comebacks and orchestrator of Drive II only seven days earlier against Houston, watched Sunday’s conclusion from the bench.

“For any football player, there is probably not a more frustrating situation,” Elway said.

Elway suffered a deeply bruised right thigh on a two-yard run on the second play of the third quarter.

“I can’t tell you exactly how or who,” Elway said.

Elway played in three more series thereafter, but said the thigh kept getting tighter and tighter.

During the fourth quarter, Denver Coach Dan Reeves made the painful decision to replace Elway with Kubiak. Elway didn’t argue.

“I didn’t have the heart to take myself out,” Elway said. “Dan came to me and said ‘I’m going to go with Koob (Kubiak).’ I said ‘OK,’ which was probably the right move.”

Kubiak, Elway’s longtime backup and buddy, surprisingly did what Elway could not. With the Broncos trailing, 10-0, late in the fourth, Kubiak drove them 85 yards in eight plays, scoring himself on a three-yard run with 2:47 left.

It left the Broncos one last chance with an onside kick. Sure enough, Denver hushed the crowd when Treadwell put the ball through the hands of Keith McKeller. Steve Atwater of the Broncos fell on the ball on the Denver 49 with 1:38 left.

Ten seconds later, though, the comeback was over. After a short pass from Kubiak to Steve Sewell on first down, Buffalo cornerback Kirby Jackson stripped the ball loose from Sewell and made the recovery himself.

As the Bills ran out the clock, two kickers were left with their thoughts.

A week earlier, Treadwell was a hero when he kicked the winning field goal to beat Houston.

“It’s hard to think about that now,” he said as he faced the crowd on the loser’s podium. “That was gone Monday.”

Treadwell learned Sunday that the wind does not play favorites.

The Broncos owned the field in the first half, starting three of their five possessions from their 45 or beyond.

The Bills, meanwhile, were held to 58 total yards and three first downs.

“There wasn’t any problem,” Kelly said. “It’s just that they played one hell of a defense. All week you heard about Kelly and Elway and the whole offense and didn’t hear much about either defense.”

While the Broncos were moving the ball in the first half, Treadwell could not reward the offense with points. His first attempt of 47 yards was wide left, though it would not have counted anyway because of a Denver penalty.

Still, a blown opportunity after a sprawling interception by nose tackle Greg Kragen had given the Broncos possession at the Buffalo 29.

Treadwell said he tried to make adjustments for the wind during pregame warm-ups.

“But it was one of those winds I really couldn’t figure out,” he said.

His second attempt during the second quarter, a 42-yarder, hit the right upright.

“I think there was a sniper up there and he shot it,” Treadwell said.

The miss spoiled a drive during which the Broncos had suckered the Bills into an offsides penalty on fourth and four at the Buffalo 31.

Treadwell would get a third attempt late in the half, but his 37-yard attempt hit the right upright again.

“The last one, I thought I hit that the best,” he said. “From my perspective, I thought it had already gone through, past the post, then I saw it glance out.”

During the fourth quarter, his counterpart Norwood would nail a 44-yard kick with 4:18 left to put the Bills ahead by 10-0. The kick proved to be the difference in a three-point game.

Fortunes change quickly in a kicker’s world. Last year, Norwood missed a 47-yard attempt that would have won the Super Bowl for Buffalo.

The Broncos know they put up quite a fight. They return home with that in mind, not the prospects of another Super Bowl blowout.

The Bills turn their attention elsewhere.

“They didn’t play as well as they can today,” Mecklenburg said of Buffalo. “I hope they play better against Washington in the Super Bowl.”

The Bills can only hope.

Super Bowl XXVI

Date: Sunday, Jan. 26

Time: 3 p.m. PST

Site: Metrodome, Minneapolis

Teams: Washington Redskins (16-2) vs. Buffalo Bills (15-3)

TV: Channels 2, 8 (Pregame show starts at 12:30 PST)

Radio: KNX (1070)