The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs square off this week at Arrowhead in what is easily the biggest game of this young NFL season. With Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes cementing themselves as the premier quarterback rivalry in the league, offensive fireworks are guaranteed. Everyone knows how the Bills’ playoff run ended last year, and the infamous 13 seconds in the Divisional round last year in this same venue.
Here we are, nine months later, preparing for a rematch between two Super Bowl favorites. Since, that game the Bills improved on defense game, adding veteran star Von Miller and the Chiefs lost pro bowl wide receiver Tyreek Hill. The Bills do seem to finally hold the edge versus the Chiefs when it comes to the rosters, which is evident by the Chiefs being a home underdog for the first time in a very long time.
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All the nation’s eyes will be on this game at 4 PM ET on Sunday and are one of the biggest regular season matchups Buffalo has had ever. Which made me wonder where this ranks amongst the top five Bills regular season games of all time. Let’s take a look at the history.
5. Buffalo Bills make Tom Brady and New England Patriots look mortal (2011)
The Bills entered the 2011 season with fifteen straight losses to the New England Patriots. Tom Brady and the Pats hold one of the longest stretches of dominance against one team the league has ever seen. The Bills entered this 3rd game of the season, the highest-scoring team in the league through the first two weeks, and seemed destined to put up a good fight against their arch-nemesis.
With Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, they were coming off a last-second win against the Raiders the week before and seemed to have a confidence about them that lacked on so many teams of years past. The Pats, not surprisingly, came into the game 2-0 as well, a 9-point favorite on the road, against their division “rival”. While many may not have looked at the Bills to have a great chance to win the game, there weren’t too many times for this sense of optimism in previous years, even if it was only the third week of the season.
A win or close effort would show that this 2011 team might be the one to break the drought. After four Tom Brady interceptions, the Bills sealed a victory with a last-second chip shot field goal, which is still known to be one of the loudest environments ever at what is now known as Highmark Stadium. The Bills did not feed off the momentum though, finishing the year by losing 10 of their last 13 games and missing the playoffs yet again.
4. Bills versus 49ers ‘No punt game’ (1992)
ESPN personality Chris Berman for years in a row would predict a 49ers/Bills Super Bowl. Never would the moons line up for that game for the years both were dominant amongst their own conferences. This game early in 1992, billed as a possible Super Bowl preview was the closest we ever got. Boy, it did not disappoint.
The Bills came into the season with back-to-back Super Bowl losses to the Giants, and Redskins, respectively. The 49ers entered 1992 after missing the playoffs in 1991 for the first time in nine years, despite going 10-6 that year. Steve Young, the now Hall of Fame quarterback, was starting for the 49ers in place of Joe Montana, a hall-of-famer in his own right. The game would go down as the first “no punt” game in NFL history. The Bills, led by quarterback Jim Kelly, would come out victorious 34-31 as Kelly and Young combined for 853 yards passing and 6 TD passes.
Young would go on to play the rest of the year in Montana’s place, falling just short in the NFC Championship to the Dallas Cowboys, erasing the chance of a rematch of this great game in that year’s Super Bowl.
3. Bills beat out Miami Dolphins for division title without Kelly (1990)
Time has probably kept this game lower on the list than it should be. Hindsight is always 20/20, this can be debated for the number one spot. The Bills came into the game 12-2 and the Dolphins 11-3, but the Dolphins had already earned a victory in Miami earlier in the year, so a victory here would put them in the driver’s seat going into the final week of the season to win the division.
Kelly had suffered a knee sprain the week before against the Giants and was declared out for 2-4 weeks. This was just another factor that made this game so important when looking back. Career backup and “greatest comeback of all-time” quarterback, Frank Reich would have to take the helm and beat Dan Marino and the powerhouse Dolphins to assure not only home field in the playoffs but also a much-needed bye week, which allowed Kelly enough time to recover for the first playoff game, which ironically was against the Dolphins a few weeks later.
The fact that Reich and the Bills were able to squeak out this victory in week 16 of the season brought the Dolphins back to Buffalo for the playoff game, against a healthy Kelly. Kelly would go ahead to out-duel Marino in the snow in Buffalo in the divisional playoff round, leading the Bills to advance all the way to their first Super Bowl in team history.
2. Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy crush old Patriots friends to open season (2003)
Number 5 on this list was in 2011. This game was in 2003. There were two presidential elections, four Olympic games, and four Fast and The Furious movies that were released. This was the last game the Bills beat the Patriots before the game in 2011. This game had all the hype going in. After a great statistical year from Bledsoe in 2002 in his first year with the Bills, it was obvious the team needed to add defensive help if they wanted to compete for the playoffs and against his former team for the division title.
So the Bills took the free agency market and added defensive tackle Sam Adams, and linebacker Takeo Spikes during the off-season. Then, just five days before the season started, something crazy happened. Bill Belichick cut All-Pro Safety Milloy after issues arose about his contract. Immediately, the Bills got on the phone with Milloy’s agent, and he joined the team right away. When Milloy was announced in the stadium as the starting safety, the roar of the crowd may have broken windows all the way back in Foxboro.
Both Milloy and Adams would make immediate impacts, as Adams would return a tipped pass for a 37-yard interception return TD in the second quarter, and Milloy would later end a Patriots drive with a sack of his former teammate on a safety blitz. The Bills would go on to win 31-0 but again, would fall short of their playoff goals that year.
1. Bills and Chiefs play in a rematch of Super Bowl contenders
Maybe it’s the fact that it’s in the present, but this game rightfully deserves to be on this list, even if you think the number-one spot is too high. When factoring in playoff battles of the last couple of years, the heartbreaking way the last one ended for the Bills, and the two best quarterbacks in the league facing off, it’s easy to see why this game will go down as one of the most watched this year in the NFL outside of a prime time slot.
The Bills and Chiefs have the two best odds to win the Super Bowl, with the Bills having an edge for the time being. Those odds would shift if the Chiefs were able to beat the Bills this week, as they would then control their destiny to the number one seed, the only bye week, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. There is little doubt amongst the league that this is the preview of the AFC championship game if both teams stay healthy, but the outcome of this game will play a big part in who will host that game if it comes to fruition.
The last time these two teams faced off, it went down as maybe the best game in NFL history, and if not that, you almost have to consider it the best last few minutes of a football game. Each week, Mahomes and Allen dazzle the national and local audiences alike, with no-look passes and superman like hurdles. This is turning into every bit of Aikman vs Young, Marino vs Kelly, and Manning (s) vs Brady. For Buffalo fans, it’s been a long time since they’ve been on such a big national stage, and they will hope to avenge the nightmare playoff loss this Sunday as these two titans go at it.