The Bills–Patriots rivalry is an American football rivalry between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Both teams are members of the East division of the American Football Conference (AFC) and play two games against each other annually. The series debuted in 1960 when both were charter members of the American Football League (AFL). The two clubs have combined for seventeen AFL or AFC championships, the most of any two teams in the AFC East. In addition, either the Patriots or Bills have won the AFC East division in 27 out of 34 seasons since 1988.
The rivalry has traditionally been a very competitive one (41–38–1 at the close of the 20th century, in favor of New England) with the Patriots holding slight edges in the 1960s and 1980s, and the Bills with similar edges in the 1970s and 1990s. The series then became notable for its extreme lopsidedness during the New England career of quarterback Tom Brady, whose Patriots compiled a record of 32–3 (3–2 in the five games he missed) against the Bills in his two decades with the franchise (the 2000s and 2010s). Until January 2021 (when Josh Allen passed him) Brady had won more games at Highmark Stadium than any quarterback for Buffalo since 2001, and Brady beat the Bills more times in his New England career than any other team.
Buffalo is 6–2 against New England in the 2020s. The Bills dominated the Patriots, 47–17, in a wild card matchup of the 2021–22 NFL playoffs that was the first "perfect offensive game" (i.e., scoring touchdowns on every drive with no punts, kicks, or turnovers) by any team in NFL history. This was the first playoff game in the series since the two franchises joined the NFL in 1970; in their AFL days, Gino Cappelletti kicked four field goals en route to a 26–8 Boston Patriots victory to break their tie of identical regular season records in 1963.
, the Patriots lead the series 78–49–1.
NFL record games
Single-game rushing record
On September 16, 1973, O. J. Simpson of the Bills broke the all-time professional football single-game rushing record in this rivalry game against the Patriots. Simpson rushed for 250 yards, breaking the record set by Willie Ellison of the Rams in 1971. In the same game, Simpson became the all-time leading rusher for the Bills franchise, and was described after the game as having "more yardage than Secretariat" by Patriots linebacker Edgar Chandler. Chuck Fairbanks, coaching his first game for the Patriots, described Simpson looking "like Grant going through Richmond." Fullback Larry Watkins also rushed for over 100 yards for the Bills, as the team racked up 360 rushing yards for the game. The Bills defeated the Patriots by a score of 31–13.
The perfect offensive game
The Bills dominated the Patriots in this rivalry's first playoff game in over 58 years, their first as NFL teams, and their first after the Boston Patriots changed their location name to New England, by a score of 47–17 in the wild card round of the 2021–22 NFL playoffs. This went into record books as the first "Perfect Offensive Game" by any NFL team as the Bills, led by Josh Allen, scored touchdowns on every drive of the entire game without any punts, kicks, or turnovers. Allen threw more touchdowns than incomplete passes as the Bills gained 480 yards on just 51 snaps. USA Today remarked the game "served as another reminder that the Bills own the AFC East in these post-Tom Brady years", while Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon observed that "it wasn’t one drive, one play or one single player. It was everything. It was the whole game." Bills defensive tackle Harrison Phillips opined the game's statistics sounded "like some Pop Warner stuff." It was Patriots' second-worst loss of the 21st century, the three worst of which were all suffered in the Bills–Patriots rivalry.
History
1960–1969: the AFL days
The Bills and Patriots played for the first time in a preseason game during the first season of the American Football League on July 30, 1960. The game was played at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, and the Patriots won the game 28–7. The teams met for their first regular season game during Week 3 of the inaugural season of the American Football League in 1960. The game was played at Nickerson Field at Boston University on Friday, September 23, 1960. The Bills scored a touchdown in each of the first two quarters and shut the Patriots out 13–0.
The two teams met for their first playoff match in the AFL divisional game in December 1963. The Patriots won 26–8. In this game, Jack Kemp played quarterback for the Bills and Gino Cappelletti made four field goals and two extra points to help lift the Patriots to victory.