Bills–Jets rivalry

Buffalo Bills–New York Jets

Buffalo Bills New York Jets
First meeting	September 11, 1960 New York 27, Buffalo 3
Latest meeting	September 15, 2016 New York 37 Buffalo 31
Next meeting	January 1, 2017
Statistics
Meetings total	111 meetings[1]
All-time series	Buffalo leads, 60–52
Largest victory	New York 42, Buffalo 3 (1979)
Smallest victory	New York 21, Buffalo 20 (1978)
Current win streak	Jets: 1 win

The Bills–Jets rivalry is a rivalry between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets in the National Football League. Both of these teams play in the same division (AFC East) and as a result, play two scheduled games each season. Both represent the same state, New York (although the Jets have played their home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey since 1984), with the Bills having their primary fan base in Western New York, and the Jets in the New York City area. They have a long history between each other, as they were original members of the American Football League in 1960.

Quick facts

With their long rivalry dating back to 1960, the Bills have won 6 of the last 11 games and lead the series 60–52. The largest margin of victory is 39, when the Jets defeated the Bills 42–3 on September 15, 1985. The smallest is 1, when the Jets won 21–20 on October 9, 1978. There has only been one post-season game between these two teams which was the AFC Wild Card Game dating back to December 27, 1981, where the Bills defeated the Jets 31–27. The largest ever recorded attendance at one of the games between these two teams dates back to October 8, 1995, where the Bills defeated the Jets 29–10 with a total attendance crowd of 79,485. Between the two teams there have only been 3 overtime games. The earliest overtime game took place on November 20, 1988, when the Bills defeated the Jets 9–6. The next overtime game was on October 8, 2002, where the Jets defeated the Bills 37–31. The last overtime game was on October 18, 2009, which the Bills won 16–13. The longest winning streak in the series was ten by Buffalo from 1988 until 1992; the longest Jets streak was seven (1984–1987). The most recent game was played on September 15th, 2016.

This rivalry is fueled primarily by the differences between New York City and the rest of New York State, and also by the Bills claiming to be the only team in New York (the Jets actually play their games in East Rutherford, NJ, a suburb of the city). However, the two teams are rarely successful at the same time, and as such, their rivalry usually lacks the intensity that is present in other rivalries, such as the Jets' rivalry with the Patriots and the Bills' with the Dolphins. There have only been four seasons in which both teams finished with winning records.^[2] However, the rivalry has recently heated up with the presence of ex-Jets head coach Rex Ryan in Buffalo and ex-Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in New York.

Notable moments

There were a handful of memorable games in the early history of this rivalry. In 1973, O.J. Simpson eclipsed Jim Brown's rushing yards record to surpass 2,000 yards in a 34–6 Bills win. Eight years later, the teams played their only ever playoff game. In the 1981 AFC Wild Card game, the Bills had a 24–0 lead early in the game, but the Jets came back, cutting their deficit to 31–24. A late game interception of Richard Todd sealed the win for the Bills, however. During the 90s, the Jets and Bills played two regular season games with playoff implications. The 1993 season saw the Jets failing to secure a playoff berth by losing a game to the Bills via three missed field goals. In 1998, the Jets secured their first ever AFC East division title by beating the Bills.^[2]

In 2008, the Bills were coming off a 5–1 start, but lost 8 of their remaining ten games to finish 7–9 and out of the playoffs. Two of those losses came against the Jets, which included a J. P. Losman fumble returned for the Jets' game winning touchdown as the Bills were trying to run out the clock.^[3]

In 2009, Mark Sanchez threw 5 interceptions to the Bills defense, losing a game in overtime for the Jets in which they rushed for 318 yards.^[4] Later that year, the Jets rematched the Bills in Toronto as part of the Bills Toronto Series, in which the Jets avenged their loss with a 19–13 win that kept their playoff hopes alive.

In 2014, the second Bills–Jets game was played at Ford Field in Detroit due to a freak snowstorm in Buffalo. The Bills won 38–3.^[5]

The 2015 offseason saw some notable personnel swaps between the teams. On January 12, Rex Ryan was hired as the head coach of the Bills. Ryan had spent the previous six seasons as the head coach of the Jets.^[6] In addition, the Jets hired former Bills head coach Chan Gailey as their offensive coordinator^[7] and traded for former Bills starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has since become their starter.^[8] The Bills also added former Jets Percy Harvin^[9] and IK Enemkpali, the latter one day after he was released for punching and breaking the jaw of Jets quarterback Geno Smith in a locker room altercation.^[10] The Bills won both games in 2015, knocking the Jets out of playoff contention with their second win.^[11] Things heated up the first game when both were still in the hunt for a playoff spot, especially after Ryan made Enemkpali a team captain.

In 2016, a Thursday Night game between the Jets and Bills was the first NFL game ever broadcast on Twitter, with the Jets winning 37-31.^[12]

Score history

Buffalo victories

New York victories

#	Date	Location	Winning team	Losing team	Score
1	September 11, 1960		New York	Buffalo	27–3
2	October 16, 1960		New York	Buffalo	17–13
3	September 17, 1961		Buffalo	New York	41–31
4	November 23, 1961		New York	Buffalo	21–14
5	September 22, 1962		New York	Buffalo	17–6
6	December 8, 1962		Buffalo	New York	20–3
7	December 8, 1963		Buffalo	New York	45–14
8	December 14, 1963		Buffalo	New York	19–10
9	October 24, 1964		Buffalo	New York	34–24
10	November 8, 1964		Buffalo	New York	20–7
11	September 26, 1965		Buffalo	New York	33–21
12	December 19, 1965		New York	Buffalo	14–12
13	October 30, 1966		Buffalo	New York	33–23
14	November 13, 1966		Buffalo	New York	14–3
15	September 10, 1967		Buffalo	New York	20–17
16	November 12, 1967		New York	Buffalo	20–10
17	September 29, 1968		Buffalo	New York	37–35
18	November 3, 1968		New York	Buffalo	25–21
19	September 14, 1969		New York	Buffalo	33–19
20	November 9, 1969		New York	Buffalo	16–6
21	October 4, 1970		Buffalo	New York	34–31
22	October 25, 1970		Buffalo	New York	10–6
23	October 17, 1971		New York	Buffalo	28–17
24	November 21, 1971		New York	Buffalo	20–7
25	September 17, 1972		New York	Buffalo	41–24
26	November 12, 1972		New York	Buffalo	41–3
27	September 30, 1973		Buffalo	New York	9–7
28	December 16, 1973		Buffalo	New York	34–14
29	September 29, 1974		Buffalo	New York	16–12
30	December 8, 1974		New York	Buffalo	20–10
31	September 21, 1975		Buffalo	New York	42–14
32	November 2, 1975		Buffalo	New York	42–14
33	October 10, 1976		Buffalo	New York	24–23
34	October 31, 1976		New York	Buffalo	17–14
35	October 9, 1977		New York	Buffalo	19–14
36	December 11, 1977		New York	Buffalo	24–19
37	September 10, 1978		Buffalo	New York	14–10
38	October 8, 1978		New York	Buffalo	21–20
39	September 23, 1979		New York	Buffalo	45–14
40	November 11, 1979		Buffalo	New York	46–31
41	September 14, 1980		Buffalo	New York	14–12
42	November 9, 1980		Buffalo	New York	20–10
43	September 6, 1981		Buffalo	New York	31–0
44	October 18, 1981		New York	Buffalo	33–14
45	December 27, 1981		Buffalo	New York	31–27
46	October 3, 1983		New York	Buffalo	34–10
47	November 13, 1983		Buffalo	New York	24–17
48	September 23, 1984		New York	Buffalo	28–26
49	December 8, 1984		New York	Buffalo	21–17
50	September 15, 1985		New York	Buffalo	42–3
51	December 8, 1985		New York	Buffalo	27–7
52	September 7, 1986		New York	Buffalo	28–24
53	October 6, 1986		New York	Buffalo	14–13
54	September 13, 1987		New York	Buffalo	31–28
55	November 22, 1987		Buffalo	New York	17–14
56	October 17, 1988		Buffalo	New York	37–14
57	November 20, 1988		Buffalo	New York	9–6 OT
58	October 22, 1989		Buffalo	New York	34–3
59	December 23, 1989		Buffalo	New York	37–0
60	September 24, 1990		Buffalo	New York	30–7
61	October 21, 1990		Buffalo	New York	30–27
62	September 15, 1991		Buffalo	New York	23–20
63	December 1, 1991		Buffalo	New York	24–13
64	October 26, 1992		Buffalo	New York	24–20
65	December 6, 1992		New York	Buffalo	24–17
66	October 24, 1993		Buffalo	New York	19–10
67	December 26, 1993		Buffalo	New York	16–14
68	September 4, 1994		New York	Buffalo	23–3
69	November 6, 1994		New York	Buffalo	22–17
70	October 8, 1995		Buffalo	New York	29–10
71	November 19, 1995		Buffalo	New York	28–26
72	October 20, 1996		Buffalo	New York	25–22
73	November 24, 1996		Buffalo	New York	35–10
74	September 7, 1997		Buffalo	New York	28–22
75	November 30, 1997		Buffalo	New York	20–10
76	November 8, 1998		New York	Buffalo	34–12
77	December 19, 1998		New York	Buffalo	17–10
78	September 19, 1999		Buffalo	New York	17–3
79	November 21, 1999		New York	Buffalo	17–7
80	September 17, 2000		New York	Buffalo	27–14
81	October 29, 2000		Buffalo	New York	23–20
82	October 7, 2001		New York	Buffalo	42–36
83	December 30, 2001		Buffalo	New York	14–9
84	September 8, 2002		New York	Buffalo	37–31 OT
85	November 24, 2002		New York	Buffalo	31–13
86	October 12, 2003		New York	Buffalo	30–3
87	December 7, 2003		Buffalo	New York	17–6
88	October 10, 2004		New York	Buffalo	16–14
89	November 7, 2004		Buffalo	New York	22–17
90	October 16, 2005		Buffalo	New York	27–17
91	January 1, 2006		New York	Buffalo	30–26
92	September 24, 2006		New York	Buffalo	28–20
93	December 10, 2006		Buffalo	New York	31–13
94	September 30, 2007		Buffalo	New York	17–14
95	October 28, 2007		Buffalo	New York	13–3
96	November 2, 2008		New York	Buffalo	26–17
97	December 14, 2008		New York	Buffalo	31–27
98	October 18, 2009		Buffalo	New York	16–13 OT
99	December 3, 2009		New York	Buffalo	19–13
100	October 3, 2010		New York	Buffalo	38–14
101	January 2, 2011		New York	Buffalo	38–7
102	November 6, 2011		New York	Buffalo	27–11
103	November 27, 2011		New York	Buffalo	28–24
104	September 9, 2012		New York	Buffalo	48–28
105	December 30, 2012		Buffalo	New York	28–9
106	September 22, 2013		New York	Buffalo	27–20
107	November 17, 2013		Buffalo	New York	37–14
108	October 26, 2014		Buffalo	New York	43–23
109	November 24, 2014		Buffalo	New York	38–3
110	November 12, 2015		Buffalo	New York	22–17
111	January 3, 2016		Buffalo	New York	22–17
112	September 15, 2016		New York	Buffalo	37–31
Series: Buffalo leads 60–52

Source:^[13]

References

1. "Rivalry status".
2. "Jets Rivalry Profile: Buffalo Bills".
3. "Jets escape costly defeat after scoring on late turnover". NFL.com. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
4. "Sanchez's INTs overshadow Jones' career day as Jets lose third straight". October 19, 2009.
5. "Buffalo Bills dig out from snow storm, beat Jets in Detroit". Sports Illustrated. November 25, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
6. "Buffalo Bills hire Rex Ryan as head coach".
11. "Jets blow playoff chance with 22-17 loss to Bills". Associated Press. January 3, 2016.
12. "How To: stream the Jets-Bills Thursday night game". The Associated Press. September 15, 2016.
13. "New York Jets Vs. Buffalo Bills Results". Retrieved 10 May 2012.