For almost the entirety of the first two decades of the 21st century the Buffalo Bills served as the little brother of the New England Patriots.
They were just beat up repeatedly, and rarely in the NFL has there been such a complete domination by one team over another for that length of time, so whenever the Bills found a way to beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it was cause for celebration in western New York.
Through the 53 seasons at Highmark Stadium, the teams have played 52 times and the Patriots have won 31 of those games which is obviously a sad state of affairs. The only other teams with winning records there against the Bills are the Chargers and Vikings (both 5-4) and the Saints (4-2).
However, the five meetings against New England that made my list of the 53 most memorable games I’ve witnessed in Orchard Park were all Buffalo victories.
Here’s a look back at those games, starting with a game from the O.J. Simpson era and ending with Buffalo’s near perfect performance in a 47-17 playoff victory in January 2022.
Jump to: 1974 | 1981 | 2003 | 2011 | 2022
Nobody on the Bills ‘got paid for playing nice’ in 1974 game
Oct. 20, 1974 – Bills 30, Patriots 28
In 1973, despite O.J. Simpson’s record-breaking season, the Buffalo Bills’ 9-5 record still left them outside of the playoff picture, but they were back in the hunt in 1974 and this was the game that announced that they just might end their absence from the postseason that had dated back to the 1966 AFL Championship Game.
The unbeaten Patriots strode into town with a perfect 5-0 record which was quite a thing when you considered that when the season began they’d gone 16-40 since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, one of the worst records in the NFL.
But under second-year coach Chuck Fairbanks, who had enjoyed massive success in the college ranks at Oklahoma, the Patriots were rolling behind quarterback Jim Plunkett.
They had just won their last two games, 42-3 over the Colts and 24-0 over the Jets, and were atop the AFC East, and a longtime Buffalo News columnist described them as “buffoons turned bullies.” Even Plunkett admitted, “I’m somewhat surprised we’re 5-0, too.”
However, it was the Bills who did the bullying and they nearly ran the Patriots out of Rich Stadium during a 20-point first-quarter scoring binge that proved just enough in Buffalo’s 30-28 victory as the Bills moved into a first-place tie with New England at 5-1.
It sure didn’t start well as Patriots’ running back Sam Cunningham broke a 75-yard TD run on the game’s first play from scrimmage, but before the first quarter was over, Joe Ferguson threw a 10-yard TD pass to Paul Seymour and a 29-yarder to Simpson, and Simpson also scored on a one-yard run.
“We still felt we were going to beat them, even after Cunningham’s run,” said linebacker Jim Cheyunski. “There was no way they could stop our offense, so our job was to keep getting the ball back for the offense.”
Seymour caught a 40-yard TD pass to give the Bills a 27-14 halftime lead, and then the defense locked it down, the final score looking close thanks to a Patriots’ touchdown with five seconds remaining.
“Nobody got paid for playing nice today,” Bills defensive end Earl Edwards said of the chippy nature to the game. “The Patriots were complaining to the refs all day but heck, I could cry to the officials every play because somebody’s always holding. So much was at stake, you couldn’t talk a good game, you had to play a good game. So let them do all the talking, we won the game and that’s what matters.”
Bills fans who left this 1981 game early always regretted it
Nov. 22, 1981 – Bills 20, Patriots 17
One of the greatest finishes in Buffalo Bills history, and yours truly was in the parking lot, having left the stadium to beat the traffic thinking the Bills had no chance to beat the New England Patriots.
I know, I know, a really bad look.
The buddy that I went to this game with is someone I grew up with outside Syracuse where I lived for about 12 years, and Tim had never been to a Bills game. He was attending school at the University at Buffalo, and I cajoled my father into letting me use the company season tickets which were supposed to be used for clients, but sometimes wound up in my hands.
Tim was thrilled, so off we went to a place I’d been to many times, but this was a new experience for him.
Most of the day had been frustrating because the Bills looked to be on their way to a third straight loss which would have dropped their record to 6-6 and put them in big trouble in the playoff race. And this loss would have been to the dreadful Patriots who came into Orchard Park with a 2-9 record.
The Bills found themselves down four points with 35 seconds to go and had to start their final possession at their own 27 with no timeouts. Come on, could you blame me for wanting to get out of there?
Tim reluctantly agreed to leave — after all, he was getting a home-cooked Sunday dinner at my house when we got there — and we had barely gotten out of the stadium when, listening on a radio being held by another early departee, Roland Hooks caught a game-winning Hail Mary 36-yard touchdown pass from Joe Ferguson with five seconds left for a 20-17 victory. Tim has never let me forget it even 40-plus years later, nor should he.
Hooks had made an incredible diving catch down the middle for 37 yards to get the winning drive started. “That was the key catch of the day,” said Ferguson. “Without that one, we wouldn’t have had a chance for the last one.”
On the final play — which the Bills nicknamed “Big Ben,” one that had also worked for a touchdown back in a 1979 game I attended against the Jets — Hooks, Jerry Butler and Frank Lewis lined up on the right side of the formation. They all ran to the end zone and Ferguson threw it up for grabs. There were six Patriots defending, and linebacker Mike Hawkins got a hand on the ball, but it caromed right to Hooks who hauled it in.
“Frank Lewis is the jumper in the middle,” said Hooks. “He tries to bat the ball to either me or Jerry Butler. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. All I was thinking was, ‘Don’t drop it.’ I couldn’t believe it, it was like what was going on wasn’t real.”
“Luck is the residue of design,” said coach Chuck Knox. “We had some luck, but a little luck is necessary to be consistent winners in the NFL.”
Turning back toward the stadium and seeing the people at the top of the upper deck going crazy when Hooks scored was certainly a deflating feeling indeed, even though it meant the Bills had won the game. As a reporter covering the Bills, I don’t have the option to leave early so I’ve never missed a fantastic finish since.
An unlikely pick-six helps Bills humble a future HOF QB
Sept. 7, 2003 – Bills 31, Patriots 0
We didn’t know it at the time because on opening day in 2003, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had only started four games against the Bills. True, he’d won all four, but no one had any indication of the misery to come over the next nearly two decades.
Brady already had a Super Bowl ring when he strutted into the place that was, at the time, called Ralph Wilson Stadium, but he was nowhere near the player he would become, arguably the greatest in the history of the NFL.
In fact, after winning the Super Bowl in 2001, the Patriots missed the playoffs in 2002, so Bills fans were feeling pretty good as coach Gregg Williams’ third Buffalo team – coming off a decent 8-8 season – took the field on a gorgeous afternoon thinking this might be the start of a run to a postseason berth.
Nothing that happened across those three thrilling hours dampened hopes as the Bills destroyed Brady and the Patriots 31-0.
“I don’t have too much to say about that one,” Bill Belichick murmured. “They outplayed us in every phase, they just beat us every way they could beat us today and they deserved to win by the score they won by.”
It was one of the worst games Brady would ever play, not only against the Bills, but any team. He threw for just 123 yards and tossed four interceptions including one that was so outlandish, it made the following week’s cover of Sports Illustrated.
Defensive tackle Sam Adams told linebacker London Fletcher and some of his other defensive teammates one hot day in training camp at St. John Fisher College that at some point during this, his first season with the Bills, he was going to make an interception and return it for a touchdown.
Wide receiver Eric Moulds said that the 350-pound behemoth made the same boast to him in the locker room before the start of the season opener and Moulds said, “I kind of looked at him like, ‘Yeah, right.’”
Well, early in the second quarter with the Bills already up 14-0 after scoring on their first two possessions, Adams stepped in front of a Brady pass while in a zone blitz call, trapped the ball in his oversized tummy, then made like a running back as he rumbled 37 yards for a touchdown that created a supersonic sound wave in the stadium.
“Until he intercepted that pass I thought I could outrun him,” joked 85-year-old team owner Ralph Wilson. “I didn’t know he could run that fast. When the ball is thrown and a 350-pound defensive tackle picks it out of the air and runs it into the end zone, things were going our way.”
Were they ever.
Quite simply, it was a startling display of domination by the Bills, though it proved not to be all that meaningful because after routing the Jaguars in Week 2, the Bills went into a tailspin that saw them lose seven of nine games to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
The other noteworthy thing on this day was safety Lawyer Milloy exacting some delicious revenge on Belichick. Milloy, a Patriots captain and four-time Pro Bowler, was controversially cut at the end of training camp and the Bills signed him five days before the game.
Despite barely knowing the defense, he started and made five tackles and a pass breakup and he said, “Having my name called out and getting the fans going with my hand thrusts, it felt like I had always been here my whole career. At that point I knew it was going to be OK.”
The other notable ex-Patriot, quarterback Drew Bledsoe, enjoyed his first win over his old team as he threw for 230 yards, 151 of that in the first quarter.
“It was important to win the game,” said Bledsoe, avoiding the opportunity to gloat. “You guys obviously know all the storylines that go behind all of that. But to come out and win a division game in the first game, beat a team that kind of gave it to us twice last year and show that we are an improved football team from where we were last year was very important.”
But Adams – who my D&C colleague Leo Roth wrote “looked like a beer truck filled with Sam Adams, but he flowed like Sam Adams Light” – was the star of the day.
“It was a good call, everybody executed,” Adams said of the zone blitz. “I came around and got into the passing lane and came down with it. From there, everybody just gave me an escort to the end zone. Hey, I just don’t look like this. They don’t think (big men are) good athletes, but hopefully I changed some minds.”
‘Fitzmagic’ powers Bills as they end Patriots’ streak
Sept. 25, 2011 – Bills 34, Patriots 31
Franchise icon Jim Kelly was like any other Buffalo Bills’ fan on this glorious afternoon when Buffalo ended a loathsome 15-game losing streak to the Patriots.
Kelly was waxing poetic about the good ol’ days because, let’s face it, the Pro Football Hall of Famer was one of the primary reasons why Buffalo had good ol’ days to cling to.
Following Buffalo’s thrilling last-second victory over Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, Kelly spoke to reporters about the importance of the victory, saying, “The Patriots are the team; you have to go through them, and it reminds me of back in the 90s when everybody said that about the Bills.”
On this magnificent day, it was very much like old times as the Bills made all the critical plays, the Patriots made all the head-scratching mistakes, and Buffalo pulled off a truly remarkable victory that improved its record to 3-0 and once again began to stir hope that the playoff drought – which was now a mortifying 11 years and counting – might end.
For most of the first half, it looked like Kelsay’s wait was going to continue. The Bills got off to a brutal start, falling behind 21-0 thanks to three Brady touchdown passes.
However, Ryan Fitzpatrick, on his way to what became a 369-yard passing day, hit Stevie Johnson for a TD with 1:56 left in the half, and after Bryan Scott stopped a Pats scoring chance with an acrobatic interception, Fitz drove the Bills into position for a Rian Lindell field goal to close the half down only 21-10.
Entering the fourth quarter the Bills were still trailing 24-17 but the Patriots were driving for a potential put-away score. Instead, George Wilson picked off a Brady pass at the 5, and two plays and two big penalties later, Jackson plowed into the end zone to tie the game.
With the fans still in a frenzy, Brady’s first pass after the kickoff was tipped by Marcell Dareus right into the arms of Drayton Florence and he raced 27 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, and as Van Miller used to say, it was Fandemonium.
Naturally, Brady had an answer, and he capped a 15-play march with a tying TD pass to Wes Welker on a fourth-and-goal from the 6 with 3:25 left, and you had the sense the Patriots – like they always did – would find a way to pull it out.
They never got the chance because Brady never saw the ball again. Fitzpatrick hit Donald Jones for 29 yards, and then Jackson raced 38 yards with a short pass to the Pats 1 with 1:43 to go. Originally, it was ruled a touchdown, but upon review, it was clear Jackson was down shy of the goal line.
That was probably the break of the game because at that point, as long as the Bills didn’t score a TD, Brady was glued to the bench. Fitzpatrick took three knees, and Lindell calmly kicked the game-winning 28-yard field goal as time expired.
“I know there were probably very few believers going into this game and especially after we spotted them the points early, and anybody who did believe in us was probably on the edge. But we had so much belief (in ourselves),” said Fitzpatrick.
Florence added, “It’s time for those past Buffalo Bill memories to fade away. This is a new era, a new day. … Everybody outside of this room is calling this an upset, but in this locker room, this is what we expected.”
Well, not quite a new era as it turned out. The Bills went on to lose 10 of their final 13 games to finish last in the AFC East for the fourth year in a row.
Josh Allen considers 47-17 shellacking of Patriots his fav at Highmark
Jan. 15, 2022 – Bills 47, Patriots 17
When the Buffalo Bills wrapped up their mandatory minicamp back in June before heading off for a six-week vacation prior to the start of 2025 training camp, Josh Allen was asked to share his favorite memory of Highmark Stadium.
This being the last of 53 seasons in the old building, all year long players, coaches, media and fans have been sharing their remembrances of time spent there, and for Allen — a superstar player who has provided countless memories that will last a lifetime — said there was one game that stood out to him above all the others.
Buffalo’s 47-17 annihilation of Bill Belichick and the Patriots to open the 2021 postseason, forever known around these parts as the perfect game. “Just the fans going crazy,” Allen said. “I know there was a lot of pent up energy and aggression from Bills Mafia in that one. That one was fun.”
Allen has put forth too many amazing performances to count, and there are still plenty more to come. But that night against the Patriots was astounding. He threw for 308 yards and five touchdowns for a near perfect passer rating of 157.6 and he ran for 66 yards as the Bills accrued 29 first downs and 482 total yards.
Taking away the two possessions at the end of each half when Allen knelt to run out the clock, he produced seven touchdowns on seven possessions. The perfect game, and what made it even more remarkable is it came on a bitter cold night when the wind-chill dipped to minus-5.
“Shoot, every drive we couldn’t get a stop. That was frustrating,” said New England star edge rusher Matthew Judon. “It wasn’t only one drive, it wasn’t only one play, it wasn’t one single player. It was everything. It was the whole game. So everything was kind of frustrating, honestly.”
Given all the misery Belichick had inflicted on the Bills, the tables had finally turned since his partner in crime, Tom Brady, had moved on to Tampa Bay and this was Buffalo’s fourth win in the last five against New England dating to the start of 2020.
Today, this is the kind of beatdown Bills fans wish the Kansas City Chiefs were on the other end of, but back then, the Patriots were the team the fans wanted to crush more than any other.
“Obviously we know this team pretty well, it’s the third time we played them,” Allen said. “That’s a good team we just played, and the way we came out and executed, it was good to see, but I think it just goes back to the last week of practice that we had. Guys were dialed in. We practiced hard. We put together a really good game plan and (Brian) Daboll lit it up, just the play calling.”
It’s not too often that this happens in the NFL, but this game was essentially decided on the first three possessions in the first quarter.
The Bills got the ball first and moved right downfield to Allen’s eight-yard TD pass to Dawson Knox. The Patriots were on their way to responding, but rookie QB Mac Jones tried to hit a deep ball to Nelson Agholor in the left corner of the end zone and Micah Hyde made one of the best interceptions you’ll ever see. After the touchback, Allen marched 80 yards to his second TD pass to Knox and at that moment, you knew the Patriots were cooked.
“I’m more happy for our fans,” coach Sean McDermott said of a night where, with the pandemic mostly under control, the Bills played a postseason home game in front of a full house for the first time since 1996. “It’s not often in coaching you can enjoy the last six minutes of a game and kind of look up in the stands and see the fans enjoying it, and at home. I’m happy for them more than anything.”
No one enjoyed it more than edge rusher Jerry Hughes, the longest-tenured man on the team who had toiled through the final four years of the playoff drought, playing for teams that were light years behind the last few he played for in Buffalo.
“It felt amazing just on the stage that it was done on,” Hughes said. “A home playoff game here with our fans, with the Mafia up in the stands, cheering, being crazy, being what they are; the best fans in the NFL. It felt amazing to actually have that opportunity to be here.”
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: These 5 Bills wins over the Patriots stand out as some of the best in stadium history
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
