There are a lot of places we could set the dial on the Time Capsule this week.
The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots have been sharing the AFC East for decades, leaving us with more than enough games, moments, and grudges to fill this space several times over. New England holds an 80-52-1 advantage in the all-time series.
But that record comes with a pretty significant Tom Brady/Bill Belichick-sized asterisk. During that era, the Patriots went 34-4 against Buffalo. Take those games away, and the Bills
actually lead the rest of the series, 48-46-1.
We remember. We don’t particularly need to relive all of it.
So, instead of traveling through the entire history of Bills-Patriots football, we’re setting the Time Capsule for 2018 — the year Josh Allen arrived in Buffalo.
Allen entered the rivalry while New England still owned it. Since then, the balance has shifted, the Patriots dynasty has ended, and some of the most memorable games of the Allen era have come against the team that spent so many years standing in Buffalo’s way.
Before the Bills and Patriots meet again Sunday in Orchard Park, let’s go back to where the Josh Allen chapter of this rivalry began.
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2018-19: Some things hadn’t changed yet
Josh Allen’s first chance at the Patriots came late in his rookie season, although it wasn’t his first chance to watch them from the Buffalo sideline. He was injured when New England came to Orchard Park in October 2018, then got the start when the Bills traveled to Foxborough two days before Christmas.
It went about the way Bills-Patriots games had been going for most of the previous two decades. New England won 24-12, Allen threw for 217 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, and the Patriots continued on their way to another AFC East title — and, eventually, another Super Bowl.
A year later, Buffalo was much closer to becoming the team we recognize now. The Bills started the 2019 season 3-0 before the defending Super Bowl champions came to Orchard Park. Buffalo’s defense held Tom Brady to 150 passing yards and no touchdowns, but Allen threw three interceptions before leaving the game, and New England escaped with a 16-10 win.
By the time the teams met again in December, the Bills were 10-4 and had already secured a playoff spot. This time Allen threw for 208 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and Buffalo carried a 17-13 lead into the fourth quarter. New England still found a way to win, 24-17.
Allen’s record against the Patriots was 0-3. Buffalo was getting closer, but close still counted the same way it always had against New England.
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2020: The first turn
Tom Brady was gone when New England arrived in Orchard Park on Nov. 1, 2020, but beating the Patriots still mattered.
Buffalo hadn’t beaten New England at home since 2011. Sean McDermott had never beaten Bill Belichick as a head coach. And Allen, after three tries, was still looking for his first win against the Patriots. The Bills finally got it, 24-21, but even that one came with a little late-game drama. New England was driving in Buffalo territory in the final minute when Justin Zimmer knocked the ball loose from Cam Newton and Dean Marlowe recovered it.
If that win cracked the door, the rematch kicked it open.
Buffalo went to Foxborough for Monday Night Football in December with the AFC East title already secured and handed New England a 38-9 loss. Allen threw four touchdown passes, three to Stefon Diggs, as the Bills completed their first season sweep of the Patriots since 1999.
A rivalry that had spent years feeling impossibly one-sided suddenly looked very different.
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2021: The wind, the rematch, and the Perfect Game
Of course, New England wasn’t going to disappear quietly.
The Patriots came to Orchard Park for Monday Night Football in December with first place in the AFC East at stake and weather conditions that turned the game into one of the strangest chapters in the teams’ entwined history. With wind gusts whipping through the stadium, New England attempted just three passes. The Patriots ran the ball 46 times, Buffalo couldn’t finish its late opportunities, and New England left with a 14-10 win and control of the division.
Three weeks later, the Bills went to Foxborough and took it back.
Allen threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns in a 33-21 Buffalo win that put the Bills back atop the AFC East. Buffalo went on to win the division, and the reward was another meeting with New England — this time in Orchard Park in the Wild Card round.
That one didn’t require much late-game drama.
Buffalo scored touchdowns on each of its first seven possessions. The Bills didn’t punt. They didn’t attempt a field goal. They didn’t turn the ball over. Allen threw for 308 yards and five touchdowns, and Buffalo eliminated New England with a 47-17 win in a game that became known simply as the Perfect Game.
For a generation of Bills fans who had spent most of the Brady era waiting for New England to deliver the next miserable chapter, this was something entirely different. Buffalo didn’t just beat the Patriots.
For one freezing January night in Orchard Park, the Bills owned them.
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2022-25: Buffalo has the upper hand, but New England still gets its shots
The Perfect Game didn’t end the rivalry. It did, however, change what Bills fans expected from it.
Buffalo swept New England again during the 2022 season, including an emotional 35-23 win in Orchard Park in the regular-season finale. But the Patriots have provided enough reminders since then that division games rarely cooperate with expectations. New England stunned Buffalo 29-25 in Foxborough in October 2023 before the Bills answered with a 27-21 win at home later that season.
Buffalo won the first meeting of 2024 as well, 24-21 in Orchard Park. The Patriots won the season finale in Foxborough, 23-16, although that game came after Buffalo had already locked up the AFC’s No. 2 seed and Allen played only one snap before Mitch Trubisky took over.
Then came 2025, and a Patriots team that was suddenly much more difficult to dismiss. New England came into Orchard Park in October and handed Buffalo a 23-20 loss. When the teams met again in December, the Bills found themselves down 21-0 in Foxborough before Allen and the offense flipped the game. Buffalo scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions, Allen threw three touchdown passes, and the Bills came all the way back for a 35-31 win.
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Which brings the Time Capsule back to Orchard Park, where the two will meet Sunday afternoon to write the next chapter of this long-running sag
Allen’s chapter against New England started with three straight losses, at a time when the Patriots were still the team Buffalo was trying to catch. Eight years later, Brady is long gone, the AFC East has changed hands more than once, and the Bills no longer enter Patriots week wondering whether they can finally get past New England.
But if the last few seasons have taught us anything, it’s that New England may no longer own this rivalry, but they haven’t exactly made a habit of going quietly.
