The Buffalo Bills don’t have a great record of winning road playoff games during the history of the franchise.
Not only have the Bills lost their last eight road playoff games, they have dropped 13 of their 17
postseason games all-time, including losses in their last two AFC Championship games.
If Josh Allen and the No. 6 Bills (12-5) want to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl title, they’re most likely going to have to win three times away from Highmark Stadium, beginning with Sunday’s Wild Card clash at the No. 3 Jacksonville Jaguars (13-4).
The last time the Bills picked up a playoff win on the road was during the 1992 NFL season, when Buffalo knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers by a 24-3 score in the AFC Divisional round before dominating Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins 29-10 to reach their third straight Super Bowl.
Those back-to-back road wins represent exactly half of Buffalo’s all-time playoff wins away from Orchard Park, NY. The other two victories? A 31-27 triumph over the New York Jets in the 1981 AFC Wild Card round and a 23-0 shellacking of the then-San Diego Chargers for the 1965 AFL Championship, their second consecutive AFL title.
Buffalo’s first road playoff game didn’t go well, as Terry Bradshaw and Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense limited O.J. Simpson to 49 yards on 15 carries and outscored the Bills 26-0 in the second quarter en route to a 32-14 triumph during the Divisional round of the 1974 season. Pittsburgh went on to win Super Bowl IX that year.
During the 1980s, the Bills went 1-4 on the road in the postseason, including 0-3 against teams from the state of Ohio. Besides knocking off the Jets in the 1981 AFC Wild Card round, Buffalo fell 20-14 to the Chargers in the Divisional round of the 1980 season, 28-21 to the Cincinnati Bengals in the same round the next year, 21-10 to the Bengals in the 1988 AFC title game, and 34-30 to the Cleveland Browns in the Divisional round of the 1989 season.
The 1990s started off with those back-to-back playoff wins in Pittsburgh and Miami, but Buffalo lost its final three road playoff games of the decade. The Super Bowl-bound Steelers battered the Bills 40-21 in the 1995 Divisional round, Buffalo suffered a 24-17 setback against the Dolphins in the 1998 Wild Card round and dropped a heartbreaker to the Tennessee Titans by a 22-16 score in the Wild Card round of the 1999 season.
Sean McDermott has never won a road playoff game
After snapping a 17-year playoff drought during the 2017 NFL season, the Bills lost to the Jaguars 10-3 in the Wild Card round, then blew a big first-half lead during a 22-19 overtime loss to the Houston Texans in the 2019 Wild Card round.
Josh Allen and the Bills also fell to the Kansas City Chiefs 38-24 in the 2020 AFC Championship, lost 42-36 in overtime to the Chiefs in the “13 seconds” debacle known as the 2021 AFC Divisional round and, most recently, endured another heartbreaking loss at Arrowhead in the 2024 AFC title game, 32-29.
Bills fans are hoping Sunday not only kick-starts the team’s march to the Super Bowl but snaps a string of recent road playoff setbacks.
