The Buffalo Bills’ 2025 season has been written, but the book is incomplete. Before we cast our full attention toward the 2026 season, let’s take one last glance back over our shoulder for our annual look at the Plays That Defined the prior campaign.
For any newcomers, first and foremost; Welcome! When it comes to the “rules” of this exercise, we’re not voting for our favorite highlight necessarily, but the one that best captures the essence of the game. Put differently, if you had to choose just
one play to show someone to explain as much of the contest as possible, which would you choose?
Week 16: Buffalo Bills at Cleveland Browns
The Buffalo Bills were coming off a revenge victory over the New England Patriots that surely counted as an emotional high. Next up was what should have been their second bye week, taking on the 3-11 Cleveland Browns. It started off that way too, with touchdowns on their first three drives to go up 20-10 (Michael Badgley missed one extra point).
The defense mostly held up, but the sputtering offense only added three points in the second half and squandered chances to put Cleveland away. They hung, but made it a nailbiter for those in attendance (which my sister, my daughter, and I were).
James Cook III TD (Q1; 7:58)
It should have been over by halftime, and by the look of things early on it was going to be one. While the Browns scored on their first drive, Buffalo is known for allowing early scores and improving on defense as the game goes on. And the offense scoring a touchdown on each of their first three possessions made the game seem like a lock. James Cook works for this, but this is a great way to look unstoppable.
Josh Allen sacked (Q2; 1:09)
For Cleveland to battle back. you’d need some gaffes from the Bills and wow is this ever a gaffe. It’s 2nd & 1, no reason to go all yakety sax mode on a play and lose 20+ yards. Luckily Josh Allen was able to juuuuuuuuust baaaaaaaarely keep the ball out of the end zone.
Botched field goal (Q2; 0:03)
It wasn’t just Buffalo screwing things up. Remember that the Bills won by just three points. This, whatever it is, kept exactly that many points off the board. Maybe Corey Bojorquez had one more play in him for the Bills.
Failed conversion (Q4; 2:51)
How dire did the offense get? They had eight shots at a third down and they went for it twice on fourth down. They converted two of the third downs and neither of the fourth downs. This would have sealed the game, something Buffalo could have done many times over had they not been doing these kinds of things.
