By the Numbers: Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills have been playing football since 1960, and in their 64 years of action they have won two AFL championships – 1964 and 1965, and played in four Super Bowls – XXV (20-19 loss to New York Giants), XXVI (37-24 loss to Washington), XXVII (52-17 loss to Dallas) and XXVII (30-13 loss to Dallas). The Bills are now 469-501-8 in the regular season and 18-20 in the playoffs, while currently in their best run of seasons since those four Super Bowl appearances. Here is a look at the Bills by the numbers before Sunday afternoon’s game against Dallas at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.
18.8 – With names like Von Miller, Ed Oliver, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde in the starting lineup, it is no surprise that the Bills defense is one of the tops in the NFL. Buffalo is currently one of just six teams that consistently hold teams under 19 points per game, along with San Francisco (15.8), Baltimore (16.8), Kansas City (17.5), Dallas (17.9) and Minnesota (18.6). They are even better at home, where they are averaging 14.7 points allowed this season, including three games of 10 points or less – Raiders (10), Giants (9) and Jets (6), as well as a season high of 22 in a loss to the Broncos. Despite that stout scoring defense, the Bills have struggled stopping teams between the goal lines, as they are 14th in total yards allowed per game (321.9), 11th in passing yards allowed per game (207.9) and 19th in rushing yards allowed per game (114.0).
69 – With the Bills win over Kansas City last Sunday night, head coach Sean McDermott moved into second place on the team’s all-time wins list, passing Lou Saban who finished his tenure in Buffalo with 68 wins in 117 games from 1962 through 1976. However, McDermott has a long way to go to take over the top spot from Marv Levy, who finished with 112 wins in 182 games as the Bills head coach from 1986 through 1997. McDermott, who now has four playoff wins, is second to Levy’s 11 postseason victories. With his 69 wins in now his seventh season, McDermott, who is 69-41-0 since taking over as head coach in 2017, has passed Levy for the top spot in one franchise category – highest win percentage in team history at .627. Levy sits second on that list at .615.
112 – Buffalo linebacker Terrel Bernard is having one of the best seasons in team history. Through 13 games, Bernard is 12th in the NFL in tackles with 112, it is 38 more than safety Jordan Poyer, who is second on the team. Bernard also has 3.5 sacks, six tackles for loss, five passes knocked down, three interceptions and three fumble recoveries. If Bernard continues his current pace of 8.6 tackles per game, he will finish the season with 146, which would be good enough for to tie London Fletcher for sixth best in franchise history, behind only Kiko Alonso (159 tackles in 2013), Fletcher (158 in 2005), Paul Posluszny (151 in 2010), Zach Brown (149 in 2016) and Fletcher (149 in 2002).
501 – Over the years, the Buffalo franchise has had some excellent place kickers, like Steve Christie, Rian Lindell and Scott Norwood, with just over 500 points scored in his career current Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass is close to adding his name to that list. Now in his fourth season, Bass is already the highest scoring player per game in franchise history accounting for 8.1 points per game in his 62 games played. That is more than a point per game better than Christie, who is currently the leading scorer in team history with 1,011 points in his nine-year Buffalo career. While both kickers missed less than a handful of extra points, Bass has made 84.4-percent of his field goal attempts (103 of 122), while Christie made just 78.2-percent (234 of 299) in his career. Bass is currently on pace to take over the team lead in points scored early in the 2031 season if he stays healthy and plays in all 17 games each season.
2020 – In the season of Covid, fans of the Buffalo Bills could only witness two of the greatest seasons in team history from their living rooms. Playing in front of no fans, quarterback Josh Allen and wide receiver Stefon Diggs put up the best offensive seasons in the Bills 64-year existence. Allen set single-season team records in yards passing with 4,544 and touchdowns with 37. He almost bested it in 2021, but Allen settled for second on the list with a 4,407-yard and 36-touchdown season. Diggs’ performance in the Covid ravaged season was special, hauling in 76.5-percent of passes thrown his way by catching 127 balls for 1,535 yards, all team single-season records. Diggs owns the top three spots for receptions in a single season, with 108 in 2022 for second and 103 in 2021 for third. He owns the second spot for yards receiving in a single season with 1,429 in 2022, while Eric Moulds is third with 1,326 yards in 2000.
21,844 – In less than six seasons, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen has already thrown for nearly 22,000 yards. Allen’s production through the air has him third on the team’s all-time passing yards list, behind leader Jim Kelly (1986-96, 35,467 yards) and Joe Ferguson (1973-84, 27,590 yards), and in front of Jack Kemp (1962-69, 15,134 yards) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (2009-12, 11,654 yards) in the team’s top five. If he continues his current pace of 242.7 yards per game passing, Allen could pass Kelly on the list sometime in the 2027 season. This season Allen is completing passes at a 66.9-percent clip, which would be the second best of his career behind the 69.2-percent of passes he completed in 2020. Both numbers are better than his career average of 63.2-percent.