The Las Vegas Raiders will play the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, and while it’s only Week 6 of the season, it’s already a big game for the Raiders. After starting the season 3-0, Las Vegas has lost its last two games. Sunday’s matchup is an opportunity for the Raiders to get back in the win column, and also for the team to prove that it should be taken seriously this season.
However, the Bills are no easy team to do that against. Buffalo will enter Sunday’s game at 4-1, and they have been a tough team to beat in recent years. Las Vegas knows that, because the franchise hasn’t experienced much success against the Bills recently.
Historically, though, this matchup between the two franchises has been pretty competitive, and the Raiders will actually have the chance to tie the all-time series on Sunday.
Bills lead Raiders 22-21-0 in all-time series
These two clubs have met 43 times, and Buffalo had the slight advantage, having just one more win in the all-time series. The Bills just recently took hold of the series, defeating the Raiders in the last three meetings between the two franchises.
With both teams being around since 1960, in the AFL, they have met through several different eras, cities, and stadiums. The first matchup came in October of 1960, and Buffalo won the game 38-9. The Raiders, then in Oakland, avenged the loss a month later with a 20-7 victory, and the back-and-forth battle has been going on since then.
In addition to all of their regular-season meetings, two of the 43 games came in the postseason. In the 1990 AFC Championship, the Bills demolished the Los Angeles Raiders 51-3 to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. They met again three seasons later in the 1993 Divisional round of the playoffs, and Buffalo was once again victorious, winning 29-23.
Signature moment: 1990 AFC Championship game
Unfortunately for the Raiders, the signature moment between these two teams is that AFC Championship game that Buffalo won 51-3. It’s a memorable moment for a few reasons. For starters, the Bills scored 41 points in the first half, which still stands as the NFL record for most points by a team in the first half of a playoff game.
The win also punched Buffalo’s ticket to the first of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances. The Bills infamously lost all four Super Bowls, but the game against the Raiders still signifies the start of a special moment in NFL history.
The final tidbit about this game, and most heartbreaking one, is that it was the first game after Bo Jackson sustained his career-ending injury. The running back was a hurt a week prior in the Divisional round against the Cincinnati Bengals, and his absence played a big part in the Raiders not being able to get anything going.
Last time around: Bills demolished Raiders in Josh McDaniels’ final year
The last time these two teams met went a lot like the first time they played each other: Buffalo won big. In Week 2 of the 2023 season, the Bills, at home, defeated the Raiders 38-10. Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen and running back James Cook led the way, and they will be trying to do the same on Sunday.
Things are much different for Las Vegas this time around. Klint Kubiak is the head coach, not Josh McDaniels, and the offensive trio is Kirk Cousins, Brock Bowers, and Ashton Jeanty, instead of Jimmy Garoppolo, Davante Adams, and Josh Jacobs.
While Maxx Crosby is still leading the defense, he will be hoping that all the other changes result in a change of the winner.
Add us as a preferred source on Google