2023 Buffalo Bills Season

The 2023 season was the Buffalo Bills' 64th season as a franchise, their 54th in the National Football League (NFL), their ninth full season under the ownership of Terry and Kim Pegula, and their seventh under the head coach/general manager tandem of Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane. Despite a midseason slump that resulted in the team failing to match their franchise best 13–3 record from the previous season and firing offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, the Bills went on a late-season surge. They would go from 6–6 at their bye week to winning all five of their final games of the regular season. They clinched their fifth consecutive winning season with a Week 16 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, and later clinched their fifth consecutive playoff appearance and sixth in seven seasons after the Jacksonville Jaguars lost in Week 18. The Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins later that day to win their fourth consecutive AFC East title, overcoming a three-game Miami lead in the final five weeks. This was the first time the Bills won four consecutive division titles since the 1988–1991 teams. Despite their late season success, the Bills were defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round, after an attempted game-tying field goal by Tyler Bass went wide right, the miss being dubbed Wide Right II. This marked their third consecutive loss in the Divisional Round, and the third time in four seasons where the Bills were eliminated by the Chiefs.

Transactions

Arrivals

Departures

Trades

Draft

Draft trades

Undrafted free agents

Staff

Final roster

Preseason

Regular season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1: at New York Jets

In the first quarter, new Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture after being sacked by Bills linebacker Leonard Floyd on the Jets fourth play from scrimmage.
The Bills led 13–3 at halftime, but quarterback Josh Allen struggled, throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble to tie his career-high record in turnovers.
After receiving the ball to start overtime, Buffalo's offense went three-and-out, and their ensuing punt was returned by the Jets' Xavier Gipson for a game-winning touchdown.

With the loss, the Bills fell to 0–1. This is their second straight loss to the Jets at MetLife Stadium.

Week 2: vs. Las Vegas Raiders

Week 3: at Washington Commanders

The Bills defense dominated the Commanders, sacking quarterback Sam Howell nine times in the game and forcing five turnovers en-route to a 37–3 victory.

Week 4: vs. Miami Dolphins

Despite a close first quarter, the Bills dominated a Miami Dolphins team that had scored 70 points the previous week against the Denver Broncos, limiting Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami offense to three touchdowns while Josh Allen attained his first career perfect passer rating and scored five overall touchdowns. With the 48–20 win, Buffalo improved to 3–1 and took the division lead.

Safety Damar Hamlin made his first regular season appearance since his cardiac arrest in Week 17 of the previous season. He was met with a warm welcome and resounding cheers by the Buffalo crowd. Unfortunately, star cornerback Tre'Davious White suffered an Achilles tendon injury and was carted off the field in the third quarter.

Week 5: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

NFL London games

With the loss in London, not only did Buffalo fall to 3–2, but defensive starters DaQuan Jones and Matt Milano both suffered injuries that required surgery. They both joined White on injured reserve.

Week 6: vs. New York Giants

Former Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who notably helped break the Bills' 17-year playoff drought in his final season with the team, started for the Giants in place of Daniel Jones, making this his first start against the Bills. In addition, former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, now head coach of the Giants, and other former Bills such as Isaiah Hodgins, Boogie Basham, and Matt Breida participated in their first game against Buffalo since their departure. The Bills won the game after trailing 6-0 going into the fourth quarter, marking the first time since 1987 that the Bills had won a game after being shutout for the first three quarters of a game.

Week 7: at New England Patriots

Week 8: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 9: at Cincinnati Bengals

In a rematch of the 2022 AFC Divisional Round, the struggling Bills lost by six to a Bengals team that was beginning to heat up after a terrible 1-3 start to their season. Cincinnati struck first on their opening drive on a touchdown pass from quarterback Joe Burrow to tight end Irv Smith Jr.. Buffalo would respond with a two-yard touchdown run by Allen on their opening drive, but the Bengals would then score 14 unanswered points (which came on a Joe Mixon touchdown run and a Burrow touchdown pass to tight end Drew Sample) before halftime. In the second half, Buffalo's injury-riddled defense kept Cincinnati's potent offense in check, but the Buffalo offense struggled to get going and could not fully erase the deficit. Buffalo would eventually cut Cincy's lead to six points on an 17-yard Allen touchdown pass to star wide receiver Stefon Diggs (and a successful two-point conversion from Allen to Diggs), but the Bengals ran out the clock on their next possession.

Week 10: vs. Denver Broncos

Buffalo's playoff hopes took another big hit in a loss to the visiting Denver Broncos on ''Monday Night Football''. In the game, Buffalo committed four turnovers, though its defense limited the Broncos to six points off the four turnovers. Despite taking the lead within the two-minute warning, the Bills were ultimately undone by two untimely penalties during Denver's final drive to score the game-winning field goal. Buffalo cornerback Taron Johnson was flagged for pass interference while defending a Russell Wilson pass to Jerry Jeudy, thus setting up a Denver first down at Buffalo's 17-yard line and 29 seconds left in the game. After Denver burned more clock with a series of quarterback kneels and forced Buffalo to burn its final timeouts, Broncos kicker Wil Lutz, who had missed an extra point attempt earlier in the game and had another one aborted due to a fumbled snap, missed a 41-yard field goal attempt, but it was nullified after Buffalo was flagged for having twelve men on the field during the attempt. Lutz drilled his second attempt as time expired to hand a heartbreaking defeat to Buffalo. The following day, the Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey and named Joe Brady the interim offensive coordinator.

Week 11: vs. New York Jets

In what was seen as a potential must-win for both teams' playoff hopes, the Bills hosted the Zach Wilson-led Jets in a rematch of their Week 1 MNF clash. In the Bills' first game since the midseason firing of offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, the Bills offense looked largely back to form with 130 yards on the ground as well as three air touchdowns from Allen, his most since the Week 4 home blowout of Miami. Finishing with 275 passing yards and three touchdowns, Allen saw his nineteenth consecutive game throwing a touchdown, breaking hall-of-famer Jim Kelly's 1986-87 record of eighteen consecutive games with a touchdown throw. Allen did throw an interception for the seventh consecutive game this season, but in this game it occurred on an unsuccessful Hail Mary attempt as time expired in the first half. Allen's third-quarter 81-yard bomb to Khalil Shakir was Buffalo's longest play from scrimmage this season.

The Bills stole a possession on the first play of the game when the full-back Reggie Gilliam forced a fumble by rookie Jets kick returner Xavier Gipson that was recovered by Quintin Morris to set up a Bass field goal, giving the Bills an early 3-0 lead. Overall, the Bills forced four turnovers, three of them being credited to recent trade acquisition Rasul Douglas, who recovered a fumble in between his two interceptions. Save for one touchdown drive shortly before halftime, the Jets were listless offensively and were limited to 155 net offensive yards. Wilson (who finished the day with a QBR of 3.8) was benched in favor of backup Tim Boyle, who completed 7 of 14 passes for 33 yards and an interception. The Jets would announce the next morning that Boyle would be the team's starter moving forward.

For the first time since 1987, the Bills defense did not allow a third down conversion, forcing the Jets to go 0-for-11 (0-for-10 at Indianapolis on 12/13/87).

Week 12: at Philadelphia Eagles

After a convincing victory over their division rival, Buffalo suffered a painful overtime defeat at the hands of the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Even though Buffalo held the lead for more than 30 minutes of game time, won the time of possession battle by nearly 14 minutes of game time, and gained 505 yards compared to the Eagles' 378 yards, the Bills could not put away the Eagles and eventually lost.

After Allen rushed for a 16-yard touchdown to put the Bills up by ten points late in the third quarter, the Eagles scored two quick touchdowns to take a four-point lead early in the fourth quarter, with the second score set up by an Allen interception deep in Bills territory. The Bills would retake the lead with 1:52 left in regulation on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Allen to wide receiver Gabe Davis. However, on the ensuing drive, the Eagles drove to fringe field goal range, where kicker Jake Elliott drilled an improbable 59-yard field goal through the rain and wind to tie the game and force overtime. Buffalo won the coin toss and drove to Philadelphia's 22-yard line, but on third-and-six, Davis got separation from cornerback Darius Slay and broke towards the corner of the end zone despite Allen expecting him to run a different route closer to the middle of the field, resulting in an incomplete pass that sailed over Davis' head. Buffalo settled for a 40-yard Tyler Bass field goal as a result, leaving their fate in the hands of their defense. The Eagles subsequently drove quickly into Bills territory, but on a second-and-three, linebacker Tyrel Dodson appeared to force a game-ending fumble on wide receiver A. J. Brown that was recovered by the Buffalo defense. However, the play was controversially ruled an incomplete pass and upheld on review after it was determined that Brown did not get both feet down before Dodson stripped him of the ball. Three plays later, Jalen Hurts capped off the drive with a walk-off 12-yard touchdown run.

Week 14: at Kansas City Chiefs

Prior to this game and during the bye week, the Bills faced some controversy, as edge rusher Von Miller was accused of domestic violence by his pregnant girlfriend and turned himself in to the police in Texas as an arrest warrant was issued. He was released on bond, but was still eligible to play. In addition, a report surfaced that head coach Sean McDermott had cited " the terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001" as an example of "good teamwork" during a team meeting in 2019.

In Buffalo's sixth meeting with Kansas City in the past four seasons (including postseason), the Bills attained an early 14–0 lead, though Kansas City tied the game at 17 in the fourth quarter. After the Bills regained the lead after the two minute warning, the Chiefs drove back into Bills territory, even appearing to score a go-ahead hook and lateral touchdown as Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce lateralled the ball to Kadarius Toney after catching a pass from Patrick Mahomes. However, it was ruled that Toney was offside on the play, negating the score and resulting in a 5-yard penalty. The Bills defense was then able to force the Chiefs to turn the ball over on downs, securing the team's third straight regular season win over the Chiefs and allowing the it to enter a six-way tie at 7–6 for the two final wild card spots in the AFC playoff picture.

Week 15: vs. Dallas Cowboys

The Bills utilized a run-heavy offensive attack in light of heavy rainfall during the game, leading to a career day by running back James Cook and largely keeping the ball away from the high-powered Dallas offense. With the win, Buffalo improved to 8–6 and won consecutive games for the first time since weeks 2–4.

Week 16: at Los Angeles Chargers

Despite being 12.5-point favorites over a Chargers team that had just fired head coach Brandon Staley and lost quarterback Justin Herbert to a finger injury, the Bills found themselves in a tight game. The Bills were sloppy with the football, committing three turnovers; however, Josh Allen led the Bills on a 13-play, 64 yard drive culminating with Tyler Bass' go-ahead field goal with 28 seconds left. With the win, the Bills improved to 9-6 and clinched their fifth consecutive winning season.

Week 17: vs. New England Patriots

Despite four takeaways by the Bills' defense (including a pick-six by Rasul Douglas), the Bills once again found themselves in a one-score game in the fourth quarter. Buffalo's defense forced a punt with 5:02 remaining and the Bills were able to run out the clock, improving to 10-6 and setting up a battle for the AFC East in Week 18 with the Miami Dolphins losing to the Baltimore Ravens.

Week 18: at Miami Dolphins

Buffalo was able to move the ball up and down the field all game long, but struggled to score in the 1st 3 quarters, as Josh Allen threw 2 interceptions and lost a fumble in Dolphins territory and running back Ty Johnson was tackled at the Dolphins' 1-yard line at the end of the first half with Buffalo out of timeouts. However, Deonte Harty's punt return touchdown, the longest in franchise history, and Allen's touchdown pass to Dawson Knox in the 4th quarter gave the Bills the lead, and Buffalo's defense sealed the victory by intercepting Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the final minute of the game. With the win, Buffalo finished their season with an 11–6 record and won the AFC East for the fourth consecutive season.

Standings

Division

Conference

Postseason

Schedule

Game summaries

AFC Wild Card Playoffs: vs. (7) Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC Divisional Playoffs: vs. (3) Kansas City Chiefs

References

External links

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{{2023 NFL season by team

Buffalo
Buffalo Bills seasons
Buffalo Bills
AFC East championship seasons