The 1978 Buffalo Bills season was the franchise's 9th season in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, and the 19th overall. The Bills were coming off a season in which they only won three games, making 1978 a slight improvement. Head coach Chuck Knox began his first season with the team, having coached the Los Angeles Rams for the previous five seasons.Knox would coach the Bills for five seasons – through the 1982 season – before leaving for

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. It was also Buffalo's first season after the departure of star

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

O. J. Simpson, who was traded to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

for five draft picks in the offseason. The Bills offense acquired a pair of weapons for quarterback

Joe Ferguson Joseph Carlton Ferguson Jr. (born April 23, 1950) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football at Arkansas. Early year ...

: wide receiver Frank Lewis, who had spent the previous 7 seasons in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, and rookie running back Terry Miller, who ended the season with over 1,000 yards.Miller's 1,060 yards would be the only 1,000-yard total of his three year career in Buffalo. The 1978 Bills' run defense allowed an NFL record 3,228 rushing yards; the 677 rushing attempts the Bills faced in 1978 is also an NFL record. Oddly, the Bills were first in the league in yards allowed on pass defense, giving up only 1,960 yards through the air.

Offseason

Draft

Personnel

Staff/coaches

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Season summary

Week 1

Week 4

Pro-Football-Reference.com
Retrieved 2017-Oct-09.

Week 5

Week 13 vs. Giants

Week 14 at Chiefs

Standings

Player stats

Passing

''Note: Comp = Completions; ATT = Attempts; TD = Touchdowns; INT = Interceptions''

Special teams

''Note: FGA = Field Goals Attempted; FGM = Field Goals Made; FG% = Field goal percentage; XPA = Extra Points Attempted; XPM = Extra Points Made; XP% = Extra Points Percentage''

Video Archives

1978 NFL Week 1: Pittsburgh Steelers at Buffalo Bills
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YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

1978 NFL Week 2: New York Jets at Buffalo Bills
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1978 NFL Week 5: Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills
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1978 NFL Week 6: Buffalo Bills at New York Jets
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Notes

External links

Pro-Football-Reference.com: 1978 Buffalo Bills

References

Bills on jt-sw.com

Bills Stats on jt-sw.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:1978 Buffalo Bills Season Buffalo Bills seasons Buffalo Bills Buffalo