Colts/Bills history
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2024 7:09 pm
Considering that they were division rivals for 33 seasons, not too much significant games/history between the two. After today's 30-20 win over the Colts, Buffalo now has the 39-33-1 advantage over them. That tie, BTW, was the very first game they played against each other in that merger 1970 season. Colts would win the next five straight, and then the Bills would win five straight right after that, and then the Colts would win the five straight right after that...and more streaks from there!
It wouldn't be until the '84 season, their season split, that a one-consecutive win by one would be followed by a one-consecutive win by the other.
Yes, quite a weird divisional rivalry to look back upon.
And just when I thought that they never at all played each other in a playoff game...wrong! Right under my nose they, indeed, played just a few years ago in the Covid year. In that very first year of conference 7th-seeds being allowed in, it was the Colts in Philip Rivers' very last game at Josh Allen's Bills in an, after all, competitive game won by Buffalo en route to their, thus far, lone AFCCG-berth under the Sean McDermott regime.
Had the Bills averted the Music City Miracle in '99, they would have gone to Indy the following week for another playoff match between the two. Being that both were still in the same division together, and they did split during that regular season, it would have been a rubber-band match for a right to play at Jacksonville for the AFCC!
Just FOUR (ouch) seasons since the merger that both the Colts and Bills were in the playoffs the same year -1995, 1996, aforementioned 1999, and also aforementioned 2020!! That's IT!
Of course there were times that one would make the playoffs while the other one wouldn't, and then vice-versa the following year. The best example, to me, is the Bills making the playoffs in '74 whilst the Colts bottomed-out at 2-12 only to then go Cinderella the following year as the Bills, after starting real strong at 4-0 (beating the Colts for that very fourth win), faltered to an 8-6-and-out finish. But as the Colts would win every game after that 1-4 start, and the Bills would go the other way, it still made for a nice race between the two (and Miami). That Bills win would be the end of that already brought up 5-game streak over the Colts as Balt's rematch win over them later that '75 season would start their second 5-game streak over Buffalo!
If we're talking prior to the merger, the mid-'60s literally ('64-thru-'66) were the seasons that each were winners in their respective leagues at the same time. As Buffalo finished with AFL's best record in '64 en route to that League Championship, Baltimore finished a league's best 12-2 of their own in the NFL! You'd like to think the NFL champ prevails had they both ever got a chance to meet in '64. But, then again, didn't most think the Colts were a shoe-in vs the Browns? A '65 and, also, a '66 meeting between both isn't too bad to think of either.
Going into that merger, the Colts had to feel like odd-man/5th wheel going into the newly formed AFC East with that quartet who were already familiar with each other as division rivals in the AFL. Colts & Dolphins at least had the initial rivalry going on right off the bat in '70 & '71 with the whole Rosenbloom/Shula thing. Both competed for the division a few years later as well when Marchibroda hopped on. Same with Colts/Pats during that time along with their infamous 'Toilet Bowls' to open and close '81. But it wouldn't really be until the 21st C, once no longer division-mates, that they'd finally have a significant rivalry via Manning/Brady! Not much with Colts and Jets, but three playoff meetings - one a 41-0 blowout, an AFCCG meeting in 2010, and absolutely last-but-not-least a certain Event on January '69 - ought to make it quite above Colts/Bills.
Yes, it never was too much a remarkable rivalry if really one at all. But perhaps you may point out the contrary.
Thoughts?
It wouldn't be until the '84 season, their season split, that a one-consecutive win by one would be followed by a one-consecutive win by the other.
Yes, quite a weird divisional rivalry to look back upon.
And just when I thought that they never at all played each other in a playoff game...wrong! Right under my nose they, indeed, played just a few years ago in the Covid year. In that very first year of conference 7th-seeds being allowed in, it was the Colts in Philip Rivers' very last game at Josh Allen's Bills in an, after all, competitive game won by Buffalo en route to their, thus far, lone AFCCG-berth under the Sean McDermott regime.
Had the Bills averted the Music City Miracle in '99, they would have gone to Indy the following week for another playoff match between the two. Being that both were still in the same division together, and they did split during that regular season, it would have been a rubber-band match for a right to play at Jacksonville for the AFCC!
Just FOUR (ouch) seasons since the merger that both the Colts and Bills were in the playoffs the same year -1995, 1996, aforementioned 1999, and also aforementioned 2020!! That's IT!
Of course there were times that one would make the playoffs while the other one wouldn't, and then vice-versa the following year. The best example, to me, is the Bills making the playoffs in '74 whilst the Colts bottomed-out at 2-12 only to then go Cinderella the following year as the Bills, after starting real strong at 4-0 (beating the Colts for that very fourth win), faltered to an 8-6-and-out finish. But as the Colts would win every game after that 1-4 start, and the Bills would go the other way, it still made for a nice race between the two (and Miami). That Bills win would be the end of that already brought up 5-game streak over the Colts as Balt's rematch win over them later that '75 season would start their second 5-game streak over Buffalo!
If we're talking prior to the merger, the mid-'60s literally ('64-thru-'66) were the seasons that each were winners in their respective leagues at the same time. As Buffalo finished with AFL's best record in '64 en route to that League Championship, Baltimore finished a league's best 12-2 of their own in the NFL! You'd like to think the NFL champ prevails had they both ever got a chance to meet in '64. But, then again, didn't most think the Colts were a shoe-in vs the Browns? A '65 and, also, a '66 meeting between both isn't too bad to think of either.
Going into that merger, the Colts had to feel like odd-man/5th wheel going into the newly formed AFC East with that quartet who were already familiar with each other as division rivals in the AFL. Colts & Dolphins at least had the initial rivalry going on right off the bat in '70 & '71 with the whole Rosenbloom/Shula thing. Both competed for the division a few years later as well when Marchibroda hopped on. Same with Colts/Pats during that time along with their infamous 'Toilet Bowls' to open and close '81. But it wouldn't really be until the 21st C, once no longer division-mates, that they'd finally have a significant rivalry via Manning/Brady! Not much with Colts and Jets, but three playoff meetings - one a 41-0 blowout, an AFCCG meeting in 2010, and absolutely last-but-not-least a certain Event on January '69 - ought to make it quite above Colts/Bills.
Yes, it never was too much a remarkable rivalry if really one at all. But perhaps you may point out the contrary.
Thoughts?