New York has three teams in the NFL but the real rivalry exists between two of the three as they don’t all play in the same division.
The Buffalo Bills and New York Jets are the teams that really share the rivalry but the Bills are the ones competing to dominate the AFC East every season. The aforementioned sides play two games against each other every term given that they’re in the same division. The Bills have most of their fans in upstate New York while you could find more Jets supporters in the NYC area.
The Giants, meanwhile, play in the NFC East and their fans are in New Jersey.
The rivalry between the Bills and the Jets is based on the differences between the greater New York City metropolitan area and the rest of New York State. The Bills being the only team actually located in NY also has a lot to do with it. When it comes to NFL rivalries, this pales in comparison to others. The Bills have a bigger rivalry with the Miami Dolphins while the Jets and New England Patriots have a bitter one too. That’s because the NY teams are hardly successful at the same time.
They’ve finished with winning records in the same season just four times. The Bills have the advantage in games against the Jets, 66-56, and also won the only time they met in the playoffs in the 1981 AFC Wild Card round.
As for memorable games between these two teams, there has only been a handful and none of them are recent. In 1968, when the jets won the Super Bowl, the Bills intercepted Joe Namath five times in an upset that gave Buffalo its only win that year. Prior to that, in 1973, the O.J. Simpson topped Jim Brown’s rushing yards record to hand the Bills a 34-6 win.
The teams played their only playoff fixture in the aforementioned AFC Wild Card game in 1981. The Bills took an early 24-0 lead but the Jets stormed back to get the scores to 31-24. The Bills would hold on for the win via a late-game interception off of Richard Todd.
The Jets famously overlooked Dan Marino in the 1983 Draft to select Ken O’Brien. The Bills selected Jim Kelly as their quarterback in said draft, which saw them dominate the division during the late 80s and early 90s.
The NY rivals played a pair of regular-season games in the 90s that would have an impact on their playoff standings. The Jets missed three field goals in a 1993 game against the Bills that saw them miss the playoffs. They won their first-ever division title by beating the Bills five years later.
The teams were at it over quarterbacks again in 2018, both trading up so they could get a vaunted QB. The Jets selected Sam Darnold as the third overall pick while Josh Allen went to Buffalo as the 7th overall.
The players clashed in December of that year as they were both injured at the first opportunity to play against each other. The Bills took a 14-3 lead early on but the Jets came back and tied things up at 20 in the fourth quarter.
The Bills went back out in front through a field goal with two minutes to go but Darnold championed a game-winning drive for the Jets that saw him throw a 37-yard pass to Robby Anderson before Elijah McGuire’s touchdown run.
Buffalo toppled a 16-0 third-quarter lead to beat the Jets 17-16 at the MetLife Stadium on the first day of the 2019/20 season despite turning the football over on four occasions. The Jets simply fell apart after linebacker C.J. Mosley picked up an injury, poor place kicking from Kaare Vedvik made things worse.
Both teams were expected to be competitive that year and the betting scene must have been wild. That said, fans new to but keen on betting could find everything they need to know about Wynnbet New York once it is available.
In any case, the Jets failed to get to the postseason as they would fail to turn a 1-7 start around. The Bills made the playoffs and decided to rest several starters in a Week 17 clash between the two teams that the Jets won 13-6.
The second matchup between the two teams last year saw the Jets defense keep a formidable Bills offense from scoring touchdowns but they still lost 18-10 courtesy of six field goals from rookie kicker Tyler Bass.
The Bills won both games that campaign.
