Ever since I was a kid, “Are things different?” has been one of those questions sports fans ask constantly. Sometimes we’re asking because things are better, sometimes because they’re worse, but we’re always searching for some clue that what we’re watching isn’t just another version of something we’ve already seen.
I can go all the way back to the Bills’ Super Bowl years. After they lost the first one, 1991 became about redemption and experience. They had been there before, they knew what the Super Bowl was like now, and maybe that would be the difference. In 1992, after the regular season didn’t go as smoothly and they had to fight their way through the playoffs, you could convince yourself this version was grittier and maybe better prepared for the moment. Then 1993 became about everybody counting them out, the pressure being gone and the Bills having nothing to lose. Every year there was a reason this one might be different, and every year we were trying to convince ourselves the ending might finally change.
Hell, we did it during the drought too. In 2008, the Bills started 5-1 and Trent Edwards looked like he might actually be the answer. They finished 7-9. In 2011, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Fred Jackson helped them get to 5-2, Fitz got paid, Buffalo was fun again and we asked the same question. They finished 6-10. Then came 2017, another 5-2 start and another round of “Is this finally different?” Except that time, it actually was. The Bills finished 9-7 and finally ended the fucking playoff drought.
So occasionally the answer really is yes.
Which brings me to the 2026 Buffalo Bills.
They’re 2-0. They’ve scored 36 and 41 points against Houston and Detroit, two teams that before the season you wouldn’t have batted an eye at if somebody told you they’d be playing deep into January or even competing for a Super Bowl. Josh Allen looks ridiculous, the offense has scored 77 points, the vibes are high, Joe Brady can take his shirt off in the locker room and Brandon Beane can actually look excited instead of staring death eyes at Sean McDermott.
I already see some media and fans trying to connect the dots for change based on vibes which isn’t exactly my favorite trope to base change on. We are already getting national people being told it’s different from the Bills.
Still and with a keen eye while avoiding feels or possibly of access journalism…I’m asking the same question I’ve been asking about this team for most of my life.
Are things different?
First and foremost, it has been two games. Eight quarters. I understand why everybody is excited because I’m excited too, but two games is a ridiculous sample size to start making declarations about a football team that has spent the better part of the last six years looking like a Super Bowl contender. Still, there are things I can pick at that feel different. The biggest one for me is the downfield passing game. We really haven’t consistently seen this version of the Bills offense since the beginning of 2023.
The deep ball isn’t something we’ve never seen from Josh Allen, and the numbers actually show he threw deep even more often through two games in 2021. But after only 26 deep attempts combined through the first two games of 2022, 2023 and 2024, Buffalo is back to attacking vertically at a much higher rate. Allen already has 14 deep attempts and eight completions this season.
Allen is pushing the football down the field again, Dalton Kincaid is making plays vertically, DJ Moore already has a 100-yard game, and Buffalo doesn’t seem married to one particular way of beating you. They can hit explosives, run James Cook, spread you out or just kill you five and eight yards at a time.
Then the annoying part of my brain immediately reminds me about 2022.
Remember that shit?
Buffalo opened that season in Los Angeles against the defending Super Bowl champion Rams and beat the hell out of them, 31-10. Four days later they played Tennessee, which had been the No. 1 seed in the AFC the previous season, and absolutely murdered them, 41-7. Through two games Buffalo had outscored two supposed contenders 72-17, Josh Allen had thrown for 614 yards and seven touchdowns, and I’m pretty sure most of Western New York was already figuring out how much a February flight was going to cost.
That team didn’t make the Super Bowl.
Through two games, the Bills have allowed 62 points and 736 yards, both the most they’ve surrendered through two games in any season since 2020. They’re giving up 31 points and 368 yards per game, despite starting 2–0.
And that right there is why I’m having trouble declaring anything different after two games.
Since 2020, the Bills are 12-2 through the first two games of a season. They’ve scored at least 50 points through two games every single year during that stretch and have averaged 64 points in those two-game starts. Yes, the 77 points this year are the most of the bunch, but even that isn’t dramatically different from 2022, when they scored 72 while beating the living shit out of the defending Super Bowl champion Rams and a Titans team that had just been the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Josh Allen has done this before too. In 2020, he had 727 passing yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions through two games. In 2022, it was 614 yards and seven touchdowns. This year he’s at 582 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, plus another 92 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Nine total touchdowns in two games is fucking ridiculous, but watching Josh Allen look like an alien in September isn’t exactly a new experience for us.
So being 2-0 isn’t different. Scoring a shitload of points isn’t different. Josh Allen playing out of his mind isn’t different.
The interesting part is how they’re doing it.
That’s where I’m willing to at least entertain the possibility that maybe something is changing. The vertical passing game is a big part of it, but I’m also looking at the way this offense seems comfortable winning in different ways. There doesn’t seem to be the same feeling that Buffalo has to choose between being a running team or putting everything on Allen’s back. Through two weeks, it feels more like: What are you giving us? Okay, we’ll beat you with that.
And then there’s the defense.
This is probably where my definition of “different” has changed the most. I don’t need Jim Leonhard’s defense to finish No. 1 in every statistical category, and I don’t need them to hold every team to 13 points. The NFL doesn’t work that way anymore, especially when you’re playing good quarterbacks and good offenses. What I need is for this defense to make the fucking play when the game demands it.
Get the sack. Force the turnover. Get the three-and-out. Get off the field when everybody in the stadium knows the other team is throwing the football. That’s why the timely stops and big defensive plays through two games have my attention more than whether Buffalo gives up 300 or 400 yards. Against Houston, Greg Rousseau made the game-ending play with a strip sack when the Texans had a chance to go win the game. Against Detroit, Buffalo got the crucial three-and-out when the Lions were trying to make their run. Those are the plays I want to see, because those are the plays that eventually decide whether your season continues or ends.
Those are the moments that have killed this team in January, but as for September after 2 games…It is deja vu.
But that’s also why I can’t declare things vastly different yet. We’ve reached the point with this franchise where September can’t answer the question anymore.
Joe Brady can be different. Jim Leonhard can be different. The offensive philosophy can be different. The deep ball can be different. The locker room can feel different. The stadium is obviously different.
The standard isn’t.
And don’t get it twisted, I’m fucking excited. The Bills are 2-0, they’ve scored 77 points against two teams with legitimate postseason expectations, Allen looks like the best version of himself and the offense looks capable of doing just about anything it wants right now. After two games, there isn’t much more I could realistically ask for.
But I’ve watched too many Bills teams start seasons looking like world beaters to decide that this one is different because they kicked ass in September.
The answer comes in January.
I want to see that timely sack when the season is on the line. I want to see the defense get the stop instead of giving up the drive that we spend the next eight months talking about. I want to see the offense remain aggressive when the pressure gets tighter, the weather gets worse and the opponent knows exactly what Buffalo wants to do. I want to see them get into one of those playoff games against Kansas City, Cincinnati, Houston or whoever the hell is standing across from them and have the thing we’ve spent all season calling “different” actually change the ending.
Maybe this year really is different. There are already a few things making me wonder if it might be.
I’ve just been a Bills fan way too fucking long to decide that in Week 2.
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