NFL
Did the Buffalo Bills Stay in Detroit Between Week 11 Snowstorm Game and Week 12 Thanksgiving Day Matchup With the Lions?
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
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When six feet of snow hit the Buffalo Bills’ home stadium in Orchard Park, New York, the NFL found a solution to the problem. With the Detroit Lions on the road playing the New York Giants, the league moved the Bills Week 11 game vs. the Cleveland Browns to Michigan. Interestingly, the Bills were already scheduled to play in Detroit just four days later in a Week 12 Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Lions. So, did the Bills stay in Detroit between Weeks 11 and 12?
The Bills returned to Buffalo after Week 11 win vs. Browns
The Buffalo Bills beat the Cleveland Browns 31-23 in Week 11 in Detroit, then hopped on the team plane and headed back to Western New York.
Josh Allen and company could have stayed the three days between their Browns game and their Week 12 Thanksgiving Day showdown. In fact, according to Spectrum News 1 Buffalo reporter Rachel Hopmayer, it was even something the team considered.
Following the Browns game, Hopmayer tweeted, “[Head coach Doug] McDermott says #Bills considered staying in Detroit, but with the chaotic exit from Buffalo, he thinks there’s value in players returning home for a few days on a short week.”
And that’s the crux of the reason the Bills did not stay in Detroit between Weeks 11 and 12. The Bills players left their homes and families in the midst of a historic snowstorm to go play in Detroit in Week 11. The team went back to Buffalo to have some semblance of a normal week and, presumably, shovel, and they’ll travel back to Detroit on Wednesday.
The AFC East is tightening
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While a Thanksgiving Day game between an AFC East squad and an NFC North team doesn’t usually have huge playoff implications, every game is now crucial in the tight AFC East.
Like the NFC East, the AFC East is one of the two divisions in the NFL right now where all four teams are over .500. With two wins in four weeks over the New York Jets, the New England Patriots are now 6-4, like their New York rivals, and currently sit in a playoff spot.
Above them are the Bills and Miami Dolphins at 7-3. With the Dolphins’ Week 3 win over the Bills, the team from Florida owns the tiebreaker and is currently first in the division.
This week, the Patriots take on the Minnesota Vikings, the Dolphins face the Houston Texans, and the Jets host the Chicago Bears.
These games are all important for the AFC East teams to keep pace. However, the divisional matchups down the stretch will determine who wins the crown and who makes the playoffs. The crucial games coming up are:
- Week 13: Bills @ Patriots
- Week 14: Jets @ Bills
- Week 15: Dolphins @Bills
- Week 17: Dolphins @ Patriots
- Week 18: Jets @ Dolphins, Bills @ Patriots
Wins by the Bills and other AFC East teams in Week 12 will go a long way to setting up an incredible run of games down the stretch in, arguably, the best division in football.
