Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills and the rest of the NFL are off on a much-deserved summer break — so it’s time to research and reflect.
And you can place this article in the reflect bucket.
Recently in my Twitter mentions, I observed from afar a back-and-forth between WGR 550’s Jeremy White and a Twitter follower, Michael Czerwonka, on the reputations of the Bills vs. the Rams over for the Sean McVay vs. Sean McDermott eras (they both were hired in 2017).
The Rams have become one of the gold standards in team-building and perennial success in the modern-day NFL. The Bills have been outrageously successful in the regular season since McDermott was hired… but their playoff success pales in comparison. Josh Allen has the most playoff wins in NFL history (8) without a Super Bowl appearance. That fact is a probably a big reason why McDermott is no longer Buffalo’s head coach.
After witnessing the conversation between White and Czerwonka, I wanted to comparatively inspect these two franchises entering the 2026 campaign. The below exploration is not meant to take sides in this mini-debate I was not originally part of. I only wanted to examine one of the claims made — it didn’t seem like Czerwonka and White were disagreeing that much anyway.
At the outset here I must write this disclaimer, of course — THE RAMS REACHED TWO SUPER BOWLS AND WON A CHAMPIONSHIP in this time period, which definitively puts them “ahead” of the McDermott-era Bills.
But as Czerwonka pointed out, since 2017, the Bills are 98-50 and have missed the playoffs once. In that same time frame, the Rams’ record is 92-57, and they’ve missed twice. To Czerwonka, the Bills and Rams have been “closer” than many believe, and he cited the presence of luck (or lack thereof) as the main driver of differences between these two powers.
Speaking of differences, the main, most overt difference between these two clubs over the past nine seasons is the the Rams record in conference title games (2-1) compared to the Bills 0-2 record in such contests.
The Rams beat the Saints in New Orleans in the 2018 NFC Championship Game to reach their first Super Bowl of the McVay era. Three seasons later, they beat the 49ers at home to reach the Super Bowl they won against the Bengals. They lost a nail-biter NFC title game in Seattle just a few months ago on the cusp of another Super Bowl appearance.
Of course, the Bills lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the 2020 and 2024 AFC Championship Games.
Czerwonka’s main point, or at least what jumped off the screen to me most, was this — “it’s not just four games that makes the difference, it’s actually four plays.”
Let’s explore that assertion:
Play No.1 – Missed Pass Interference
We’re starting early in the McVay era here, and there may not be a more controversial, legacy altering non-call featuring two (likely) Hall of Fame quarterbacks in NFL playoff history...
