LA Rams welcome Bills for the NFL season opener. SB preview?

I called this game nearly two months and many Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, and San Francisco 49ers fans laughed at me and called me crazy.  Yet here we are, roughly four months from the start of the new 2022 NFL season and the league has just announced the LA Rams will host the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, September 8th.

This is going to be a massive game to start the season and could be a Super Bowl preview right off the bat!  As things stand right now, these are two of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl in 2023, with the Buffalo Bills carrying the best odds to win it all and take the Lombardi Trophy from the LA Rams.

The LA Rams and Buffalo Bills have played each other a total of 13 times since 1970, with the Bills leading with an 8 – 5 record; however, the last five games have been back and forth, each team alternating wins.  Will that trend continue, if so that bodes well for the LA Rams, having last lost to the Buffalo Bills, 35 – 32 in 2020?

LA Rams almost made a miraculous 2020 comeback

Speaking of that game in week three of 2020, Buffalo started on fire and went into the half with a 21 – 3 lead and added a fourth touchdown in the third quarter, taking a 28 – 3 lead. LA Rams quarterback Jared Goff and the LA Rams looked unprepared and overmatched; however, they came alive and reeled off 29 unanswered points and took a 32 – 28 lead with 4:30 remaining on the clock.  Josh Allen is starting to become known as a clutch quarterback and this was one of the games that started to build that reputation, as he led the Bills to the winning touchdown with 15 seconds remaining on the clock.

The LA Rams are 7 – 3 in their season opener over the last ten years, whereas the Buffalo Bills are only 5 – 5 in season openers during that same span of time.  Looking at this another way, any team that has won the Super Bowl has gone on the following year to a  6 – 4  record in their last ten season openers.  Will the LA Rams extend that to 7 – 4?  The Rams host the Bills, so expect the line to give them a slight favorite in that one.

Interestingly enough, this game would not be happening if not for the addition of the 17th game a season ago.  The LA Rams will face the AFC West and the Buffalo Bills take on the NFC North, so in a 16-game schedule, these two organizations would not be battling this season.  As fans, we are excited about the extra game, so we can watch the start of the 2022 NFL schedule with a heavyweight matchup between two teams led by great quarterbacks, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford.  Additionally, this will be a homecoming of sorts for Von Miller, as he returns to the place where he won his second career Super Bowl but as a Buffalo Bill and newest member of the Bills Mafia.

Wouldn’t it be something if the season starts with the LA Rams against the Buffalo Bills and ends on February 12, 2023, with Super Bowl LVII with these same two teams? What will the final score be?

I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But we’ll have some bold predictions up soon.