Week 2 of the NFL season will be a landmark moment in the history of the Buffalo Bills’ franchise, and their goal will be to make sure the Detroit Lions don’t spoil it with any unwanted housewarming gifts in the shape of an “L”.
The NFL announced Monday the Lions will travel to play the Bills in Week 2 for the league’s first proper “Thursday Night Football” presentation of the season on Prime. The news was revealed after it may or may not have leaked beforehand, essentially forcing the NFL to get out ahead of it with an official announcement.
It’ll be the Bills’ first game at the freshly-built “new” Highmark Stadium, after the franchise played at the “old” Highmark Stadium from 1973 to 2025, more commonly known by its former name Ralph Wilson Stadium or “the Ralph”.
It’s also the home debut of Joe Brady as Bills head coach, as the former offensive coordinator was promoted following Sean McDermott’s dismissal after nine seasons and a series of playoff heartbreaks.
The new Highmark seats about 62,000 people, a significant reduction from the 71,608 that the old one held. It will be located across the street from old Highmark Stadium, which is currently in the demolition process. New Highmark is an open-air stadium like its predecessor but is designed for more weather protection. The stadium contains a roof canopy covering 64% of attendees and special panels intended for significant wind reduction.
Though the crowd capacity is smaller, Buffalo fans are quite known for bringing the energy, and should be even more charged up than usual for their shiny new stadium’s Bills debut. That may make an already-tough road environment for the Lions even harder.
Lions can spoil Bills' grand opening with a Week 2 win
Bills executives had previously expressed a desire to have the team’s home opener being in primetime and got their wish.
“We’ve already been approached by networks that would like to have it,” team COO Pete Guelli said in early April. “We’re just trying to work through that. It’s really a league decision. . . . However it’s set up, we’re going to make sure that home opener is a big event.”
The last time the Lions played the Bills was in the 2024 season, and it produced one of the wildest regular season NFL games in recent memory. The teams combined for over 1,000 total yards of offense and the Bills won 48-42.
Quarterback Josh Allen threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns, out-dueling Jared Goff who set single-game highs in his Lions career with 494 passing yards and five touchdowns.
The only other Bills-Lions game under the Dan Campbell regime was on Thanksgiving 2022 when the Bills beat the Lions 28-25 in Detroit.
The last time the Lions played in Buffalo was a 14-13 loss in Week 15 of Allen’s 2018 rookie year that eliminated Detroit from playoff contention. The Lions are 4-8-1 all-time against the Bills and have not beaten Buffalo since 2006. Lions quarterback Jon Kitna, running back Kevin Jones and wideout Roy Williams came up big for Detroit against J.P. Losman’s Bills in that 20-17 instant classic.
Detroit’s only win in Buffalo to date came in 1991. Barry Sanders ran for 108 yards and a score in a 17-14 overtime win with several Bills starters resting
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Both of these teams should be among the league’s most talented, and the game’s early-season placement hopefully means we’ll get to see them at (or close to) full health. Detroit is trying to get back into the playoffs and Super Bowl contention after a big letdown of a 2025 season, while Buffalo is trying to redeem a deflating playoff loss to the Denver Broncos in the divisional round.
It’ll be a good look at both teams and their reworked coaching situations, not only for Brady’s home debut for Buffalo but possibly the first primetime viewing of Detroit’s offense under new coordinator Drew Petzing.
We won’t have to wait long to see either of these teams tested against a formidable cross-conference foe. And if Goff manages to pull an Eli Manning and spoil the Bills’ big stadium opener?
Well, that’d be pretty funny.
10 years ago today: Eli Manning signs the wall in Jerry World after getting the first ever win in the new stadium, 33-31. #GiantsNation pic.twitter.com/drDEkISb7M
— Giants Nation (@NYG_Nation10) September 20, 2019
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