Lions vs. Bills: Is this a battle of teams who blew their best SB window or is it still open in 2026?

Two of the league's most successful yet snake-bitten teams square off in Week 2 on "Thursday Night Football"

Sep 17, 2026 at 9:33 am ET • 6 min read

There may not be two more successful yet snake-bitten teams in the NFL than the two facing off on "Thursday Night Football" in Week 2: the Detroit Lions (1-0) and the Buffalo Bills (1-0).

Both squads are tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for the best record in the entire league since 2023 at 37-15. Detroit is the only team to play every season in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) and never reach the title game, while Buffalo has the best record in the NFL since 2020 (73-27, .730 winning percentage) and has not reached the Super Bowl since 1994. The Bills' 73 wins from 2020 to 2025 are the most in a six-season span ever without a Super Bowl appearance. 

Thursday night's matchup, which will kick off the opening of the Bills' new Highmark Stadium, is guaranteed to have points. The last time these two teams met, Buffalo won 48-42 in a game with 90 combined points and 1,080 combined yards. Bills quarterback Josh Allen racked up 430 total yards and four total touchdowns, while Lions quarterback Jared Goff threw for 494 yards and five touchdowns. That made Goff the only quarterback in NFL history to lose a game with 400-plus passing yards, five-plus passing touchdowns and no interceptions, per CBS Sports Research. 

The entire football world and their grandmas know Thursday night will be an offensive laser show, but is this game also a battle of teams that already blew their best Super Bowl window? Let's look at each team's best chance over the last decade to win it all and project who will get the closest to the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 2026. 

Detroit Lions 

Season they blew their best chance: 2023

Detroit went 12-5 and won the NFC North in 2023 with the NFL's No. 5 scoring offense (27.5 points per game) and Pro Bowl seasons from the following players: running back Jahmyr Gibbs, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (also first team All-Pro), right tackle Penei Sewell  (also first team All-Pro), center Frank Ragnow  (also second team All-Pro), edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson and linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (also second team All-Pro). Head coach Dan Campbell also had two current 1-0 NFL head coaches as his offensive coordinator (Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears) and defensive coordinator (Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets). 

The Lions beat their former face-of-the-franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams 24-23 in the wild card round for their first playoff win since the 1991 season. They followed that with a 31-23 divisional-round victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the NFC Championship Game at the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit led 24-7 at halftime, appearing well on its way to its first Super Bowl appearance. But the wheels came off the wagon in the second half, with their first four possessions ending with: a turnover on downs at the 49ers' 28, a lost fumble, a punt, and a turnover on downs at the 49ers' 30. That dry spell helped the 49ers rip off 27 consecutive points (a field goal, two consecutive touchdown drives, a field goal and another touchdown drive). 

A touchdown pass from Goff to wide receiver Jameson Williams with 56 seconds left wasn't enough for Detroit to recover from their meltdown, and Campbell summed up what was to come for his Lions quite well. 

"Sometimes you can only say so much," Campbell told reporters after the Lions' 34-31 defeat. "(Sometimes) you gotta live it, unfortunately. You gotta get your heart ripped out, which we did. And it's a lesson learned. And look, I told those guys, 'This may have been our only shot.' Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I am well aware. It's gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year."  

Detroit hasn't been back to the conference championship since, suffering an NFC divisional round upset as the No. 1 seed against the Washington Commanders in 2024 before missing the playoffs entirely in 2025. 

Buffalo Bills

Season they blew their best chance: 2025

From 2020 to 2024, each Bills' playoff runs ended against one of two opponents: Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs or Joe Burrow's Cincinnati Bengals. In the 2025 postseason, neither team was present, and neither was two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson's Baltimore Ravens. 

The AFC had never been more wide open for the taking than it was in 2025. The Bills waltzed into a postseason field where the conference's top seed quarterbacked was second-year passer Bo Nix. The Seattle Seahawks, who ended up winning the Super Bowl, had just +390 odds to do so on FanDuel Sportsbook, the fourth-longest odds by a Super Bowl favorite entering an NFL postseason all-time, per CBS Sports Research. Last season represented the most parity-filled, wide-open playoff bracket in recent memory. 

Then came the AFC divisional round disaster in Denver. Allen committed a playoff career-high four turnovers (two interceptions and two fumbles lost). Allen became the first quarterback to record multiple interceptions and multiple fumbles lost in a playoff game since Carson Palmer in the Arizona Cardinals' 49-15 meltdown in the 2015 NFC Championship Game. Despite all that, Buffalo still nearly won, falling 33-30 in overtime. 

That's why Allen and left tackle Dion Dawkins were notably in tears at their postgame media availability, unlike in some other years this decade. 

Who gets closest in 2026?

So which of these Charlie Brown-like franchises, who keep coming so close yet so far from Super Bowl glory, will get closest in 2026? Both have top-10 offenses with top-10 quarterbacks and running backs in their backfields. The gap between the two teams comes down to their defenses and their respective conferences. 

Detroit's defense is just too injury-plagued, with both safeties, Brian Branch (Achilles) and Kerby Joseph (chronic, degenerative left knee problem), still sidelined. Plus, they don't have difference-makers along the defensive line other than two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson. Buffalo has playmakers at both defensive tackle (Ed Oliver) and edge rusher (Gregory Rousseau) while also possessing enough talent on the back end of their defense to get by.

Another issue for Detroit is that the NFC is absolutely loaded. It has the defending champion Seahawks, the preseason Super Bowl favorite Rams, the feisty San Francisco 49ers, a Philadelphia Eagles squad with two Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl win since 2022, a rising Chicago Bears squad, a Green Bay Packers team that has made three consecutive playoffs and a Minnesota Vikings squad who continues to be their personal bogeyman at times. 

The AFC is much more shaky. The Jacksonville Jaguars have some talent questions after a free-agent exodus, the defending AFC champion New England Patriots are in shambles after Week 1, the Houston Texans are limited at quarterback, the Denver Broncos are limited at quarterback and Burrow's Bengals haven't been able to get back to the playoffs the last three seasons. 

Outside of the Chiefs with a revived Mahomes and the Ravens with a reinvigorated Jackson alongside new coordinator Declan Doyle, the Bills have as great a shot as any to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LXI. They'll get closer to Super Bowl glory than the Lions do in 2026.