Book it: New England Patriots versus Buffalo Bills, Round 3.
The AFC East rivals officially will square off in the wild card round of the 2021 NFL playoffs, with the Patriots visiting the division champion Bills next Saturday night at 8:15 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
With their 33-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the 10-7 Patriots will enter the postseason as the No. 6 seed in the AFC. The 11-6 Bills are the No. 3 seed.
New England won at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium in Week 13, prevailing 14-10 in a windswept matchup that featured just three Patriots pass attempts. The Patriots wore down the Bills’ defense with a punishing ground-based attack, racking up 222 rushing yards on 46 carries.
The Bills took the rematch three weeks later, getting a near-perfect game from quarterback Josh Allen in a 33-21 victory at Gillette Stadium. Patriots counterpart Mac Jones led a late comeback bid that cut Buffalo’s lead to five with less than eight minutes remaining, but New England’s defense couldn’t stop Allen and Co., who reached the red zone on all seven of their non-kneeldown possessions.
The early forecast for Saturday night calls for temperatures in the low 20s and high teens in Orchard Park, N.Y., with 5 to 10 mph winds and a 40% chance of snow.
This will be the Patriots’ first playoff game against a divisional opponent since they lost to the New York Jets in the 2010 divisional round, and their first against the Bills since 1963, when they still were known as the Boston Patriots. It also is the first time the Patriots have gone on the road in the first round of the playoffs since the 1998 season, when backup Scott Zolak quarterbacked them to a 25-10 loss at Jacksonville.
The Patriots-Bills matchup was not finalized until the Las Vegas Raiders defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 35-32 in overtime in a purely insane game on “Sunday Night Football.” Had the Chargers — who rallied from 15 points in the final five minutes to force OT — pulled out a win, or if the game had finished in a tie, the Patriots would have visited the Cincinnati Bengals on wild card weekend.
Here is the full NFL playoff schedule:
SATURDAY
4:30 p.m. ET: No. 5 Las Vegas Raiders at No. 4 Cincinnati Bengals (NBC, Peacock, Universo)
8:15 p.m. ET: No. 6 New England Patriots at No. 3 Buffalo Bills (CBS, Paramount+)
SUNDAY
1:00 p.m. ET: No. 7 Philadelphia Eagles at No. 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (FOX, FOX Deportes)
4:30 p.m. ET: No. 6 San Francisco 49ers at No. 3 Dallas Cowboys (CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video)
8:15 p.m. ET: No. 7 Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 2 Kansas City Chiefs (NBC, Peacock, Telemundo)
MONDAY
8:15 p.m. ET: No. 5 Arizona Cardinals at No. 4 Los Angeles Rams (ESPN/ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes)
The Tennessee Titans (AFC) and Green Bay Packers (NFC) finished as No. 1 seeds and earned byes to the divisional round.
