No long stretches for Buffalo Bills in 2020

The Buffalo Bills’ schedule release for 2020 has made most headlines due to the number of prime-time games Buffalo was awarded out of the gate. An under-publicized aspect of the schedule is the stretches, or lack of, for both home and away games.

In what at first glance feels unusual, the Bills have no stretches of more than two games in a row either on the road or at home.

The Bills will be on the road back-to-back weeks in October going from the Las Vegas Raiders to the Tennessee Titans in Weeks 4 and 5 respectively. In early November, the Bills get a mini home stretch where the Brady-less New England Patriots followed by the Seattle Seahawks both come to New Era Field in consecutive weeks. Lastly, the Bills close out December with back-to-back road games at the Denver Broncos followed by going to Foxborough to play the Patriots on Monday Night Football.

Home and away stretches are often a double-edged sword where it can be hard to get back on track if a team hits a rough spot without the crowd energy behind the players for weeks in a row. At the same time, getting multiple home games in a row can give the Bills that 12th man element multiple games in a row if a streak is building.

In any case, this year it will be interesting to see how this materializes or matters, especially if stadiums are empty or nearly empty.