The Buffalo Bills saw their Super Bowl dreams end as the Houston Texans beat them. However, Bills fans can know that the New England Patriots won't catch them in one specific way.
Matt Zemek reported that the impressive feat of making four straight Super Bowls stays with the Bills.
The Bills hold the incredible record of making four straight Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993. Unfortunately, none of those incredible runs resulted in a ring as they all narrowly lost their games. It was a bizarre and regretful development for the Bills. They weren't able to give Bills legend and Hall of Fame QB Jim Kelly the Super Bowl he definitely deserved.
The Patriots were almost able to match the Bills for that four-straight-Super-Bowl record if they had managed to play the way they did over the past couple of years. However, this year saw the indomitable Patriots dynasty struggle. Tom Brady and the rest of the offense were unable to measure up as they fell short to the Tennessee Titans.
Besides the Patriots, only one other team has gotten close to matching the record of the Bills, and that was the Miami Dolphins of the 1970s. From 1971 to 1973, the Dolphins managed to get to three straight Super Bowls thanks to the leadership of Don Shula. Unfortunately, they missed out on a fourth straight Super Bowl in 1974 when they lost to the Oakland Raiders in the divisional round.
With the Patriots most likely rebuilding after this season and no clear juggernaut to take their place, it's unlikely that the Bills' record will be matched anytime soon. They can then focus on retooling their roster to try and complete the feat once more.
In the meantime, however, the Bills and their fans can know that on a day when their team lost a heartbreaker in the playoffs, they still won something: an enduring place atop the NFL leaderboard in consecutive Super Bowls reached. The Patriots didn't catch them.
Next year, Buffalo fans hope their team can dethrone the AFC East champions and begin a new era.