'That's the NFL': Bills' Jordan Poyer Downplays Prior Success vs. Patriots

The Buffalo Bills defender isn't interested in hearing about the team's January shutdown of the New England Patriots.

The NFL has long operated on the "Any Given Sunday" axiom. That's why Buffalo Bills defender Jordan Poyer seems to be urging anyone associated with the team completely forget one certain Saturday ... no matter how euphoric that evening against the New England Patriots may have been.

So much has happened on both the Western New York and New England football landscapes since the teams last met that it's hard to believe that the meeting in question wasn't even a full year ago. The teams will end the calendar year the same they began it: fighting for positioning on the path to the Super Bowl. 

Thursday (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video) will see the Bills and Patriots meet for the first time since Buffalo's 47-17 dismantling of the Flying Elvises in the opening round of the AFC playoffs. That game, whose already one-sided score was hardly indicative of Buffalo's dominance, will be an occasion long-remembered by Bills fans, offering a quantum of revenge against a Patriots team that relentlessly bullied them for nearly two decades en route to a nearly unstoppable run of championships. Since the New England ringleader, Tom Brady, removed himself from the proceedings, Buffalo has a 4-1 advantage in the long-standing AFC East rivalry that dates back to the days of the American Football League. 

All that work is naught for a good cause, according to Poyer.

"It's a totally new season, new year," Poyer said as the Bills prepared for their trip to Foxboro this week. "What's happened in the past doesn't matter. We know that they're going to be hungry, hungry to beat us, and we're going to have to play well to win."

The result of Thursday's game could well determine each team's current postseason path: entering Week 13 play, the Bills (8-3) own a two-game advantage in the AFC wild card picture over the Patriots (6-5), who would be the first team out if the postseason started this weekend. 

New England's road ahead gets no ahead easier for a team seeking offensive clarity and mostly getting by through defensive heroics, namely those of current NFL sack king Matthew Judon. Road trips to Arizona and Las Vegas will see them face off against desperate competition at the fringe of the playoff picture while their last home games come against the defending conference champion Cincinnati Bengals and the current AFC East leaders from Miami. To top it all off, New England will end the regular season in Buffalo on Jan. 7 or 8, a game that has an outside shot at determining the division champion.

Thus, Poyer knows that the Bills are in no position to hang their hats upon January's success.

"Obviously, (it's a) big division rival game this week," Poyer said. "We're excited to go on the road, (go to) New England. This is what NFL football is all about."

Thursday will mark the 126th all-time meeting between the two sides. New England leads 77-47-1. 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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