Buffalo Bills display unusual historical consistency in crucial defensive category

Since the game’s inception, there’s been a common belief throughout football circles that turnovers or takeaways are unsustainable. In other words, they’re fluky.

The Buffalo Bills, however, have proven that to be a fallacy.

Joey Bosa's forced fumble on Jets' quarterback Justin Fields helped the Bills win the turnover battle 1-0 during a 30-10 victory over the New York on Sunday, which helped Buffalo become the first team in NFL history to record as many or fewer turnovers than their opponent in 24 straight games, per ESPN’s Field Yates.

MORE: Thursday Night Football means Bills' Josh Allen, Joey Bosa already onto Dolphins

The last time Buffalo lost the turnover battle was Week 18 of the 2023 season, when Josh Allen turned the ball over three times against the Miami Dolphins. Buffalo still won that game 21-14.

Joey Bosa FF — Sep 14, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Buffalo Bills defensive end Joey Bosa (97) causes a fumble on New York Jets quarterback Justin Fields (7) | Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Not only has Bills’ offense’s remarkable ball security over that stretch led to that historic stat, but another factor has been the defense’s consistency in taking the ball away from opposing teams.

Per Joe Marino of Locked on Bills, for the past half-decade, Buffalo has ranked near the top of the league in percentage of drives against the Bills’ defense resulting in a defensive takeaway. Also, per Marino, in terms of total takeaways, the last 12 Sean McDermott defenses have ranked inside the top 10 in the league by that metric.

In 2024, 17.5 percent of drives against Buffalo’s ‘D’ resulted in a takeaway, which was the best mark in the league. The year before, the Bills were also tops in the NFL with 16% of drives against their defense ending in a turnover committed by the opposing offense. In the three years previously, Buffalo ranked fifth (14.3%) in 2022, seventh (14.5%) in 2021 and second (15.3%) in 2020.

The Bills are going to intercept Tua 100 times next week pic.twitter.com/DKUya3rQ7a
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) September 14, 2025

The Bills’ defense has recorded only two takeaways through two weeks, both fumbles committed by their opponent. While on the other side of the ball, the Bills’ offense has been clean as a whistle, having yet to turn the ball over through the team’s first two games of the season.

With a favorable schedule upcoming, history tells us Buffalo is set to increase that number on the defensive side of the ball. Also boding well for the Bills’ defense, it has a Week 3 Thursday night matchup with the Miami Dolphins, who have turned the ball over four times in two games, including three interceptions from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

You know what they say — turnovers and takeaways can come in bunches. And that could be the case in Bills-Dolphins this week.

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