The Buffalo Bills vs LA Rams this Thursday, September 8 at SoFi Stadium as the 2022 NFL season officially kicks off. Live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on NBC with Football Night in America.
The Buffalo Bills open the 2022 regular season in one of the NFL’s premier broadcast windows: The traditional Thursday night game where the defending Super Bowl champions get to play host to the league’s first game of the season.
This is the first time the Bills have played in this game, and what’s interesting is that while the Los Angeles Rams won the championship last year, Buffalo is the team that is favored to win it all in 2022, so the NFL really couldn’t have picked a better Week 1, Game 1 matchup.
How To Watch
Match: Buffalo Bills vs Los Angeles Rams
Date & Time: September 8 @ 8:20 PM (ET)
Venue: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California
TV Channel: NBC, CBS Sports, Fox Sports Network
Online Streaming: fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu, & Peacock (Try for free)
Watch in Canada: TSN, CTV & DAZN Canada (Try for free)
Team News
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills are expected to be back with a vengeance this season after falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in last year’s AFC Divisional Round–a game that changed the NFL’s approach to overtime playoff rules. Allen, who enters his fifth year as the Bills starting quarterback, has proved that he is a player that can consistently perform under pressure. In two playoff games last season, Allen completed 77.4% of his passes and did not have any turnovers, throwing 9 touchdowns and just 14 incompletions. In the last two seasons, Allen has posted the top-two marks in Bills franchise history in both passing yards and passing touchdowns (2020: 4,544 pass yds, 37 pass TD / 2021: 4,407 pass yds, 36 pass TD).
After signing Von Miller in free agency, and locking down Allen’s favorite target, WR Stefon Diggs, to a four-year extension worth $96 million, the Bills are already the overwhelming favorite to win the Super Bowl this season. Buffalo has reached the postseason in four of the past five years and aims to make its first Super Bowl appearance since 1993.
Los Angeles Rams: After winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the 1999 season when they played in St. Louis., Matthew Stafford and the LA Rams will look to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004. Despite dealing with an elbow injury that kept him limited for parts of training camp, Stafford, who signed a 4-year, $160 million extension with the Rams in March, is not expected to have any limitations heading into Thursday night’s game.
The veteran QB will be equipped once again with plenty of offensive weapons. WR Cooper Kupp, last year’s Super Bowl MVP and triple crown winner, signed a 3-year $80.1M extension in June. The Rams also signed former Bears WR Allen Robinson to a 3-year, $46.5 million deal in free agency. On defense, the Rams not only locked down DL Aaron Donald to a massive deal but they also signed LB Bobby Wagner to a 5-year, $50 million contract. Wagner is a six-time First-Team All-Pro selection and has been named to the Pro Bowl in each of the past eight seasons.
Prediction: The defending Super Bowl champion is 14-3 S/U in the NFL Kickoff Game. The Bills are “all-in” on a Super Bowl run, but the Rams are still more than talented enough to make a run at a repeat. The Rams are at home, and Matthew Stafford shakes off any doubts about a hangover season with a game-winning TD drive, complete with a TD pass to Cooper Kupp. Take the home underdog.
Pick: Rams 28, Bills 24