The Buffalo Bills won their first nine games, before Boston beat them at home on November 15, 36–28. Buffalo came back from a 24–14 deficit at San Diego on Thanksgiving Day to eke out a 27–24 win. On December 6 at Oakland, the Raiders beat the Bills on the final play of the game, 16–13, and did not try for an extra point. Boston won at Kansas City, 31–24, to take Buffalo's lead away. In Week Fourteen, Boston was idle, and Buffalo took a 1/2 game lead with a 30–19 win at Denver. As it turned out, the Eastern Division title would come down to the final game of the season, with Buffalo (11–2–0) traveling to Boston (10–2–1) on December 20, with the winner to take all. Jack Kemp led the Bills to three touchdowns for a 24–14 win to capture the title. The Western Division race was less dramatic. In Week Six, the Chargers took a lead over the Chiefs during a six-game winning streak, and held that lead for the rest of the season. The Buffalo Bills defeated the San Diego Chargers by a score of 20 to 7 for their first league championship; combined
with the next season, they are the only two championships to have ever been won by a major league team based in the city of Buffalo. One of the game's most iconic plays was one known as the "hit heard 'round the world," when Bills linebacker Mike Stratton laid a particularly hard hit on Chargers wide receiver Keith Lincoln that injured Lincoln and forced him out of the game.