The 2011 Buffalo Bills season is the team's 42nd season in the National Football League and the 52nd overall. The Bills hope to improve on their record from the 2010 season, and attempt to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999, the longest standing playoff drought in the NFL, which is tied with the Detroit Lions. Buffalo plays in the Eastern division of the American Football Conference (AFC). Incidentally, Buffalo's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals the following week was the Bills' first loss to Cincinnati since the 1988 AFC Championship game. __TOC__