After the Bills defeated the Chiefs in Week 6, many declared the AFC as Buffalo’s to lose. After all, they had gone through the “gauntlet” of their schedule already, beating the Rams, Titans and Ravens. Yes, they’d lost to the Dolphins in Week 3 — but who cares? The hard part was over.
Little did anyone know that the AFC East would be the best division in the NFL the first half of the season, and after back-to-back losses to the Jets and Vikings, the Bills would be sitting in the AFC’s 5th seed and scrapping with the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots for supremacy in the division.
The Bills have some important wins under their belt against AFC division leaders that will be important down the stretch. Their wins versus the Titans, Ravens and Chiefs are crucial head-to-head tiebreakers that could very well allow the Bills to leapfrog seeds if certain teams lose this weekend.
But first, the Bills need to take care of their own division where they are currently 0-2 with losses to the Dolphins and Jets. If the 7-3 Dolphins somehow lose this weekend to the Texans and the Bills beat the Lions, Buffalo will once again be atop the AFC East.
A Dolphins loss and Bills win would also move the Bills to the number two seed as they had those aforementioned head-to-head tiebreakers with the Titans (currently the three seed) and the Ravens (currently the four seed).
With a win Thanksgiving Day, the Bills also have an opportunity to obtain the number one AFC seed, but they’ll need two unlikely losses this Sunday. Since they have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Chiefs, a Kansas City loss to the Rams and a Dolphins loss will put the Bills back in the driver’s seat in the AFC.
Here is what Bills fans should be rooting for this weekend for AFC positioning:
Bills (5) to beat the Lions
Texans to beat the Dolphins (2)
Rams to beat the Chiefs (1)
Bengals (7) to beat the Titans (3)
Jaguars to beat the Ravens (4)
Vikings to beat the Patriots (6)
Bears to beat the Jets (8)