Buffalo Bills Playoff Picture: Moving On Up

The Buffalo Bills secured a win in Toronto for the first time and got a little help in the AFC playoff race to move up from the No. 6 spot where they resided after their bye week. Let's recap the matchups and how they affect Buffalo's playoff chances going forward.

After the Bills victory, the biggest game of the week featured the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots at Heinz Field. The Steelers nabbed the top seed in the AFC with a victory, but also knocked the Patriots to a first-place tie in the AFC East with Buffalo.

The other Sunday games of importance went against the Bills' playoff hopes. Baltimore, Houston, Tennessee, and Cincinnati all won. On Monday night, Kansas City beat San Diego and is now in the lead for the AFC West - a favorable development, since Buffalo already beat the Chiefs.

If the playoffs began today, Buffalo would be the two seed in the AFC and get a first-round bye.

1 seed - Pittsburgh (6-2)
2 seed - Buffalo (5-2)
3 seed - Houston (5-3)
4 seed - Kansas City (4-3)
5 seed - Cincinnati (5-2)
6 seed - New England (5-2: lose head-to-head tiebreaker with BUF; lose AFC tiebreaker to CIN, 4-2 to 4-1)

7 (OUT) - Baltimore (5-2: lose common game tiebreaker to CIN, 0-1 to 1-0 against JAC; lose AFC tiebreaker to NE, 4-2 to 3-2)
8 (OUT) Tennessee (4-3)
9 (OUT) - New York (4-3: lose AFC tiebreaker to TEN, 4-3 to 3-3)
10 (OUT) - San Diego (4-3: lose AFC tiebreaker to KC, 3-3 to 3-2; lose AFC tiebreaker to TEN, 4-3 to 3-3; lose head-to-head tiebreaker to NYJ)
11 (OUT) - Oakland (4-3: lose head-to-head tiebreaker to KC; lose AFC West tiebreaker to SD, 2-1 to 1-1)

Rest of AFC teams: Cleveland (3-4), Denver (2-5), Jacksonville (2-6), Miami (0-7), Indianapolis (0-8)

Be forewarned, Bills fans. A loss this week in a critical AFC East match-up could send the Bills tumbling amongst those three-loss teams.