The Buffalo Bills were in sixth place in the AFC a week ago, but a loss to the division rival Miami Dolphins has allowed the AFC West to leap frog into playoff position.
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With the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos set to play tonight on Monday Night Football, the Bills are a half-game behind Denver and the Kansas City Chiefs for a Wild Card spot. If Denver loses tonight, they fall to 2-2 in the AFC and would still be ahead of Buffalo (1-3 in the AFC) on the conference record tiebreaker.
The AFC West is shaping up to be Buffalo’s greatest Wild Card competition. Denver and Kansas City still need to play each other twice and both have two games against the current two leading AFC squads remaining. Behind Buffalo, Baltimore is in the midst of a four-game losing streak while Cincinnati got back to their winning ways after a two-game slide.
Buffalo’s conference record is going to come into play at some point. They are going to need to stack conference wins against the AFC East and AFC North in their remaining games to put to bed a playoff spot.