The Buffalo Bills made it all the way into sixth place in the AFC two weeks ago, and while consecutive losses have dampened the playoff push, they haven’t fallen very far in the rankings. Buffalo sits at eighth in the conference, 1.5 games out of the sixth and final playoff spot.
After losing to the New England Patriots (7-1) on Sunday, the Bills are three games behind in the AFC East race and Tom Brady’s team doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Barring a catastrophic injury, they’ll sew up the division around the end of November.
In the wild card race, the AFC West is the biggest challenger, with Oakland (6-2) and Denver (6-2) tied for the division lead and Kansas City (5-2) not far behind. The Chiefs are in sixth place in the conference standings.
Ahead of Buffalo in the Wild Card race are the Tennessee Titans. For real. They are 4-4 like Buffalo but own a superior 3-3 record in the conference. Buffalo’s 1-4 record against the AFC is going to cost them in most tiebreaker scenarios.
Nipping at Buffalo’s heels are the 3-4-1 Bengals. The 3-4 Dolphins and Ravens both have head-to-head victories over Buffalo and aren’t far behind, either.
If Buffalo is going to make the playoffs, they need to win all five of their games against teams with losing records and pull out wins against two of the teams with winning records, preferably the ones in the AFC to boost conference record. That means Buffalo is going to need to go on a winning streak with little room for error down the stretch.
- Patriots (7-1), AFC East leader
- Raiders (6-2), AFC West leader
- Texans (5-3), AFC South leader
- Steelers (4-3), AFC North leader
- Broncos (6-2), Wild Card 1
- Chiefs (5-2), Wild Card 2
- Titans (4-4)
- Bills (4-4)
- Bengals (3-4-1)
- Ravens (3-4)
- Dolphins (3-4)
- Chargers (3-5)
- Jets (3-5)
- Colts (3-5)
- Jaguars (2-5)
- Browns (0-8)