Buffalo Bills playoff rooting interests, Week 13

The Buffalo Bills enter December tied with the Baltimore Ravens for a playoff spot but a date against the New England Patriots looming. With important match-ups all over the AFC schedule, Buffalo doesn’t get any breaks in any other NFL town today. Frankly, we are rooting for a lot of underdogs this Sunday. I guess we’re used to it.

Here are the complete rooting interests for Bills fans:

Buffalo Bills (6-5) over New England Patriots (9-2)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Buffalo probably needs to get to ten wins to guarantee a playoff spot. That means taking care of business against the Colts and Dolphins twice and stealing one from the Patriots. It could be an important win at home or a win where the Patriots are resting their starters in Week 16. We’d prefer it comes this week.

Detroit Lions over Baltimore Ravens (6-5)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Baltimore keeps Buffalo out of the playoff position based on a superior AFC record. This game won’t help it but the 6-5 Lions have a legitimate shot to knock off the Ravens. Boy would that be a big help for Buffalo.

Houston Texans (4-7) over Tennessee Titans (7-4)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

It would be really nice if one of the AFC South teams could falter and open up another Wild Card spot for competition. The Texans haven’t been playing poorly since losing DeShaun Watson, they just haven’t been winning a lot.

Indianapolis Colts (3-8) over Jacksonville Jaguars (8-3)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m.

Same deal as the Titans above, only the Jaguars are two games up on Buffalo. Especially since the Jaguars and Titans play in Week 17, we need them to stay within a game of each other to make that contest important.

Cleveland Browns (0-11) over Los Angeles Chargers (5-6)
Sunday, December 3, 4:05 p.m. Eastern

Not sure there is much hope here. The Chargers are hot and back in the playoff race plus they had an extra few days to prepare. Buffalo loses a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Chargers so they need to lose a game or two coming down the stretch.

Pittsburgh Steelers (9-2) over Cincinnati Bengals (5-6)
Monday, December 4, 8:30 p.m. Eastern

It would not be great if the Bengals sneak back into the playoff picture given their tie-breaking win over the Bills. This feels like a game the Steelers should have.

New York Jets (4-7) over Kansas City Chiefs (6-5)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

If Los Angeles does make a charge (ahem), the Chiefs would be the ones falling back into the Wild Card race. Buffalo owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over them right now but if there are three or four teams involved, that won’t necessarily matter.

New York Giants over Oakland Raiders (5-6)
Sunday, December 3, 4:05 p.m. Eastern

A game back and a down a tiebreaker to Buffalo, the Raiders aren’t really a threat. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty.

Denver Broncos (3-8) over Miami Dolphins (4-7)
Sunday, December 3, 1:00 p.m. Eastern

This one really won’t matter. Buffalo needs to beat Miami to make the postseason and that will eliminate Miami in the process.

Atlanta Falcons over Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Green Bay Packers

Buffalo beat both the Falcons and Bucs so this helps Strength of Victory, though that’s not likely to come into play.

Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys
San Francisco 49ers vs. Chicago Bears
L.A. Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers vs. New Orleans Saints
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Seattle Seahawks

Without knowing who Buffalo is going to be tied with in a hypothetical scenario, it’s impossible to have a sense of here the playoff implications are.

If all these games go according to plan, a 7-5 Buffalo team would double their probability to a 74% chance of making the postseason heading into another home game against a low-quality AFC opponent.