What a difference 6 days makes, huh? On Tuesday October 13th the Bills awoke as the leaders in the AFC, holding the top spot in the conference. By the time they went to bed on Monday October 19th they found themselves a long way from the top. Sure, they are still leading the AFC East, but losing to the now 5-0 Titans and 5-1 Chiefs in consecutive weeks makes the Bills path to a top 2 seed in the AFC very, very difficult. Due to tiebreakers the Bills find themselves 3 games behind the Titans and 2 games behind the Chiefs, even though the standings say they are only 2 games behind and 1 game behind, respectively. The goal every year starts with winning the division, and while the Bills still have an excellent chance to do that. The secondary goal was to be considered a top team in the conference, both mentally and in the standings, and that took a big hit over these last 6 days.
First, a look at the standings:
1. Pittsburgh 5-0
2. Tennessee 5-0
3. Kansas City 5-1
4. Buffalo 4-2
5. Baltimore 5-1
6. Cleveland 4-2
7. Indianapolis 4-2
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8. Las Vegas 3-2
9. Miami 3-3
Like I mentioned before, it will be tough for the Bills to get back into the top 2 seeds in this conference. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself but if I had to bet on it I would think we end up seeing the Bills hang on to that 4 seed and host a 5 seed (that probably has a better record than them) in the Wild Card round. The Bills have a great opportunity to reset their season this week against the worst team in the league and get some momentum going into a home game against the Patriots next week.
Important Week 7 games:
Buffalo @ NY Jets
If the Bills lose this game I would suggest logging off of all social media accounts for the foreseeable future. I expect the Bills and Josh Allen to rebound in this game and show us the offensive performance that we grew accustomed to during the first quarter of the season.
Pittsburgh @ Tennessee
Many will view this as a toss up, but I will attempt to make a case for the Titans in this one. In this scenario I am going to assume that the Bills will not catch the Titans in the standings as they are 3 games (because of the tiebreak) behind them. The Bills will play the Steelers in Week 14 and will be able to get the tiebreak advantage on them at that time. Because of that head-to-head matchup, there is a higher chance that the Bills will eventually pass the Steelers in the standings than the Titans, so starting to pile up some Steelers losses soon would benefit the Bills.
Kansas City @ Denver
Let’s hope the Broncos can pull two upsets in a row and knock off the Chiefs at home. A Chiefs loss, paired with a Bills win, would get them both to 5-2 but Kansas City would still be ahead due to the result of Monday night’s game.
San Francisco @ New England
The Patriots are dangerously close to having their season fall off the tracks. A loss would send them to 2-4 as they head to Buffalo for what one might consider a game for the AFC East. The Bills at 6-2 and the Patriots at 2-5 would seem like the world has turned upside down, and it is very possible that is what we could be looking at after the game in two weeks. The Dolphins have played well but I still think the Bills number one threat in the division is the Patriots and loss in this one would buy the Bills a little leeway should they lose to the Patriots next week. Root hard for the 49ers in this one.
There they are! Not too many games with implications, but the few that there are are pretty big ones. None are bigger than the Bills getting back on track against the Jets. That alone should make it a good day, but it is not too early to start thinking about possible playoff matchups and seedings as we approach the midway point of the season.
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