Buffalo Bills: Playoffs is no longer a foregone conclusion after Week 11
For most of the offseason and into the first half of the regular season, it seemed like the playoffs were a certainty for the Buffalo Bills. They had a team that had brought back almost their entire roster from a year ago and this was a group that made the AFC Championship Game and came within one game of the Super Bowl.
It seemed that it wasn’t so much a question about if the Bills would make the playoffs but if they could earn one of the top seeds. One of the reasons was the competition in the AFC East with the New England Patriots, New York Jets, and Miami Dolphins, and none of those teams looked like much competition early in the season.
However, in the past few weeks, that has all changed and it is no longer possible to just assume that the Bills will be making the postseason for the third straight year.
Buffalo Bills heading in the wrong direction while the Patriots make a push
The Buffalo Bills have now suffered two really bad losses in the past three weeks. In Week 9, the Bills lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team who had one win prior to that game, by a final score of 9-6. They were able to regroup the following week and played well against the New York Jets that helped file the Jaguars’ loss away as just a bad week.
However, on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, the Buffalo Bills once again struggled and looked nothing like a playoff team. The Bills are now 2-3 in their past five games and find themselves with the same number of losses as the New England Patriots but looking up at their division rival with the Patriots having a higher winning percentage since they have not had their bye yet.
Report card for the Buffalo Bills in Week 11. light. Must Read
The Buffalo Bills are still 6-4 on the season but have a tough stretch of games ahead of them with the Saints on Thanksgiving, followed by the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, and then a road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They can still control their own destiny but the road to the playoffs has gotten much harder, and that is only if they are able to play better down the stretch.