The Buffalo Bills had a wide range of potential outcomes in terms of their playoff outlook from Week 13. If the Bills came away with a win against the New England Patriots they would be in first place in the AFC East and only behind the Tennessee Titans, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker, for the one seed in the conference.
However, the Bills were not able to come away with a win on a windy Monday night that saw them lose 14-10 and fall to 7-5 on the season. They have now gone 4-4 over their past eight games and barely holding onto a playoff spot.
Buffalo Bills currently own the final wild card spot
The NFL last year expanded the playoff field to seven teams in each conference and the Bills are thankful for that because they are still technically in the playoffs with the seventh seed. If the season were to end today, they would travel to Tennessee to face the Titans.
However, with a matchup against the Bucs on Sunday and the way they have been playing, there is a good chance they find themselves on the outside looking in by the end of the week.
The two teams currently behind the Bills in the playoff standings are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts, two teams that own the head-to-head tiebreaker after the Steelers beat the Bills in Week 1 and the Colts ran over the Bills three weeks ago.
The race in the AFC goes beyond just those two teams as there are nine teams with either six or seven wins that are fighting for three spots. The up and down play of the Buffalo Bills has now put them right in the thick of one of the more competitive playoff races in recent memory.