A strange 2025 NFL season is nearing its end, with everyone eyeing the Buffalo Bills in the AFC as the team without many remaining excuses. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are officially out of the postseason race, as are Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. The roadblocks that have persisted in Buffalo’s path back to the Super Bowl are no more.
Of course, new roadblocks have formed. The Bills aren’t playing a brand of football that inspires confidence that they can waltz through a reshaped AFC field unscathed. After all, they went into halftime in each of their past three games down, only to will themselves to victory in the end.
Still, the latest comeback victory didn’t move the needle on Buffalo’s playoff positioning. They’re still the 5-seed, and short of a total New England collapse, that’s likely where they’ll be when the postseason begins. That means Buffalo, for all of the past threats that won’t be there to slow them down this season, they’ll still have to emerge from the playoffs through tough road environments.
Adam Schefter explains why Buffalo Bills just passed their biggest test ahead of NFL Playoffs
That said, the Bills' latest win might be why the team can carry some confidence into the postseason. ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter pointed out that the Bills just did exactly what will be asked of them in the playoffs.
Schefter and the crew on Get Up on Monday morning were discussing the Bills' otherwise favorable path to Super Bowl LX, where the biggest change beyond the different faces at quarterback is that Buffalo will likely have to run through the postseason entirely on the road.
“But they did it on the road yesterday, and they did it on the road yesterday against the quarterback that might pose the biggest threat to them in the postseason, Drake Maye,” Schefter said.
Without Mahomes and Burrow, and possibly Lamar Jackson, in the postseason field, the talent at the quarterback position in the AFC playoff bracket really plummets after Allen, at least when it comes to proven ability in the postseason. And as Schefter and many analysts are coming to realize, whoever may walk away with the MVP award this season is irrelevant compared to the nature of how Allen is keeping the Bills afloat this December.
To Schefter’s point, Allen and the Bills just beat Maye and the Patriots on their field, where New England stood to gain more with a victory than Buffalo had to lose. They did the same thing against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago, which is the team currently positioned to host Buffalo in the Wild Card round.
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The stars aren’t exactly aligning for Buffalo. The run defense is highly suspect, and the downfield passing game is not reliable. The slow starts are not always so easily undone, either.
But, in Sunday’s win, the Bills showed why they are still a threat to capitalize on this postseason despite some of their shortcomings. They can win in the toughest environments with everything stacked against them, and that begins and ends with Allen.