The Buffalo Bills were able to tighten things up some in the AFC playoff race Thursday night thanks to their 22-17 road win over the New York Jets.
The Bills are now 5-4 on the season through nine games with Thursday’s win and they have now jumped both the Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC playoff race as they are now fifth-overall after entering Thursday night as the No. 7 seed. While the Bills, Jets and Steelers currently have the same records, the Bills not only own the head-to-head tiebreakers over the Jets, they also have the better conference record of the three teams.
While they are currently the No.7 seed entering the weekend, the Steelers can enter their bye week as the No. 5 seed if they beat the 2-7 Cleveland Browns at home on Sunday. They might have to accomplish that task without the services of starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, however, as he was limited in practice Thursday due to a foot injury that he suffered in the team’s Week 9 win over the Oakland Raiders. Currently, backup Landry Jones is expected to make his second career start at Heinz Field.
While the Bills did manage to beat the Jets Thursday night, they have a couple of tough games upcoming on their schedule. Next up for them will be the New England Patriots in Week 11 and in Week 12 they’ll have to play the Kansas City Chiefs. Both of those games are on the road.
As for the 5-4 Jets, they’ll play the Houston Texans in Week 11 and the Miami Dolphins in Week 12.
