It’s become a cliche that late regular-season NFL meetings between contenders are “playoff games.”
Sometimes it’s true … sometimes not.
But come Monday night at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium, that’s exactly what’s going to unfold.
The Bills, 12-3, currently own the AFC’s top seed over Kansas City, with the same record, but which lost to Buffalo, head-to-head. The Bengals, 11-4, are the conference’s third seed, but with a win over the Bills Monday night, both teams would be 12-4 but Cincinnati would have the advantage of a head-to-head win. The Bengals would move up to the No. 2 seed dropping Buffalo to third, presuming Kansas City beats Denver Sunday afternoon to assume the No. 1 spot.
And, with only one more week left, the Chiefs, presumably 13-3 after Sunday, have the easiest finale, at Las Vegas (6-9), while the Bengals host the Ravens (10-5) and the Bills entertain New England (7-8).
But the reality for Buffalo is, a loss Monday night virtually dashes the dream of the conference’s top seed and the AFC’s only first-round bye. The Bills could lose the conference’s No.1 seed to either Kansas City or Cincinnati and, as a third seed, would get a much less favorable playoff draw, albeit at home.
In short, the very reason Buffalo acquired Von Miller, Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, DaQuan Jones, Jamison Crowder, Tim Settle and Rodger Saffold during the off-season is on the line Monday night. Their job was to help the Bills over the hump to the conference’s top seed and that coveted bye.
EARLIER THIS WEEK, Buffalo coach Sean McDermott admitted, “This is what you work so hard for throughout the body of the season … to come down to the stretch here and play these games.”
He added, “We’ve got a lot of respect for the Bengals, the defending AFC champions who obviously represented (the conference) in the Super Bowl and came within a whisker of winning that game. It’s a good opponent and they’ve won seven straight.”
For the Bills, it’s the team-record sixth prime-time game this season, but this time Buffalo got a break.
Unable to fly home after last Saturday’s win at Chicago, the team stayed over and flew into Rochester Christmas Day, then bussed back to the Buffalo area. However, playing Monday night, the team got back its lost day of preparation.
But it didn’t seem to bother many of the players anyway.
“For me every game feels the same,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “I don’t feel any different for Monday night as the Sunday 1 p.m. slot. That’s personal from me. Obviously, Monday (night) the day is longer because you don’t have any games to watch … but it’s still the same game, the same (field) dimensions, the same amount of time (game-length wise).”
He added, “At this time (of year), it’s not how you win, it’s if you win. I’ve said the last two weeks that every game from here on out is a one-game season and we’ve got to figure out how to win it … no matter what it looks like. As long as we have more points than the opposing team, we’ve done our job.”
Allen concluded of the quest for the top conference seed, “That’s in the back of our mind and we’re just taking it one game at a time and trying to control what we can control against a really hot Bengals team that is playing really good football.
“It’s one of the four goals that coach McDermott sets out for us every year … make the playoffs, win the division, secure home field by getting the No.1 seed and, obviously, winning the Super Bowl … that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
And the season’s biggest test comes Monday night.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
