The Bills can now focus on the playoffs
The Bills entered Saturday’s game with a chance to still win the AFC East crown, but it was a longshot at best. Still, the Bills were going to do all the can to give themselves a shot to steal the division title with some help in Week 17. With the loss, that shot is now gone.
That means the Bills can turn all their attention to the AFC playoffs. The Bills are in and will be the No. 5 seed no matter what happens in the Week 17 games. The Bills’ most likely opponent is the AFC South-champion Houston Texans.
For this coming Sunday, the Bills can tune up for a potential trip to Houston by resting their starters in the regular season finale against the New York Jets. The Bills haven’t had a chance to do something like this since their Week 17 finale against the Indianapolis Colts in 1999. That, of course, was the famous game that caused Ralph Wilson to demand Wade Phillips start Rob Johnson in the playoff game in Tennessee (allegedly).
We likely won’t see anything crazy like that from the 2019 Bills, but it is likely we see Matt Barkley and other second stringers in the starting lineup against the Jets. We don’t know exactly yet what Sean McDermott’s philosophy is on playing starters in a meaningless game, but we’re about to find out. You’d have to think he wouldn’t want to risk his best players in a game with nothing on the line.
Sunday’s finale will likely be a glorified preseason game for the Bills. The most important thing is to keep the team healthy for their flight to whichever AFC city they will be heading to. You can bet Mitch Morse, who was injured and hobbled off the field on Buffalo’s final drive Saturday, will not play. You’ll probably see much more Frank Gore than you did on Saturday. Gore did not have a carry against the Patriots.
Forcing the Patriots to play for the division in Week 17 would have been fun, but the Bills have the big prize in front of them now as they look to win a game in the postseason for the first time since 1995. All eyes are on that prize now for the Bills.
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