Bills search for silver lining in playoff hunt, power rankings ahead of Chiefs showdown
Anyone watching the game caught glimpses of actor Bradley Cooper cheering on the Eagles as they found a way to beat the Buffalo Bills.
Arguably, one Cooper's greatest movies is the 2012 "Silver Linings Playbook," where he plays Pat Solitano, a teacher who forced to move back in with his parents as a struggles to overcome his mental illness and rebuild his life.
That film's speaks to the strength and vulnerability of people, Sarah Kirk wrote in a 2021 analysis for Medium.
"Everyone in the world has problems, in those dark times, there is a brighter side to things or as the saying goes, a silver lining," Kirk said.
Cooper and his movie are segue to the Buffalo Bills and the NFL's Week 14 Coming off their bye week, the Bills playoffs chances are slightly brighter thanks to fact that the teams ahead of them in the wild-card race are struggling too.
The boys in red, white and blue now have a 15% shot at making the playoffs, according to the New York Times playoff simulator.
That's the Bills' silver lining: Despite everything that has gone wrong this season, if they win the next two games they are right back in it.
Here is how the Bills and the Chiefs match up in this week's various NFL power rankings.
USA Today
Bills ranking: 9 (⬆ two spots)
Chiefs ranking: 5 (⬇ two spots)
Bills: From a football standpoint — which isn't the important one in this context — the likely loss of OLB Von Miller shouldn't hurt all that much given his utter lack of production (3 pressures, no sacks) coming off ACL reconstruction.
Chiefs: Concerning trends? The next loss will tie for their most in the regular season since QB Patrick Mahomes became the starter in 2018. This is the first time that the defense has outranked the offense since 2015. And Sunday was K.C.'s first loss with Taylor Swift in attendance. Panic. Button.
NFL.com
Bills ranking: 12 (no change)
Chiefs ranking: 6 (⬇ two spots)
Bills: The Bills emerge from the bye still in the race but facing what could be two existential battles against playoff-caliber teams. First, they have to go to Kansas City and face the Chiefs, followed by a home game against the Cowboys. Two losses probably would sink Buffalo in a tight AFC field. Two wins would be a season-changer. A split likely extends the drama, but it doesn’t change the heavy lifting still required to get in. It’s too bad we’re at this point, because Josh Allen was the kind of player against the Eagles that we’ve been waiting for him to be. That’s the Allen the Bills need down the stretch. The Bills’ defense doesn't appear to be the lockdown group it had been recently, and that’s another reason to wonder if this miracle playoff run can even happen in the first place.
Chiefs: You can gripe about officiating — it's your afforded right! — but for uncomfortably long stretches Sunday night, Patrick Mahomes was throwing some funny-looking passes, and the defense was getting worked over. That's a few games now where Steve Spagnuolo's unit has put Kansas City in a two-score hole early and asked a struggling offense to bail the team out. It worked against the Raiders, but not against the Packers. In the past, this wasn't such a big worry, but now it is. I was surprised the Chiefs didn't run the ball more Sunday night. They averaged 6.3 yards per carry in the first half and 5.7 in the second. Isiah Pacheco was the best K.C. performer on a night when Mahomes was off and Travis Kelce (four receptions) was the only Chief able to catch a pass longer than 16 yards. Does Mahomes need to be nearly flawless for Kansas City to have a shot in the playoffs? It sort of feels that way.
CBS sports
Bills ranking: 10 (⬆ two spots)
Chiefs ranking: 6 (⬇ 3 spots)
Bills: They come off their bye with a big game at Kansas City against the Chiefs. They have to win that one or the game next week against the Cowboys to have a playoff shot.
Chiefs: They aren't the same offense we've come to expect, which shows up weekly. They are now out of the top seed in the conference.
Pro Football Talk
Bills ranking: 11 (⬆ three spots)
Chiefs ranking: 7 (⬇ three spots)
Bills: They come off their bye with a big game at Kansas City against the Chiefs. They have to win that one or the game next week against the Cowboys to have a playoff shot.
Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes might finally play a road playoff game.
Sports Illustrated
Bills ranking: 13 (no change)
Chiefs ranking: 5 (⬇ two spots)
Bills: Off the bye week, trying to stave off what has been an oncoming emotional whirlwind years in the making, the Bills get a nice trip down memory lane by taking on the Chiefs at Arrowhead in the big afternoon game this weekend. In what is effectively a playoff game for the battered Bills, we’ll see what a difference some rest makes.
Chiefs: I greatly enjoyed the pass interference no-call at the end of this game, if only because it sums up what we discussed above so well: the NFL can’t even legislate the big games and the big moments. Here’s a player chokeholding another receiver and jumping on his back and not drawing a flag. What are we doing here?
Touchdown Wire
Bills ranking: 10 (no change)
Chiefs ranking: 3 (⬇ one spot)
Bills: The Bills’ next two games are against the Chiefs and Cowboys — their season is on the line.
Chiefs: That’s two losses in three games for the Chiefs, who will head back home to host a Buffalo Bills team who needs a win more than Steve Austin needed to beat The Rock at WrestleMania.
33rd Team
Bills ranking: 10 (no change)
Chiefs ranking: 7 (⬇ four spots)
Bills: Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills are the most dangerous 6-6 team in recent memory. They have little margin for error if they are going to make the playoffs. What’s worse, is they have to get through the Chiefs, Cowboys and Dolphins in their next five games. That’s a tall task, but Buffalo has the raw materials to go 4-1 or better down the stretch.
Chiefs: That was a bad loss in Green Bay last week. Not only did the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense continue to struggle, but their defense underachieved in both phases. The Chiefs have lost three of their past five games, and they next host desperate Buffalo. Even if Kansas City loses to the Bills, it is well-positioned to finish the season with a 12-5 record. That will likely send the Chiefs back up these rankings. But for now, they need to do more to return to the top five.
Pro Football Network
Bills ranking: 10 (⬆ three spots)
Chiefs ranking: 5 (⬇ three spots)
Bills: The Bills defense has suffered a horrific rash of injuries this season, but Josh Allen is still mostly playing at a heroic level, keeping the team afloat. However, with the Chiefs, Cowboys, and Dolphins remaining on the schedule, he’ll have to strap the roster on his back and carry them to the playoffs.
Chiefs: The Chiefs are currently sixth in offensive EPA and fifth in defensive EPA. They’re 8-4, but they’ve felt underwhelming in 2023 despite remaining one of the best teams in the NFL. It’s funny to see how different the narrative is when their offensive is otherworldly, but their defense is league-average or worse. Now, they appear to have one of the best defenses in the NFL. They have impressive young talent at cornerback, outstanding linebacker play, and one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.
The Sporting News
Bills ranking: 16 (⬇ three spots)
Chiefs ranking: 6 (⬇ three spots)
Bills: The Bills are quickly losing their margin of error to earn an AFC wild-card berth, but the good news is none of the other AFC wild-card contenders in front of them are running away with the race. The idea is to clean up a lot of mistakes from Josh Allen and breakdowns from the defense in the final five games.
Chiefs: The Chiefs' offense is now morphing into a reliable rushing team with consistent major questions about downfield passing when not working to the tight ends or the slot. Patrick Mahomes is doing his best but some of his receivers and offensive linemen have been letdowns. Kansas City cannot expect its defense to come through in every game.
Yahoo! Sports
Bills ranking: 8 (⬆ two spots)
Chiefs ranking: 7 (⬇ four spots)
Bills: The Bills are still 10th in the AFC standings and they have tough games left. But the good news is other AFC playoff hopefuls keep losing. The Bills are just one game behind the top wild-card contenders. There's a lot of work to do, but it's not too late for the Bills to make a run.
Chiefs: Amazingly enough, the Chiefs have played 16 playoff games since their last true road playoff game, which was at the end of the 2015 season. Maybe that changes this postseason. Kansas City's shot at the No. 1 seed took a big hit with the loss to the Packers. The Chiefs have the worst record among the AFC division leaders with five games to go. They're practically a lock to win the AFC West and get one home game, but the rest of their playoff path might come on the road.
FOX Sports
Bills ranking: 9 (⬆ one spot)
Chiefs ranking: 7 (⬇ three spots)
Bills: What a fascinating stretch this is going to be for the Bills. They'll play back-to-back games against the Chiefs and Cowboys. Those could re-announce them as a contender or sink their season.
Chiefs: The Packers are surging, but Kansas City still shouldn't be losing games to a .500 team. The Chiefs' offensive issues are real, regardless of whether they want to blame officiating. Will they be real enough to waste the best defense to ever complement Patrick Mahomes? We'll see in early 2024.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs. Chiefs: Playoff chances factor into Week 14 power rankings
