The Bills survived a close (and highly important) game on Saturday night, squeezing past the Chargers with a narrow, 24-22 victory that came down to the final drive.
The game mirrored the Bills’ Week 10 loss to the Broncos, with turnovers persistently hurting Sean McDermott’s team, but this time, they were able to escape with the win.
The victory keeps Buffalo in control of its playoff fate, but it also makes an AFC East crown still very much attainable.
Here’s what to know about how the Bills’ latest victory affects the divisional standings heading down the final stretch of the season.
AFC East standings
The Bills remain second in the AFC East standings with the Dolphins sitting atop the division with an overall record of 10-4. Still, the path to winning the division is very much alive for Buffalo.
Rank Team Record 1 Dolphins 10-4 2 Bills 9-6 3 Jets 5-9 4 Patriots 3-11
MORE: Dolphins’ record against winning teams brings into question status as AFC contender
How a Bills win over the Chargers impacts the AFC East
With the win on Saturday night, the Bills’ path to an AFC East title is clear. Buffalo needs to beat the Patriots in Week 17, hope the Dolphins lose one of their next two games, and then beat the Dolphins in Week 18. Because Miami faces the Cowboys and Ravens in back-to-back weeks, that scenario is absolutely realistic.
The wild-card race is also something the Bills are right in the middle of at the moment.
If the Texans, Colts or both lose Sunday, the Bills will remain in position for the playoffs with just two games left. Saturday’s victory was a big one, allowing the Bills to maintain some life in what at one point looked like a season to forget.
The Bills are set to move into Week 17 as the No. 6 seed in the AFC technically, though several other teams will obviously play on Sunday. That will undoubtedly have an effect.
The Bills previously held an 8-6 record, which puts them in a four-way tie for the No. 6 seed in the conference.
Buffalo still trails in a pair of tiebreaker categories. They fell to the Bengals, who owned the No. 6 seed most recently, while they have a worse record against conference opponents (4-5) than both the Colts (6-4) and Texans (5-4).
That will put the Bills at a disadvantage as long as a logjam of teams retain the same record. But breaking out of the four-way tie is not out of the realm of possibility. They will be assured of a playoff spot if they win the rest of their slate of games, as the Colts and Texans go head to head against one another in Week 18.
If the Bills are triumphant in their final two games, one of the opponents ahead of them could take a fall and allow Buffalo to edge its way into the postseason.