Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Perhaps it's appropriate in, what has been, a topsy-turvy 2023 season for the Buffalo Bills that the final weekend of the regular season might see the team clinch a fourth-straight AFC East title and earn the 2-seed in the AFC Playoffs.
It might also find the Bills with 17 other teams watching the playoffs on TV, and wishing they were still playing.
For the first time since the miraculous ending of the drought in 2017, Bills fans have to sweat out the final weekend of the regular season, wondering whether or not their beloved team will be in the postseason field.
It is pretty simple: If the Bills win in Miami against the Dolphins on Sunday night, they will be division champs for the fourth year in-a-row, matching the longest such streak in franchise history. They would also be the No. 2 seed in the AFC, which means they could play, at least, two home playoff games.
But you might be able to celebrate a Bills playoff berth before the Sunday night showdown with the Dolphins kicks off: If the Pittsburgh Steelers lose to the Ravens in Baltimore - they play Saturday at 4:30 p.m. EST - or the Jacksonville Jaguars lose to the Titans in Tennessee - a Sunday 1 p.m. EST game.
But, and this is a big but, if both Pittsburgh and Jacksonville win and the Bills lose, they will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018, which was Josh Allen's rookie year.
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I sure hope the Bills offense gets its act together this week, because it has left a lot to be desired since putting on quite a show while steamrolling the Dallas Cowboys.
In the last two wins over the Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots, the Bills offense looked more like the unit that struggled through the middle portion of the schedule, leading to the firing of offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.
Allen looked off for most of the day against New England. For the first time in his career, he opened a game with six-straight incompletions. He was just 2-of-11 for five yards after the first quarter, and was just 7-of-20 for 46 yards and an interception at halftime.
Allen's best drive of the day came at the start of the third quarter when the Bills put together an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. The key play was a perfectly-placed deep ball to rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid that produced 51 yards.
The touchdown gave the Bills a 27-14 lead, and some very important breathing room over a four-win Patriots team.
The Bills offense had 12 drives, and that was the only one that went for more than 35 yards in this game.
Allen looked uncomfortable in the pocket, and was off target on way too many throws. Even some of his completions required extra work by the receiver, because the ball was too low or behind them.
The Bills did have a handful of drops, which didn't help Allen's numbers either.
The offensive line had problems with the Patriots' pass rush, blitzes in particular, and Allen was quite often under pressure.
The running game wasn't great either, averaging just 3.4 yards per-carry.
The Bills defense kept setting up their brethren on offense with short fields thanks to takeaways, but the offense didn't capitalize enough. Allen and company were just 2-for-5 in the red zone, which kept this a close game rather than a Bills' blowout victory.
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The decline of Stefon Diggs over the second half of the season remains puzzling.
The Bills' top receiver had just four catches for 26 yards, and his longest reception went for just nine yards.
Over the first nine games of the season, Diggs averaged 92 yards a game, 11.9 yards per-catch, and had seven touchdowns. Over the last seven games, the numbers plummet to 37 yards a game, 8.7 yards a catch and just one touchdown.
I should point out that Diggs likely would have had an 89-yard touchdown catch had Allen not overthrown him by a few yards on a play in the third quarter on Sunday.
Hopefully the Bills offense shows up against a Miami defense that it torched in Week 4 on the way to a 48-20 win. That Dolphins defense will also be a week removed from getting trashed by Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, who put up 59 points on the board.
