The Buffalo Bills are in an odd position ahead of their Week 13 clash against the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Sean McDermott's team, despite being 7-4, not in the best form.
Having lost two of their last three games, the offense is looking broken with Josh Allen's weapons unable to get consistent separation, and the offensive line simply allowing sacks to happen at will (eight vs. The Texans), not all is well for the AFC East champs.
Currently, the seventh seed if the playoffs began today, the Bills are on the edge of the playoff picture, not smack bang in the middle like it is used to being, and that brings Sunday's game into focus with the need to win at an all-time high.
And Allen knows it, too.
“Extremely high sense of urgency,” Allen said. “We understand where we're at, at the same time we have full confidence in ourselves. Ultimately comes down to executing on game days, and we've had some good, had some bad throughout the year. I think there'd be a lot of teams that are wishing that they were seven and four in a spot that we are.
"So, understanding that opportunity in front of us, let's play as hard as we can, put our best foot forward, and try to go get a victory on Sunday."
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Bills' playoff hopes on the line
At 7-4, the Bills' margin for error isn't big, especially when we are talking about tie breakers with the teams below them in the playoff hunt.
The Houston Texans and the Steelers are both 6-5; if things go south on Sunday, they could own the tiebreaker over the Bills. Then we have the Kansas City Chiefs, also 6-5, but Buffalo has already beaten them.
So, Sunday's game is big for Buffalo's playoff hopes, and also to put some distance between themselves and the chasing pack because a loss could be huge here, and give Houston and Pittsburgh an advantage over them.
Allen says the sense of urgency is high, and come Sunday, this has all the indications of a huge game with monster AFC implications.
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