Christmas may have come and gone this year, but the Buffalo Bills are still hoping for a little holiday magic to happen as the 2025 regular season comes to a close.
Currently sitting in the sixth seed in the AFC Wild Card race with a playoff spot already guaranteed, Buffalo (11-4 OVR, 3-2 AFCE) still has an outside shot of claiming its sixth consecutive AFC East title at the conclusion of Week 18.
For that reason, the final stretch could get interesting.
And although it’s a long shot, in order to do so the Bills will need two things to happen:
- Win their final two games of the regular season at Highmark Stadium and have the New England Patriots (12-3 OVR, 3-1 AFCE) lose one of their final two games against either the New York Jets in Week 17 or the Miami Dolphins in the regular-season finale at Gillette Stadium.
While it’s certainly not the most probable of outcomes, especially considering the Jets and Dolphins both appear to be eyeing offseason rebuilds rather than chasing victories, there’s at least an outside chance that the Bills could once again rise to the top of the division when all is said and done.
Riding a four-game win streak, there’s certainly optimism surrounding the idea that Buffalo could finish out with two wins at home to end the year, but is there really any shot of New England tripping up? With that comes questions about resting players versus not resting players as the playoffs approach and so on . . . it’s a lot to think about.
However, according to head coach Sean McDermott, it’s his job to ponder all the scenarios and nobody else’s on the team.
“You want to win a game (on Sunday). You know, part of the job of a leader, though, is always having bigger-picture perspective, as well. So, you don’t want to be too narrow-sighted on things. And, so it’s kind of like you have to have both (views) in the seat that I sit in, I believe, to have the focus on where it needs to be,” McDermott said when speaking to the media on Friday.
“Keeping the main thing the main thing is the top priority. So, that’s really where everything starts. The rest of it is how well one can multitask, and I’m the only one that needs to do that. So, everybody else just — let’s keep the main thing the main thing and keep what’s important, important. And, that’s where our focus is.”
With several different outcomes still in play in terms of the Bills’ playoff fate, it’s certainly hard not to think about what’s to come.
But, if Buffalo is going to be successful in doing its part of the equation, there’s no time to worry about things outside of the team’s control.
The Philadelphia Eagles (10-5 OVR, 3-2 NFCE) are coming to town on Sunday and pose plenty of their own challenges for the Bills to worry about.
The defending Super Bowl champions may not be having the type of season that many in Philadelphia expected, but there’s no denying the wealth of talent that the team possesses on both sides of the ball.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts has continued to be a steady hand at the position for the Eagles, throwing for 3,114 yards, 24 passing touchdowns, and six interceptions, while adding 416 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 102 carries.
Hurts’ top two wide receivers continue to be A.J. Brown (73 receptions, 935 yards, 7 touchdowns) and DeVonta Smith (72 receptions, 931 yards, 4 touchdowns), while Saquon Barkley is once again also leading the way in rushing for Philadelphia.
Despite that fact, it’s certainly been a challenging year for Barkley compared to last season’s 2,000-yard campaign.
Through 15 games, the former Penn State Nittany Lion has amassed 1,072 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 261 attempts, while adding 37 receptions for 273 yards and two touchdowns.
At first glance, it’s easy to see that Barkley’s level of play hasn’t been anywhere near what it was just one season ago, as evidenced by his average yards per carry dropping from 5.8 in 2024 to just 4.1 this season. He has also been tackled for a loss on 14.56% of his runs this year, placing him in the top-10 for the unflattering category.
With that said, the All-Pro running back can still be a threat to break one at any time — Barkley knows it, and the Bills’ defenders certainly know it.
“We’re playing (Sunday’s game) like we’re not even in (the playoffs yet). We’re playing it like we’re playing to get in, you know what I’m saying? Just staying true to our technique, our fundamentals, (and) what we need to do. Playing team football, and playing Bills’ football,” Buffalo cornerback Christian Benford said during media availability this week.
“They’ve got a good quarterback, good receivers, and a great running back, so making sure everybody’s fine-tuning what they’re doing — their details, and playing our type of football. You know, not beating ourselves on the field . . . just making sure that all hats (go) to the football, (and) make sure we’re gap sound.”
As for the opposite side of the ball, the Eagles are once again at the tops of the league in defense, particularly when it comes to the pass defense.
Led by their slew of pass rushers and lane cloggers in the middle of the defensive line and the likes of defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean on the back end, Philadelphia currently ranks 12th in total team defense with 315.7 yards allowed per game and 29 touchdowns surrendered for the season.
And while the Eagles rank seventh in pass defense, their rush defense ranks just 21st in the league according to FOX Sports as they are allowing 123.5 yards on the ground per game and have allowed 16 rushing touchdowns.
For that reason, combined with the fact that quarterback Josh Allen has been nursing a right foot injury this week, the Bills shouldn’t be shy about giving running back James Cook a healthy workload on Sunday afternoon.
Cook, who currently sits atop the leaderboard for total rushing yards in the NFL this season, will undoubtedly be motivated to continue toward his goal of claiming the rushing title just as Barkley did one season ago.
His teammates are just as motivated, but they also know how big of a challenge the Eagles’ defense will present, particularly along the defensive front.
“We know what kind of team is coming in here — the great players they have, the great coaches, the scheme — ultimately, it’s about us and how we perform, and how we play,” Bills’ left guard David Edwards said on Friday.
“Again, we have a ton of respect for this defense — the talent that they have on their front and in their defense, in general. How can we continue to play our best football? Focus on the things that we can control, hit our blocks the way we know how to block them, and then we’re going to be happy with the results at the end of the day.”
As far as injuries are concerned, the Bills will be without safety Jordan Poyer (hamstring), defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (ankle), defensive tackle DaQuan Jones (calf), and kicker Matt Prater (quad), while the Eagles are expected to be without linebacker Nakobe Dean and right tackle Lane Johnson for the game.
The task will be difficult, but if Buffalo can manage to pull off a victory against the defending Super Bowl champions then they’ll at least keep their divisional championship hopes alive for one more week.
Hope is sometimes all that is needed, especially during the holiday season . . . when anything can happen.
“They’ve got a lot of dogs on that (defensive) side of the ball, and we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a good week of game planning. And, ultimately it’s going to come down to who executes better on Sunday,” Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen said earlier this week.
“You want to go into the playoffs playing as well as you can, and obviously there’s still a chance for us to win the division, and obviously we need help doing that. But, at the end of the day, we want to come out and take it one game at a time, and still have that backs-against-the-wall mentality, and try to play our best football going into it.”
Kickoff between the Eagles and Bills is slated for 4:25 p.m. ET at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
Editor’s babble: Weather forecasting rain and wind suggest the ground game may be the best choice for this one. Many thanks to John Green for his contributions to our blog. You can also find John on Xwitter @JGreen_PRsports.
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