It's never too early to start thinking about how the playoffs shape up.
That's especially true for a team with Super Bowl aspirations, like the Buffalo Bills. Of course they've got to get into the bracket first, but that's part of the battle. What will it take in the current playoff picture to be a factor in the AFC East or the Wild Card spots? There's still work to do.
It starts Thursday night against the Houston Texans to open up Week 12.
The Bills are 7-3. They currently hold the AFC's best Wild Card spot, the 5-seed
The Texans are 5-5. They're in the No. 8 spot in the AFC, one outside of the third and final Wild Card spot.
The Bills are also chasing the New England Patriots, who lead the AFC East at 9-2.
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The need for a Buffalo win over Houston is two-fold.
First, in the AFC East race, it gives the Bills a chance to keep up with the Pats. A loss to fall further behind would make the divisional race tough.
And then in the Wild Card, the Bills don't want to start giving away tiebreakers. The first tiebreaker for a Wild Card spot is head-to-head. So if the Texans beat the Bills and then they end up with the same record, Houston would slot ahead of Buffalo in the standings.
The Bills want to win every week regardless.
But it is getting time to keep track of these things, and this is a key week as Buffalo tries to avoid the odd things that can happen on a short turnaround to a Thursday night and just pull out a win any way they can.
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