Saturday, November 26, 2011

Week 12 guide to Bills', Jets' rooting interests

First and foremost, the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills will be looking to oust each other from playoff contention when the 5-5 teams meet at MetLife Stadium Sunday.

But with two other AFC teams at .500 (Denver Broncos and Tennessee Titans) and the two Wildcards spots at least a game above 5-5 (6-4 Cincinnati Bengals and 7-3 Pittsburgh Steelers), Jets and Bills fans should be eying the league scoreboard all afternoon Sunday.

Jets and Bills fans should be rooting for the Cleveland Browns (vs. Bengals), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. Titans), San Diego Chargers (vs. Broncos) and Kansas City Chiefs (vs. Steelers) Sunday. All of the teams in parenthesis are direct threats in the Wildcard race and are all teams the Jets and Bills need to start losing games.

The Oakland Raiders (6-4) host the Chicago Bears, so Jets and Bills fans can go ahead and root for the Bears, as it's always somewhat beneficial to have an in-conference team lose when another in-conference team doesn't gain a win. However, if the Raiders eventually fall out of the AFC West lead and into the Wildcard, they'd hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Jets if it came down to that. The Bills, on the other hand, already beat the Raiders.

The Houston Texans (7-3) face the Jacksonville Jaguars in a game Jets and Bills fans may root for the Jaguars. With Matt Schaub out, the Texans could eventually fall, though they lead the AFC South by two games and it's too early to tell if they'll have any effect on the Jets' and Bills' playoff chances.

Lastly, the New England Patriots (7-3) take on the Philadelphia Eagles, though the Patriots have a pretty strong hold on the AFC East lead.




Follow Nick @NickStDenis