Heading into Sunday, the Buffalo Bills were on the outside of the outside looking in. By evening, they made their way through the first door and are all of a sudden knocking on the second.
The Bills were the 11th seed in the AFC playoff picture prior to their 26-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns.
Now, Buffalo has moved all the way up to No. 7 and one spot out of the tournament with four games to go.
Cleveland was a game ahead of the Bills Sunday morning, but the Bills win and other tiebreakers shot Buffalo past the Browns. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens fell to 7-5 via a loss to the San Diego Chargers (8-4), as did the Pittsburgh Steelers in a loss to the New Orleans Saints.
The Bills are fighting for a Wildcard spot and would get yet another huge boost if the Kansas City Chiefs were to lose to the Denver Broncos Sunday night. The Chiefs then would fall to 7-5 with a worse conference win percentage, though they beat the Bills earlier this year.
Buffalo's win also pushed the Miami Dolphins out of the "in the hunt" picture for the time being, though the Dolphins could get right back in the action with a win over the New York Jets Monday night. The Bills will be rooting for the Jets in that game.
The Bills have a daunting schedule ahead, and none of the teams on the remaining slate are in the Wildcard hunt, so they'll need a spectacular finish to the year and a lot of things out of their hands to go their way.
Still, Sunday has gone about as good as it could have for a Buffalo unit that was reeling just two weeks ago.
The Bills haven't been to the postseason in a decade and a half.
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