The Chiefs and Bills get together again on Sunday, for the sixth straight time in the regular season. For both teams, the stakes have never been higher.
They’ve owned their respective divisions throughout the current decade. The outcome of their head-to-head matchups has been relevant only to figuring out whether the postseason rematch would be played.
This year, it’s very different. Neither the Chiefs nor the Bills are in first place of the AFC West or AFC East. By the time their game begins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, the Patriots may be 7-2, the Broncos may be 7-2, and the Chargers may be 6-3.
If that happens, a loss by the Bills would put them two games and the head-to-head tiebreaker behind New England. A loss by the Chiefs would drop them to 5-4 — two games behind Denver and one game behind L.A.
It could set the stage for a playoff rematch, if any, in the wild-card round, with one team hosting as its division champion and the other showing up as the fifth, sixth, or seventh seed.
There’s also a chance that, regardless of the outcome, both will be in the bottom three seeds of the AFC playoff tree.
Regardless, the loser of the latest Chiefs-Bill regular-season will have a much harder time doing again what each has done every year since 2020 — win their division. For the winner, it won’t be a picnic, either.
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