Buffalo Bills Week 9 rooting interests: How Bills can move up further in AFC playoff race

The Bills can help themselves and secure their move up one spot in the AFC. But with help, Buffalo can move up two spots by the end of the weekend.

Week 8 was a good weekend of football for Buffalo Bills fans. The Bills pulled off a very convincing win over an opponent with, at the time, a winning record. The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets continued to slide. The New England Patriots picked up a win, but it was at the cost of the Jets, and now Buffalo has almost as many wins as the rest of their division combined.

Not only that, the two teams holding head-to-head tie breakers above them in the AFC standings — the ones that will determine who gets homefield in the playoffs come January — lost, bumping one of them out of the top four.

At the conclusion of last weekends games, Buffalo hadn’t moved up in the standings, but they gained control over whether they get to slide up a spot this week or not.

Then the New York Jets and Houston Texans kicked off Week 9 with a Thursday Night Football date. As challenging at it may have been, rooting for a Jets win was in the best interests of Bills Mafia. And somehow, the Jets pulled it off — and convincingly.

With the Texans losing, that moved the Bills up to third in the AFC, behind the Kansas City Chiefs (1) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2). It

Here’s a look at the current AFC standings as we enter Week 9

AFC EAST

1. Buffalo Bills (6-2)
2. New York Jets (3-6)
3. Miami Dolphins (2-5)
4. New England Patriots (2-6)

Complete AFC Playoff Picture

1. Kansas City Chiefs (7-0)
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2, 4-1 in AFC)
3. Buffalo Bills (6-2, 4-2 in AFC)
4. Houston Texans (6-3, 5-1 in AFC)
5. Baltimore Ravens (5-3, 2-2 in AFC)
6. Denver Broncos (5-3, 2-3 in AFC)
7. Los Angeles Chargers (4-3)
8. Indianapolis Colts (4-4)
9. Cincinnati Bengals (3-5)
10. New York Jets (3-6)
11. Miami Dolphins (2-5)
12. Cleveland Browns (2-6, 2-2 in AFC)
13. Las Vegas Raiders (2-6, 2-4 in AFC,)
14. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-6, win over NEP)
15. New England Patriots (2-6, win over NYJ)
16. Tennessee Titans (1-6)

If you need a refresher on how the NFL breaks ties in standings, you can read last week’s update here. But here’s the quick version: head-to-head, wins/losses in division, wins/losses in common games, wins/losses in conference, strength of victory, strength of schedule ... and on and on for five more scenarios until they do the most unscientific thing they could have come up with — toss a coin. Let’s hope it never actually gets to that.

On that note, in trying not to rely on a coin toss, let’s look at what games can affect Buffalo’s place in the standings this week.

Buffalo Bills (6-2) over Miami Dolphins (2-5)

Sunday, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)

Not...