Buffalo Bills Pass Steelers for No. 2 Seed in AFC

The Pittsburgh Steelers can still claim the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, but they did not get any help in that quest on Monday night, falling to third place after the Buffalo Bills defeated the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football

The Buffalo win drew the Bills and Steelers even at 12-3, behind the 14-1 Kansas City Chiefs in the American Conference. The Bills hold the tiebreaker with the Steelers by virtue of their Week 14 victory head-to-head at Bills Stadium, so the Steelers will need to win at Cleveland on Sunday and have the Bills lose at home to Miami.

Like Pittsburgh, Buffalo has nothing to play in Week 17 for except for minor seeding, as neither team can fall below third place in the AFC. The Dolphins and Browns will be playing for their postseason lives as two of five teams currently tied at 10-5, only four of which will end up in the playoffs.

Currently, Tennessee owns the tiebreaker over Indianapolis to lead the AFC South and would host No. 5 Miami, while Baltimore would come to Pittsburgh and Buffalo would host Cleveland, with Indianapolis on the outside looking in.

Especially with the logjam behind them, the difference between the No. 2 and No. 3 seed will likely be fairly minimal this season, with the biggest difference coming in the form of a guaranteed second-round home game.

Baltimore will visit Cincinnati on Sunday, with that, the Pittsburgh-Cleveland and the Buffalo-Miami game all kicking off at 1 p.m., so the Steelers will know their seed by roughly the end of their game on Sunday.

But Jacksonville at Indianapolis and Tennessee at Houston will start at 4:25 p.m., so Pittsburgh may have to wait to discover their opponent.

Kansas City is locked into the No. 1 seed, the only AFC team to have solidified its position entering the final week. Pittsburgh and Buffalo have both clinched division titles.