KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s one massive final piece that has yet to be placed in the race for the top seed in the AFC.
The Buffalo Bills (12-3) entered the week atop of the conference standings, but they need a win Monday at Cincinnati to keep pace after the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 13-3 with a 27-24 win Sunday against Denver.
The Bills control their fate for the moment, but that all changes if the reigning AFC champion Bengals can spring the upset.
Cincinnati (11-4) is a 1-point underdog, but Joe Burrow and company still have an outside shot at the No. 1 seed — and a first-round bye in the NFL playoffs — if they can win out and the Chiefs stumble next weekend in Las Vegas.
“It’s going to keep me up past my bedtime,” Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “It’s going to end up starting about 8 o’clock.”
ESPN, which broadcasts Monday Night Football, has already pushed the Bills-Bengals kickoff back to 7:30 p.m. Central and will broadcast it on ABC to accommodate the Rose Bowl.
The Chiefs lost to both the Bills and Bengals earlier in the season, so they don’t hold tiebreakers against either team.
The NFL had yet to announce the Week 18 schedules as of 6 p.m. on Sunday with so many playoff-related questions remaining unsettled.
Kansas City has hosted the AFC Championship Game for four straight seasons, an NFL record.
If Cincinnati beats Buffalo on Monday and the Chiefs win next weekend at Las Vegas, the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will once again run through GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium one way or another.
“I try not to be too invested in it,” Mahomes said. “It’s going to be a great football game with two great teams — and teams you’re probably going to see in the playoffs. ... You just try to watch it as a fan, like I always do. It’s great quarterbacks, great defenses, great players. As a fan of the game, I like [when] great football teams go up against each other.”
Kansas City could play next Saturday or Sunday, but the Bills and Bengals are unlikely to be scheduled for Saturday since they play on Monday Night Football.
For the Chiefs, the timing remains in flux.
“We have to take it as if we’re playing on Saturday, so our coaches have been working this morning and yesterday on the run game and some of the pass-game stuff,” Reid said. “We’ll get [Monday] to add a little more to it, and then we’re right into it.”
