The Colts should be very, very thankful for the Bills right now

The Indianapolis Colts need to win and get some help on Sunday, but they have to be thankful for the Buffalo Bills right now.

The Indianapolis Colts need to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and get some help on Sunday to make the playoffs. Otherwise, they could be 11-5 and miss the playoffs. One of the early window games features the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills, with the Dolphins needing to win and the Bills set to eventually rest key players.

Since there’s no difference between being the No. 2 or No. 3 seed this year, with only one team getting a playoff bye, the Bills hope to emerge from Sunday healthy more than anything. But they scored 21 unanswered points on their way to a 28-6 halftime lead.

The Colts are praying the Bills win

Along with winning on Sunday, the Colts need one of the Dolphins, Ravens and Browns to lose based on tiebreakers that’d leave them with the short end of the stick against all three teams if they all win.

Baltimore is solidly handling the Cincinnati Bengals and the Browns are narrowly beating the Pittsburgh Steelers (who are resting key players) in their respective games. So the easiest path to the Colts’ playoff door remaining opening when their game kicks off a 4:25 p.m. ET is the Dolphins losing to the Bills.

If the Colts can still make the playoffs when their game starts, there’s a path to do more than sneak in as the No. 7 seed. A win (of course) and a Tennessee Titans’ loss to the Houston Texans in the same schedule window would give the Colts the AFC South title and the No. 4 seed.

But if the Colts don’t get any of the help they need in the early window, everything else is moot. So they’ll be hoping Matt Barkley can keep the Bills in the lead whenever he steps in for Josh Allen under center. So far, so good though.