Even after their 31-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the Buffalo Bills know they still have a lot of work to do if they are to make it into the postseason.
Standing at 8-6, the Bills are the ninth seed in the AFC, two spots out of the Wild Card due to tiebreakers with the Bengals. If the Bills win their remaining three games, they have over a 99 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to the New York Times playoff machine.
So, as the Bills took the locker room after their big win, they celebrated the dominant performance – highlighted by James Cook's 221 scrimmage yards – but center Mitch Morse reiterated that they are focused on the path that's ahead.
"I think in this locker room, the great thing is that we understand this was a great victory. We're gonna enjoy this against a good team, but winning this game is just kind of the next step in what our ultimate goal is which is to make the playoffs first and then go from there. We still have an uphill battle but this was a great first step," Morse said.
Morse was part of an offensive line that allowed just one sack while creating space for Cook, Latavius Murray, Ty Johnson and Josh Allen to tally up 20 rushing first downs and 266 rushing yards. Morse said that the team had been locked in the week leading up to their dominant win over the Cowboys.
"We put together a tremendous week of practice, week of preparation," Morse said. "This team in the past few weeks has done a very good job of taking it one moment at a time and compounding those moments, whether it be practice, meetings, taking care of your body and then you have a combination of those moments on Sunday and then we're able to put those to use."
The Bills are 16-2 in games played in December since 2020, the best record in the league in that timeframe. While the Bills were in more comfortable situations in terms of their playoff chances in two of the three previous seasons, their current playoff picture is reminiscent of the 2021 season when they won their final four games to improve to 11-6 and made the playoffs after starting the season at 7-6.
After Sunday's win, Allen said that the identity head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane have curated in Buffalo has helped the team stay hungry in December throughout the years.
"I think the type of guys that we have in the locker room … I think that's what Beane and McDermott have done such a good job of in terms of bringing guys in that have that type of chip, have that type of mentality and when your back's against the wall, you find a way to get out of it," Allen said.
The quarterback posted the lowest passing yards since his rookie season, excluding the 2019 Jets game after the Bills had already clinched a playoff spot, but the NFL leader in total touchdowns doesn't care about that.
"We understand what position we're in right now and we have to win games. It doesn't matter how we get them done," Allen said.
The Bills could be heating up at the right time, as multiple players said Sunday's win was a confidence booster.
"I think we've definitely found ourselves as a team," said defensive tackle Ed Oliver. "We're starting to play with a lot of swagger, a lot of juice. We're not in the playoffs right now but the main thing is just having that juice, that swagger that when we go out there, we're all as one.
"When we're playing like that, that's how you get into the playoffs."
The Bills have a short week before heading to Los Angeles to take on the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.
