A few favourites who can seriously compete for the Super Bowl have surfaced with one month remaining in the regular season. The Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, and Kansas City Chiefs are teams you are familiar with. These five are the favourites going into the final stretch of the regular season, according to the oddsmakers. It is possible for any of those clubs to win the Lombardi Trophy. However, what about those clubs’ weak points that could thwart a deep postseason run? Here, we examine in greater detail how the Chiefs, Bills, Eagles, Lions, and Ravens can falter during the postseason.
Will the Kansas City Chiefs suffer from Patrick Mahomes’ turnover problem? It’s true that the Chiefs consistently make their games engaging. The team’s most recent victory, a 19–17 triumph over the Los Angeles Chargers, came after a 31-yard field goal bounced off the left upright and through the goal post. Ten of the team’s 12 victories have been by seven points or less. The Chiefs are positioned to pursue an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl and maintain home-field advantage see
However, Mahomes’ poor performance in one crucial area is something that might retain Kansas City. Having already thrown 11 interceptions this season, he has struggled to handle the football. In addition, he has been fired 35 times, which is tied for sixth place in the league. As the season draws to a close, Kansas City’s top priorities are to keep Mahomes healthy, upright, and able to hang onto the football. With a 12-1 record, the Chiefs are tied for the NFL lead; however, their minus-4 turnover margin is tied for 22nd place in the league. This season, Kansas City has lost four games in the turnover fight, but only once, against the Bills on the road in Week 10.
Mahomes joined the league in 2018 and has already committed 87 turnovers. The Chiefs are 48-19 (including postseason) when Mahomes commits at least one turnover, per FOX Sports Research. In games where Mahomes has not turned the ball over, Kansas City has a 53-7 record.
The Chiefs are the only team with a point differential lower than plus-89 in NFL history, and they are the 26th team to start 12-1 overall. This season, Kansas City’s plus-56 point difference is ranked 11th in the NFL. The Chiefs are not the dominant team their record suggests, and they have had luck closing off games.
Mahomes threw two interceptions in an AFC Championship Game defeat to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium following the 2021 season, which was the last time Kansas City missed out on the Super Bowl. Can Josh Allen and the Bills accomplish what the Bengals did in 2021 at Arrowhead?
Can the injured defence lead the Detroit Lions to a successful season finale? On defence, the Lions have a M*A*S*H unit. Edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson’s season-ending fractured leg in Week 6 cost Detroit the league’s front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year title early.
Detroit’s 53-man roster at the beginning of the season did not include five of its seven front-row starters from last week’s victory over the Green Bay Packers. The Lions have 13 defensive players on their injured reserve list, which is more than any other team in the league. The Lions defence is giving up 225 passing yards per game, which is No. 23 in the NFL, but Detroit boasts the highest scoring offence in the league (32.1 points per game). When the Bills play Buffalo this week, Detroit’s pass defence will be put to the test once more.
Will the Buffalo Bills’ run defence and poor late-game play cause them to fail? In 2024, the Bills have been a dominant offensive force under the leadership of MVP front-runner Allen. However, the defence has occasionally shown vulnerability this year by leaking information. Last week, Buffalo lost to the Los Angeles Rams on the road, giving up a league-high 44 points while Matthew Stafford amassed 320 passing yards. Buffalo’s failure to halt the run was even more worrisome, as the Rams amassed 137 yards on the ground, with Kyren Williams accounting for 87 of those yards.
The Bills are in light boxes (six defenders or fewer at the line of scrimmage) 51.6% of the time, ranking seventh in the league, and they play at least five defensive backs an NFL-high 97.5% of the time. Buffalo is prone to allowing explosive plays on the ground because they primarily deploy smaller players on the field. This could be a problem when playing teams that want to grind out yards in cold weather playoff games. This season, Buffalo has given up 11 rushes of 20 yards or more, which is tied for seventh-worst in the NFL. This week, the Bills travel to Detroit to play the NFL’s #1 rushing offence.
In addition, Bills head coach Sean McDermett has occasionally had trouble with late-game scenarios. The most recent example of this was the way he managed his timeouts in Buffalo’s defeat to the Rams.
Will the Philadelphia Eagles overcome negative feelings and produce more explosive plays? Philadelphia has one of the finest NFL records and is currently on a nine-game winning streak. The Eagles still have to cope with some awkward team chemistry, though.
It began early in the season when head coach Nick Sirianni made fun of irate Eagles supporters following a victory over the Cleveland Browns in Week 6. Additionally, Philadelphia’s dependence on Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and a dominant running game has caused A.J. Brown, the team’s top receiver, to doubt his place in the passing game. Brown is right. Over the last two games, Philadelphia has only had one passing play of 20 yards or more. Additionally, the team’s inability to move the ball down the field may cause problems in the postseason, which would limit its flexibility to play the game as it sees fit.
In the first quarter, the Eagles have scored a league-low 17 points. Will Hurts be able to guide the Eagles without an explosive passing game if they fall behind early?
Baltimore Ravens: Can Justin Tucker and the defence go back in time? This season, Tucker has been the second-least accurate kicker in the NFL, making just 19 of 27 field goals for a career-low 70.4%. In NFL history, he is the second-most accurate field-goal kicker (89%).
Tucker’s league-high ten failed kicks have hurt Baltimore’s chances of winning close games in the final stretch and may have an effect on the Ravens in the postseason. In addition, Baltimore’s defence has suffered when Mike Macdonald, the former defensive coordinator and current head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, left. Zach Orr, the new defensive coordinator for the Ravens, has had trouble getting his team to perform consistently. The Ravens are tied for No. 23 in the league with only 11 takeaways this season and are giving up a league-worst 264 passing yards per game.