Turn off the lights and put the urinal troughs up for sale.
Highmark Stadium will not be hosting a playoff game in the Buffalo Bills’ final year at the stadium. Despite Buffalo advancing to the divisional round following their 27-24 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, any chance of hosting a playoff game was lost when the Los Angeles Chargers fell to the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football.
Los Angeles, the AFC’s No. 7 seed, would have needed to win this week and next week for Buffalo, the AFC’s No. 6 seed, to host the AFC Championship Game. With that scenario out the window, Buffalo will have to continue to play on the road throughout the postseason.
Next weekend, Buffalo will play the No. 1 seed Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. The game is expected to be played on Saturday. A victory over the Broncos would send the Bills to the AFC Championship Game against either the Patriots, Houston Texans or Pittsburgh Steelers. Regardless of who the opponent is, all three teams are seeded higher than Buffalo.
While Bills fans were holding out hope for one final game at the old Highmark Stadium, Buffalo showed that they could win on the road. The Bills had struggled in that area with their last road playoff victory coming in the 1992 AFC Championship Game. If the team hopes to finally return to the Super Bowl, Josh Allen and company will need to win two more road games.
Next season, the Bills will move across the street to their new state-of-the-art stadium.