With just three weeks remaining in the regular season, teams are jockeying for playoff positioning. Week 15 provides football fans with plenty of options for games that will likely have a large effect on postseason seedings.

Here are the five most intriguing games on the schedule for Week 15.

5. Buffalo Bills (7-6) at Miami Dolphins (6-7)

The Bills enter Week 15 as the sixth seed in the AFC due to a three-team tiebreaker over the Chargers and Ravens. They defeated the Colts 13-7 in Week 14 in a snow-filled struggle. The Dolphins pulled off a huge upset in last Monday’s 27-20 win (Dec.

11) over the Patriots, which kept their slim playoff hopes alive.

Tyrod Taylor is expected to be back under center for Buffalo after missing last week’s game with a knee injury. Even so, the Bills have been a running team all season. They have just 177 passing yards in their last two games. Buffalo is 2-1 in their last three games despite totaling only 32 points.

Much like the Bills, the Dolphins will look to do work on the ground led by second-year player Kenyan Drake. He has 234 rushing yards in the past two games while also adding 100 receiving yards.

4. Green Bay Packers (7-6) at Carolina Panthers (9-4)

The Packers narrowly avoided giving the Browns their first win in Week 14 as they prevailed in overtime, 27-21.

They remain in the playoff picture but have to win out and get some help. The Panthers are coming off an impressive 31-24 win over the Vikings. That gives them the same record as the first-place Saints in the NFC South at 9-4 (New Orleans owns the tiebreaker due to winning both of the two games against Carolina).

Green Bay feels confident in their chances to win out due to future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers returning this week.

Rodgers, who missed the last seven games due to a broken collarbone, was off to another superb start completing 66.3 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and three interceptions prior to the injury.

The Packers will have to stop a Carolina run game that has dominated of late. Last week, they rushed for 216 yards, which is the third time in the last five games they rushed for 200+.

The Packers only allowed 59 rushing yards on average from Weeks 9-11, but that number has skyrocketed to 140.7 over their last three games.

3. Saturday night: Los Angeles Chargers (7-6) at Kansas City Chiefs (7-6)

The Chargers enter Saturday’s game (Dec. 16) on a four-game winning streak and are 7-2 since a 0-4 start. They easily took care of the Redskins in Week 14 by the score of 30-13. They sit with the same record as the Chiefs, who are atop the division due to their Week 3 win over San Diego. Kansas City ended their four-game losing streak with a 26-15 victory over the Raiders last Sunday (Dec. 10).

The Chargers have an excellent +11 turnover margin and have performed even better in the nine games since their 0-4 start.

They have only turned the ball over six times while forcing 20 in their last nine outings. After leading the league in interceptions in 2016, Phillip Rivers has cut his interception rate by more than 50 percent.

Kansas City hopes to take advantage of any red zone opportunities they may get in this pivotal AFC West matchup, which is something they haven’t done very well this season. Just 44.4 percent of their red zone chances have resulted in a touchdown, which is 28th-best in the NFL. Meanwhile, the Chargers’ opponents have reached the end zone only 37.9 percent of their red zone opportunities. That is the second-best mark in the league.

2. Los Angeles Rams (8-4) at Seattle Seahawks (8-5)

Despite a 43-35 loss to the Eagles in Week 14, the Rams still hold a one-game lead in the NFC West.

The Seahawks would like to change that as they are the team sitting in second place. They are also coming off a loss last Sunday, as they fell to the Jaguars by the score of 30-24.

Seattle has held nine of their 13 opponents to 18 points or less, but the Rams are only behind Philadelphia in scoring as they average 30.5 points per game. Only twice have they been held to less than 20 points, but one of those times was a 16-10 loss to the Seahawks in Week 5.

One of the Rams’ main weaknesses has been stopping the run, but it is unclear whether the Seahawks will be able to take advantage. Seattle has just four rushing touchdowns all season, and three of those have come from quarterback Russell Wilson.

The only touchdown on the ground coming from a running back was by J. D. McKissic all the way back in Week 4.

1. New England Patriots (10-3) at Pittsburgh Steelers (11-2)

The most intriguing game of the week is for first place in the AFC. The Steelers can clinch home field throughout the AFC playoffs with a win. They have won eight straight after their come-from-behind 39-38 win over the Ravens in Week 14. The Patriots surprisingly fell flat in their 27-20 loss to the Dolphins last Monday, which put them a game behind Pittsburgh for the top record in the conference.

New England leads the NFL by scoring on 49.3 percent of their drives and averaging 2.58 points per drive. They have been more susceptible to turning the ball over in recent games though.

After committing just five turnovers in their first 10 games, they have committed five more in their last three.

Tom Brady is coming off arguably his worst game of the season against the Dolphins and will be facing a Pittsburgh defense that is fourth in the NFL in passing yards allowed and seventh in yards allowed per pass attempt. They have only allowed more than 264 yards in a game once all season.
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