By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist

In my mind, Sean McDermott  knew from the time he got on the plane.

As the Bills’ coach and his team bussed back to Providence, to catch the charter back to Buffalo after a sleep-inducing , 23-16 meaningless loss to New England in Foxboro Sunday afternoon you got the idea he already had it figured out.

With Buffalo’s wild-card opponent an uncertainty among three teams, having  seen Cincinnati, the squad nobody wanted to play in the postseason, edge  the Steelers Saturday night in Pittsburgh, clearly he didn’t see reason for real concern. 

And the injury-plagued Jets weren’t much cause for worry playing on a winter afternoon in the Meadowlands against the Jets.

Then there were the Broncos, 9-7, already the No. 7 seed and in line to face the Bills in a wild-card game unless they lost at home to No.  1 seed  Kansas City and the Dolphins beat the Jets with Cincinnati already having beaten the Steelers.

But McDermott knew that any other week in the NFL regular-season schedule, Denver and Kansas City, even in Colorado, would be a mismatch. Not this week though. The Chiefs had claimed the AFC’s top seed with a 15-1 record and coach Andy Reid, not unlike his pupil McDermott, was determined to rest every starter possible in a meaningless game.

THE BILLS eighth-year coach suspected it would be Denver all along. By the time the Bills boarded the plane, Denver was up 14-0 in the first quarter en route to a 38-0 whitewashing of the conference’s best team. 

And so it was that  Buffalo got its wild-card playoff assignment.

This year each conference’s wild-card games will start consecutively, the AFC first.

Next Saturday afternoon, the L.A. Chargers visit Houston and that night the Steelers are at Baltimore.

Then, Sunday afternoon at 1 o’clock, the Bills (13-4) entertain Denver at Highmark Stadium.

And with Cincinnati having been eliminated from the playoff chase by the Broncos’ win, guess what the “experts” are saying now?

“Nobody wants to play Denver in the post-season.”

NOTES FROM the Bills’ 23-16 loss to the Patriots Sunday afternoon at  Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium in their NFL regular-season finale.

— The Patriots ‘ win  ended their season at 4-13 and dropped them from the overall No. 1 draft pick to No.4. Immediately after the game owner Robert Kraft fired coach Jerod Mayo.

— As expected,  Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen came out for the first offensive play and handed off to running back James Cook to continue his streak of 115 consecutive starts. Cook also ran for 28 yards to surpass 1,000 rushing yards (1,009) for the second straight year. They also brought him out in the third quarter with the ball at the Pats’ 1-yard-line and he scored his 16th  rushing touchdown of the season, tying O.J.  Simpson’s franchise record. Of course, overlooked is the fact that Simpson did it in 14 games and it took Cook 16.

— On the Patriots’ first possession, Bills’ edge rusher Von Miller sacked Pats’ quarterback Drake Maye, his sixth of the season, earning him an immediate $1.5 million incentive bonus.

— In the second half, coach Sean McDermott demurred on a 52-yard field goal attempt for a punt from the 35-yard line. Turns out, it was an incentive for punter Sam Martin who was due a $100,000 bonus if he could kick one more ball inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Thanks to a great save at the goal line, the ball bounded back inside the 5-yard line and Martin got his bonus.

— Buffalo’s lone takeaway came when Patriots running back Antonio Gibson fumbled the handoff with Bills’ rookie defensive end Javon Solomon recovering.

— Bills’ placekicker Tyler Bass, who hit a 49-yard field goal, continued his struggle on extra points, missing a fifth of the season.

— Leading tackler for the Bills was Joe Andreessen, the free-agent linebacker from UB, who had 10 stops. Top tackler for the game was New England linebacker Christian Ellis who had 13 stops and five solos.

— Inactive for the Bills were wide receiver Amari Cooper (personal) and linebacker Terrell Bernard (quad) with healthy inactives nickelback Taron Johnson, cornerback Christian Benford, edge rusher Greg Rousseau, offensive tackle Dion Dawkins, and defensive tackles DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver.

(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Star and  Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)