When the schedule was released, this game — Eagles hosting the Bills on Sunday — certainly looked like a potential Super Bowl preview. 

As we’ve all come to know, however, there are very few certainties in the NFL. Just ask the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. 

As it’s turned out, the Super Bowl runner-up Eagles have held up their end of the bargain, entering this game with the league’s best record at 9-1. 

The Bills, however, have not. Despite having won the AFC East the past three seasons, the Bills enter this game at 6-5 and in jeopardy of not making the playoffs for the first time since 2018. With their playoff hopes teetering on the brink and their offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey fired, last Sunday they defeated the Jets and kept themselves afloat. 

For the moment. 

Sunday, they step up in class against the Eagles. And, as the Bills prepped for this game, it was difficult to quantify just how good they really were in their 32-6 win over a Jets team that had produced just nine offensive touchdowns before Friday. 

Did that game truly turn around the Bills’ season, or save it at least? 

That question cannot begin to be answered until we see what they do against the Eagles. After Philadelphia, the Bills face a road game against the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs then play the Cowboys. 

That’s a daunting three-game stretch that could doom this season for Buffalo. 

The funny thing about the Eagles, even at 9-1, is that after every game they play they insist they still haven’t played that well. Even after defeating the Chiefs in Kansas City, 21-17, after trailing by 10 last Monday, the Eagles groused about their form as quarterback Jalen Hurts was sacked five times in the first half. 

“I’d trade winning last year for this one, but it feels good to get this one,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said after that game. “We have a bunch of guys who know how to win.” 

Hurts credited his team with having a “calmness’’ during adversity in that game. 

“You have to truly remain in control,’’ Hurts said. “You want to play to the standard all the time, but things happen. I don’t think we played clean, nowhere near our standard. But the thing you can’t quantify is the resilience a team has, the ability to persevere and this team has that. 

“We’ve yet to put up a performance to our standard, but we continue to find ways to win. That builds character.” 

That should be alarming to the struggling Bills, who curiously own solid league rankings in total offense (No. 6) and defense (No. 10). But Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen has turned over the ball too often, with 12 interceptions. Allen does, however, lead the NFL with 22 TD passes and is fourth in passing yards with 2,875. 

A significant change from Dorsey to elevated coordinator Joe Brady last week was more rushing attempts for the Bills, who had 38 attempts — the most since they ran 40 times in a 29-15 win over Atlanta on Jan. 2, 2022, with Brian Daboll the coordinator. 

The Bills stopped a two-game losing streak and topped 25 points for the first time in seven weeks. Allen also threw three TD passes in that game and preached afterward about having more “fun playing this game.’’ 

“Every season, man, has its ups and downs,’’ Allen said. “You’re going to have adversity. It’s how you bounce back from the adversity.” 

Hurts has been almost unbeatable at home, with a 28-2 record in his past 30 regular-season home starts. He, too, has a 13-game winning streak against teams with winning records. 

One area where Hurts and the Eagles are struggling is production at tight end, where starter Dallas Goedert is out with a fractured forearm and backup Grant Calcaterra left the Kansas City game with an ankle injury. This, however, can be considered a champagne problem. 

The Eagles do, however, have one of the top receiving tandems in the league with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Brown is third in receiving yards, trailing only Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb (1,066) and Miami’s Tyreek Hill (1,222) — both of whom have added to their totals this week. 

In a fun and interesting twist to this game that will have nothing to do with the outcome, Bills head coach Sean McDermott grew up in Philadelphia and broke into the NFL as an Eagles assistant under Andy Reid. McDermott has defeated 29 of the other 31 NFL teams, with only the Eagles and Cardinals not on that list. And, Sirianni was a Bills fan growing up in Jamestown, N.Y., a 90-minute drive south of Buffalo.