ORCHARD PARK — Pardon Bills linebacker Paul Posluszny for sounding a little envious in light of the critics who spent much of the week knocking the Indianapolis Colts for resting their starters and squandering a bid at a perfect season.

The Bills should have such problems.

“Absolutely, who wouldn’t want that dilemma, win that many games, home field secured for the playoffs?” Posluszny said, shaking his head and breaking into a laugh. “Yeah, who wouldn’t want that? I’d love to be in their shoes.”

Not this season in Buffalo. Not this past decade, for that matter.

Two former AFC East rivals who have spent the 2000s going in totally opposite directions close the regular season Sunday in a game with very little at stake.

The Bills (5-10) have already assured themselves of missing the playoffs for a 10th straight year. And they prepare for an uncertain offseason after team owner Ralph Wilson fired coach Dick Jauron in November and has vowed to revamp his entire front office.

The first move came on Thursday, when national scout Buddy Nix was promoted to take over as general manager.

The Colts (14-1) have nothing significant to play for either, but for an altogether different reason.

They clinched their eighth straight playoff berth in late November, and will enter the postseason as the AFC’s top-seeded team, capping a decade in which they registered a league-record 115 wins.

And whatever intrigue that might have been left for Indianapolis was stripped away last week in a 29-15 loss to the New York Jets. Peyton Manning and numerous starters spent much of the second half on the sideline watching the team’s opportunity to go 16-0 end with a thud.

The loss also ended Indianapolis’ record regular-season win streak at 23.

“You never want to lose a game, so obviously it hurt a little bit,” defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “Obviously, there is that feeling that we should have won that game regardless of who is out there.”

The loss also didn’t sit well with many Colts fans and NFL purists who had been eager to see if the Colts could join the 1972 Dolphins and 2007 Patriots in winning every game in the regular season since the merger.

A bigger priority for Colts coach Jim Caldwell was whether the price of perfection would be worth much if his players aren’t rested for a more important run at the franchise winning its second Super Bowl in four seasons.

“There’s no question that we certainly understand the fans,” Caldwell said, referring to the criticism. “But overall, we have to make the decisions based on what we think puts us in the best position to win in the playoffs.”

Caldwell hasn’t determined how much playing time his starters will get Sunday, but it’s likely fans will see more Curtis Painter and far less Peyton.

“There’s no question you’re going to see him,” Caldwell said, referring to Painter, the backup who struggled in going 4 of 11 for 44 yards with an interception and a costly fumble that was returned for the go-ahead touchdown by New York.

Manning refused to get drawn into the debate this week.

“I don’t have a lot of reaction to it. ... I think it’s time for the players to move on from it,” he said. “Me, I’m kind of taking it day by day and working on things, working on weaknesses.”

Who’s kidding whom?

Manning has shown few weaknesses in yet another dominating season in which he’s completed nearly 69 percent of his attempts, has 4,405 yards passing with 33 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

By comparison, Manning has single-handedly outproduced the Bills, who have generated 3,979 yards offense and scored a mere 22 touchdowns.

Buffalo’s gone through three quarterbacks after third-stringer Brian Brohm made his NFL debut in a 31-3 loss at Atlanta last weekend. It’ll help that starter Ryan Fitzpatrick is expected to return after missing one game with an ankle injury.

Fitzpatrick expressed disappointment that the Colts lost last weekend.

“To be honest, I think it would have been cool for them to come in at 15-0 and for us to be the team that knocked them off,” he said.

Any win would be welcome for interim coach Perry Fewell.

“It would make us feel a lot better,” said Fewell, who’s 2-4 since replacing Jauron. “We didn’t accomplish a lot of the things that we set out to accomplish. But when you can end on a win, that would be fitting.”