It's absolutely the same game. If they had x injured player then blah blah blah. You can play the game on both sides.
Yes, they can only play who's in front of them. The Bengals are better than their record. The Chiefs are worse than theirs and I don't give a ***** about wins extending to last year.
If those 4 teams I named played each other 2 times a year, I wouldn't be surprised to see them all come out 1-1 vs each other.