Gerry Dulac: After dreadful loss to Colts, even Mike Tomlin acknowledges Steelers are a bad football team righ
Week 16 AFC Playoff Look: Colts Now In Both Wild Card, Division Races
INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts playoff chances improved dramatically by beating the Steelers in Week 15, and it’s time to start looking at their path to winning the AFC South.
Per the New York Times playoff predictor, the Colts currently have a 53 percent chance at making the playoffs. That number could fluctuate by about 27 percent depending on the win/loss result versus the Falcons this Sunday (65% if Colts win, 38% if Colts lose).
A couple of things to note on the Colts’ current situation:
With the Jaguars losing again in Week 15, the AFC South race is now getting heavy attention, and you have Trevor Lawrence in concussion protocol following their Sunday night loss to the Ravens. At 8-6, the Jaguars are tied with the Colts and Texans record wise, but Jacksonville has (and will win) the three-way tiebreaker over the Colts and Texans, no matter what happens the rest of the season. The Jaguars end the year with these 3 games: at Buccaneers, Panthers, Titans. For the Colts to finish ahead of the Jaguars, they’ll need one of these three situations to happen: Colts go 3-0 and Jaguars go 2-1 or worse; Colts go 2-1 and the Jaguars go 1-2 or 0-3; or Colts go 1-2 and Jaguars go 0-3.
The Colts are one of 4 AFC teams currently with a record of 8-6 and not leading a division. And 2 of those 4 are in the playoffs (Bengals and Colts) and 2 are outside (Texans and Bills). Again, one of the biggest things in the Colts favor down the stretch (along with a favorable quarterback schedule) is the fact they are 6-4 in the AFC. The conference tiebreaker is the first Wild Card tiebreaker between teams who didn’t play against each other this year and aren’t in the same division. The Colts are well-positioned with this tiebreaker, particularly when you compare them to the teams outside the current playoff picture.
