Week 17 Recap

With the loss to the Ravens in Week 17, the Texans are locked into the 4th Seed for playoffs.

Elsewhere in the AFC, the Bills won to lock into the 2nd Seed, the Chargers secured themselves a wildcard spot, and the Colts eliminated themselves from the playoff picture.

The Broncos lost to the Bengals, which means the Bengals and Dolphins both still have a path to the playoffs if Denver loses to the Chiefs backups this week.

Since there are no longer any seeding possibilities to entertain, I will focus this post on our potential playoff matchups.

As a reminder, the ESPN Playoff Machine is live! You can use this to play around with all sorts of scenarios and see what the playoff matchups and seeds can look like.

Current AFC Playoff Picture

1. Kansas City Chiefs (15-1)
2. Buffalo Bills (13-3)
3. Baltimore Ravens (11-5)
4. Houston Texans (9-7)
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6)
6. LA Chargers (10-6)
7. Denver Broncos (9-7)

The Texans are guaranteed the 4th Seed.

Key Games:

Browns @ Ravens

Bengals @ Steelers

Chargers @ Raiders

Wildcard Round Matchups

The Texans will face one of three opponents in the wildcard round: the Steelers, the Ravens, or the Chargers.

Here is the route to each:

Texans vs Chargers:

• Bengals defeat Steelers + Chargers defeat Raiders

Texans vs Ravens:

• Browns defeat Ravens + Steelers defeat Bengals

Texans vs Steelers:

• Ravens defeat Browns + Steelers defeat Bengals OR
• Bengals defeat Steelers + Raiders defeat Chargers

Recommended Viewing Schedule

• Saturday Late Afternoon Game: Browns @ Ravens (ABC, ESPN)
• Saturday Night Game: Bengals @ Steelers (ABC, ESPN)
• Sunday Noon Game: Texans @ Titans (CBS)
• Sunday Late Afternoon Game: Chargers @ Raiders (CBS)

tl;dr

The Texans are locked into the 4th Seed and will face either the Steelers, Ravens, or Chargers in the Wildcard Round.

• Bengals win + Chargers win = Texans vs Chargers
• Browns win + Steelers win = Texans vs Ravens
• Anything else = Texans vs Steelers