The AFC Playoff Picture is Shaping Up

I do love Saturday football; I have since I was a kid. We don't get NFL games on Saturday until nearly the end of the season, and that's because it's by that time that college football is out of the way. I remember at one point, we would see four straight weeks of Saturday football, counting playoffs, but this year, we are being treated to five straight Saturdays of NFL action--the final three weeks of the regular season, Super Wild Card Weekend, and the Divisional Playoff.

Before we get to the Saturday games, we have to start with Thursday Night Football. The three games that played featured six AFC teams looking to get good positioning, and regarding Thursday, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos kicked off the antepenultimate week of the regular season. Both teams could get in this week, but regarding the Broncos, they were win and in. Denver was up big in a game that saw a rare drop kick field goal from the Chargers. The Broncos were up 24-13 during the third quarter, but the Chargers answered back with 21 unanswered points. Overall, the Bolts won, 34-27, but both they and the Broncos can still get in to the playoffs with help elsewhere.

The first half of the Saturday double dip pitted the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans against each other in a battle of this year's division champions. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Patrick Mahomes started this game after his so-called "injury," and also to the surprise of absolutely no one, he got all sorts of gift calls in his favor. The Texans had good chances to win this, but the zebras took that away for sure. Even so, the game was close, but KC ended up winning it, 27-19. The Chiefs are 14-1. All but one of their wins was by one possession. Yet talking heads are continuing to act like the Chiefs are heroically winning nailbiters, when in actuality, they're playing down to competition and barely escaping defeat. They're 14-1; they should be 8-7.

After that, we were treated to an AFC North battle between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, and for the Steelers, they were looking to win the division. All they needed to do was do something that they're experts at: beat Lamar Jackson. For the most part, the Steelers have been nothing but Black and Yellow Kryptonite for Lamar, but on this night, Lamar was quite the force. The reigning MVP led the Ravens to a big win, throwing three touchdown passes, and Derrick Henry ran for 162 yards (both of them making Fantasy owners happy during the Semifinals).

The Ravens won, 34-17, and with the win, they locked up a playoff spot, as they entered the week with full control of their own destiny. With all three results, here's how things stand in the AFC. Kansas City's win eliminated the Steelers from the #1 seed picture, and the Chiefs will get the #1 seed if the Buffalo Bills lose or tie against the New England Patriots. The Steelers and Ravens are now tied for the AFC North lead, but Pittsburgh still holds the tiebreaker; a better conference record than Baltimore. The Steelers can win the AFC North on Christmas Day if they win and the Ravens lose on that same day.

Speaking of the Ravens' their clinch leaves two spots left in the AFC, and the Broncos and Chargers can get them on the following day Sunday. If the Dolphins and Colts lose, the Chargers are in. If the Bengals also lose, the Broncos will join their AFC West rivals in the playoffs, thereby filling up the AFC's playoff field with two weeks to go. We will definitely see if that does happen, or if we still have something left to solve in the AFC after all is said and done in Week 16.