There are nine teams with a 6-3 record and six of them are in the American Conference. Today, two of those teams in the AFC would be eliminated from the Playoffs, including the Tennessee Titans, which last season fell within a Super Bowl win.
Coach Mike Vrabel’s team has lost three of the most recent four and their schedule is not going soft, with the next three being in Baltimore, in Indianapolis (his executioner on Thursday) and Cleveland.
The Browns today they occupy the eighth position in the seeding the AFC and rookie coach Kevin Stefanski must be happy with the return of his best running back, Nick Chubb, who missed four weeks and returned with a game of 126 yards (6.6 per attempt) and a touchdown in the win over Houston.
Cleveland is 4-1 at home and in Week 11 they host PhiladelphiaBut from that point on, four of the last six on his schedule are on the road, and there he’s 2-2.
Indianapolis (seeded 4), Las Vegas (5), Miami (6) and Baltimore (7) are the other four teams with a 6-3 record in the AFC.
The Colts are 1-1 in divisional games and four of the seven remaining are against opponents from the AFC South. On December 13 they have a key engagement against the Raiders in Las Vegas.
The Raiders, who in mid-September looked like the same mediocre version of 2019, have won four of the most recent five and are 4-1 on the road.
Yesterday they won just their second home game and next Sunday they host the champions Kansas City Chiefs, whom they upset 40-32 on October 11.
Atlanta (3-6), Jets (0-9), Chargers (2-7) and Denver (3-6) are four of the teams that are in the second half of the Las Vega schedules, but also two December games with postseason implications: against Indianapolis and, two weeks later, on December 27, against Miami, both in Las Vegas.
The Dolphins, now with the rookie Tua Tagovailoa at the controls, they started the season with two losses and are 6-1 since then, including five wins in a row.
After Denver, Jets y CincinnatiThere are four brutal games coming in December and January for coach Brian Flores’ team: Kansas City, New England, Las Vegas and Buffalo.
Your ticket to the Playoffs will depend on how well or poorly you get out of those four games at the end of the calendar.
With two setbacks in three weeks Baltimore picked a bad time to hit a pothole, because they come Tennessee Y Pittsburgh the next two weeks.
However, for coach John Harbaugh’s team the outlook improves in the last five on the calendar: Dallas (2-7), Cleveland (6-3), Jacksonville (0-9), Giants (3-7) and Cincinnati ( 2-6-1). Only the Browns have a winning record.
In the NFC few changes are expected to what has been seen so far. Green Bay (7-2), New Orleans (7-2), Arizona (6-3), Tampa Bay (7-3), Rams (6-3) and Seattle (6-3) seem sure to be invited to the postseason. . We will have to add the champion in the East, who will start between Philadelphia (3-5-1) and Giants (and today, I am staying with coach Joe Judge’s team).
Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota need a miracle, and the rest are virtually eliminated.
Unless, of course, the NFL decides that half of the league qualifies for the Playoffs because of the pandemic.
