On Monday we assessed the wildcard situation in the NFC, where seven teams are fighting for three places in the 2020 NFL playoffs. Now that Washington upset the Steelers on Monday, you can realistically add an eighth team to that mix. There’s little chance the sick NFC East will actually get away with it two Playoff teams if the Giants and Washington Football Team keep staying hot.
In the AFC, things are a little clearer. Four teams were eliminated from the playoff picture, and the 4-8 Texans and Broncos have chances of less than 0.1% in the simulations of the ESPN Football Power Index. The Bills, Steelers, Titans and Chiefs stand on their respective decisions, leaving six candidates for three wildcard spots. Let’s go through their odds, what’s wrong with them, and what each team must do to make it into January:
Jump to a team:
BAL | CLE | IND
LV | MIA | NO
FPI chances for the playoffs: 13.1%
Since I wrote that the 2-5 start of the season could be the end of their dynasty for the Patriots, they have fought their way back into the playoff picture. Bill Belichick’s team have won four of their last five games. While the 45-0 win over Chargers was a defeat of monumental proportions, the other three wins were down to ultimate ownership. The Pats were 3-0 in one-score games during the ugly start of the season; They have been 3-1 in those games ever since.
What has changed? There is an extremely simple explanation: you stopped flipping the ball on offense. During this 2-5 stretch, the Patriots had 15 turnovers in seven games, which was equated with the highest rate in football. Since then, Josh McDaniels’ group has made two turnovers in five games, the lowest in the league in that period. They flipped the ball at least once in their first seven games and lost wagering in four of their last five games.
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