This is all assuming we win in Tennesse: If Chicago beats Baltimore and NE beats Buffalo, we're in #6 seed playing NE(#3seed) in the first round. Houston, Pitt and Jets games doesn't affect us. If Balt and NE both lose, we are #4seed playing Denver (#5seed). In playing with the scenarios throughout the rest of the season, it seems that Baltimore affects us the most.
Here is a great scenario..... If the Jags win out, we win the AFC East because they would have beaten the Pats... So lets root for the Jags and Indy, If they win out, and we win out we win the conference and host a playoff game in LS Stadium.
How come, at this point, The Jags are still ahead of us in the playoff picture even though we beat them. I was talking to someone at work and they said something about how the head2head tiebreaker doesn't count in this situation or something else I really didn't understand it.
In a situation where 3 teams are tied for the final Wildcard spot, the head-to-head tiebreaker can only be applied if all 3 teams (in this case, Baltimore, Miami and Jacksonville) have played each other. As Baltimore has not played Miami or Jacksonville, the head-to-head tiebreaker is not used. That said, in order for Jacksonville to win out, they would have to defeat New England in Foxborough in 2 weeks, which would open the door for us as AFC East champions, provided we win out. Its really a non-issue. Last Sunday's win over Jacksonville assured us of the fact that Jacksonville cannot hurt us in terms of playoff position, they can only help us (by knocking off NE).
What situation is that? If we wind up the season with the same record as Jax for a wild-card spot, we're in via NFL tie-breaker rules: http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures The only issue would be if multiple teams are tied with the same records and we didn't sweep the other teams as well.
Here's the "Staples" version of the best scenario for the rest of the year ... we win all of our games and Baltimore and NE lose all of theirs. That was easy.
Though, since Baltimore hasn't played either Miami or Jacksonville, shouldn't head to head count? And our 2 positions be flipped so currently we would be at the 6th seed and Jacksonville dropped down into the "in the hunt"?
There are only 2 games that matter for us right now outside of ours... Jags-Indy (AFC Matchup, Common Opponent, and right now Jags hold the tie breaker over us if it comes down to a wildcard spot). Buffalo-NE (we need NE to lose and losing a divisional game would give us every tie breaker for the AFC East).
Hopefully we win out and NE loses so we'd be safe. I don't trust Baltimore losing again, although regardless of how Pittsburgh is playing recently they'll be facing Baltimore at home in two weeks. Rivalries are rivalries. This upcoming game is the one I'm most worried about. If we can win in Tennessee, then I'm confident in a 10-6 finish. I always see New England loses at least one of those remaining road games; they're a different team on the road. Completely different. It'd be something else if they lost both and we won at AFC East at 9-7. Who on earth would have guessed it coming into the season with a healthy Brady that we'd have a division shot at 10-6 or 9-7?
