9-7 is a very possible playoff team, particularly if one of those four wins comes against Indy. We can win 4 of 5 and make it; a likely route would be to win our next two AFC games against the Jets and Jags, win one of two against our NFC opponents and then pull out the Indy game at home in Week 17.
The Ravens schedule is brutal to finish the year. They play at Atlanta, at Kansas City, Tampa, at San Diego and Cleveland. That's an absolutely shitty out, and a loss to Atlanta this week gets that ball rolling.
The Bengals get Denver, at San Diego, Oakland, at Cleveland and at Pittsburgh. They're already sitting at 5-6, and with Dalton on IR for the year, @ SD/Pitt/Cleveland should be enough to get them two losses. They might lose to Denver next week.
Denver still has at Cincy, at SF, Cleveland, at Oakland and San Diego. They are realistically the biggest threat sans Indy as that schedule is so very winnable. Their conference record isn't great (3-5), but then again ours is worse (3-6). The tiebreaker there could get weird if they were to lose one AFC game and we lost one NFC game.
Indy has it slightly easier; we'd have to win 4 of 5, with one of those wins coming against them in Week 17. They go at Jacksonville, at Houston, Dallas, Giants and at Tennessee. If they can lose either at Jacksonville (yeah, no way) or at Houston (way more possible), it'd make things far more realistic. In this scenario, we'd have the tiebreaker over Indy having split the series and gone 4-2 in the division to what would be their 3-3.
So, to sum it up: the Ravens and Bengals are probably screwed. I'm not including Miami because I'm not going to even think about that. They still have two Bills games and a Jags game, but also play New England and Minnesota. It's feasible, so maybe I should.
THE POINT IS after last night I could see us having the most annoying journey to an 8-8 record imaginable. BUT if we can manage to go 4 of 5, with the one loss being an NFC matchup, we have very high playoff odds. It feels like a lot of "what if's", but that's just because there are five weeks left and a lot to shake out. Win 4 of 5. Don't lose to the Jags.
Having said that, we'll probably lose to the Jets now.