With the Playoff Push Going Strong, I Wanted to Put the Potential Teams for Wild Card Spots to Make It Easier to See Matchups and Analyze.

Bills don't actually have a truly easy game left on the schedule. SF, DEN, and NE should be wins, but they're on the road; LAC has the talent for an upset but who knows with them. Regardless, BUF is likely going to be the AFCE winner so we're not really competing with them for a WC spot.

Colts have three gimme games against HOU/JAX, which means they're looking at 10+ wins before we even get to the tough games.

Titans have three gimme games against HOU/JAX/DET, which means they're looking at 10+ wins before we even get to the tough games.

Browns have three gimme games against JAX/NYG/NYJ, which means they're looking at 10+ wins before we even get to the tough games.

Ravens have four gimme games against DAL/JAX/NYG/CIN though they're not exactly firing on all cylinders. Still, looking like 10+ wins.

Dolphins looked dominant in the previous weeks before losing a clunker to DEN. Not sure what we're going to get from them, but they're probably on the outside looking in unless something crazy happens.

So we've got 5 teams (other than us) that can cruise to 10+ wins, and they're fighting for 5 spots (AFCS, AFCE, 3 WC). We've also got a TEN/IND game that will probably give the winner the AFCS (and 11 wins), and a BAL/CLE game that will give the winner their 10th-or-11th win (and one of the WCs).

I think the big key here for the Raiders is the Indy game -- if we win that, it not only gives us an extra win and a potential tie-breaker with the Colts, it gives us some breathing room if we drop one of our gimme games (ATL/NYJ/LAC/DEN). The game against Miami would be nice too, but it's unclear if that tie-breaker is going to be as important (if Miami loses to us, what are the odds that they win 4 of their other 5?)

What I'm hoping for is TEN > IND and BAL > CLE (plus obviously any upsets from teams outside the AFC playoff picture) putting us in position to win tie-breakers over IND/CLE for the 6th or 7th seed. Or, you know, we run the table and finish 12-4. That's cool too.

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