Holy Crap! Texans Can Still Make Playoffs But

So what would it take for the Texans to make the playoffs? First and foremost, winning the last four games of the season. That’s a tall order considering that the Baltimore Ravens roll into town for a Monday night match up.

The premise here is that the Texans win out.

The Colts losing to the Cowboys on Sunday shifted things in favor of the Texans.

Texans remaining schedule:
Vs. Baltimore
@ Tennessee
@ Denver
Vs. Jacksonville

Winning the four remaining games give the Texans a 9-7 record and a 4-2 division record.

Jacksonville remaining games: vs. Oakland, @ Indianapolis, vs. Washington, @ Houston

Indianapolis remaining games: @ Tennessee, vs. Jacksonville, @ Oakland, vs. Tennessee

Tennessee remaining games: vs. Indianapolis, vs. Houston, @ Kansas City, @ Indianapolis
The Texans need Jacksonville and Indianapolis to lose one more game. That throws the AFC South into chaos with three teams tied at 9-7. The best case scenario is for Colts to lose one of the Tennessee games and the Jags to lose to the Colts. A loss to the Titans assures the Colts of three division losses and out of the running for the division title. In the same best case, the Jags lose to the Colts and that tags them with a second division loss.

What that best case scenario sets up is a showdown on the final game of the year for the last playoff spot between the Texans and Jags. A Texans win ties them with a 9-7 record and evens the head to head play at 1-1. The next tie breaker is division record. A Texans win coupled with the Jags hopefully earlier loss to the Colts gives Houston a 4-2 division record but the Jags a 3-3 record. Texans would advance to playoffs.

The scenarios get even wilder because of the remaining schedule. Unless I miscalculated, everybody can still end up at 8-8.