Colts’ updated playoff picture revealed after Chargers, Bengals win

On December 29, 2024By Littum

After Saturday’s blowout from it Los Angeles Chargers and a narrow victory from Cincinnati Bengals over Denver Broncosthe Indianapolis Colts‘ Playoff chances are still alive heading into their final two contests of the season.

But while the path for the Colts to dance in the postseason is possible, it won’t be a simple feat.

With the Chargers’ 40-7 win over New England Patriotseffectively locking them into the 7th playoff spot in the AFC, leaving one spot up for grabs between the Colts, Bengals and Miami Dolphins.

The task for the Colts is simple across the next two games: win out.

With the NFL’s 32nd ranked strength of schedule vs New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguarssecuring two wins down the stretch to go 9-8 on the season sounds simple enough. But if the Colts want to find their way to the 7th seed, they’ll need some extra help even if they win out.

Indianapolis will need to be in a three- or four-way tie with the Broncos with a 9-8 record along with the Bengals and/or Dolphins in Week 18 to have what it takes to clinch the final spot in the AFC .

For this result to show, the Broncos need to lose heart Kansas City Chiefsalong with either the Bengals defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Dolphins winning vs. Cleveland Browns and that New York Jets to tie with the Colts. If it happens while the Colts are minding their business, they’re in.

The Bengals win. Which means if the Colts win, all they need next week is one more Bengals win (Steelers) and one more Broncos loss (Chiefs) and they’re the 7th seed and in the playoffs.

— Landon Oliver (@Landon3MR) 29 December 2024

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In the event of a multi-team tie in the standings, the deciding factor will be each team’s win-loss record against their respective conference if they have not played each other. In this case, Denver would have a 5-7 record against the AFC, Cincinnati would have a 6-6 record, and Indianapolis and Miami would be tied at 7-5 if the Dolphins win.

Since the Colts beat the Dolphins in Week 7, they have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami as long as Indianapolis wins over the last two weeks.

In short, a lot will have to go the Colts’ way over this week and next week to make one last push for a postseason run, but it’s far from off the cards.

The first step to making such a miracle happen for Indianapolis lands Sunday afternoon when Joe Flacco and the Colts travel to MetLife Stadium to take on the Giants at 1 p.m.

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