Chargers have leg up in avoiding wild-card trip to Buffalo

Last night’s win over the Broncos dramatically increases the Chargers’ chances of making it to the playoffs. It also gives them an important advantage when it comes to sorting out the AFC playoff tree.

By sweeping the Broncos, the Chargers are in position to avoid the No. 7 seed — and a likely trip to Buffalo in the wild-card round.

L.A. still needs to remain at least tied with Denver; they’re both 9-6 with two games to play. And there’s a chance that neither the Broncos nor the Chargers would end up at No. 7, if the second-place team in the AFC North slips behind both of them.

Still, last night’s win, and the critical two-game swing it entailed, might insulate the Chargers from having to play in a Western New York deep freeze or a snowstorm, or both.

The Bills aren’t locked at No. 2. It could still be the Chiefs (who hosted a North Pole simulation game last January) or the Steelers or even the Ravens, who are three games behind the Bills and who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, thanks to a 35-10 win over the Bills in Week 4.

Regardless of how it plays out, none of the seven seeds in the AFC are determined — even if at least six of the playoff teams are essentially locked in: Chiefs, Bills, Steelers, Ravens, Texans, Chargers. The Broncos hold the inside track to the seventh seat at the table.

And all teams that will make it to the AFC postseason surely hope (even if they’d never say it) that the Broncos hold on and hold the Bengals out. Quarterback Joe Burrow is playing at an MVP level that has gone largely unnoticed because the team has struggled. In the postseason, he transforms into a higher level of badass. (He’d also relish the chance to go back to Buffalo as the seventh seed. Two years ago, Cincinnati won in the snow against the Bills, ending Buffalo’s season and likely creating the wedge that resulted in the eventual exit of Stefon Diggs.)

How and where the seven qualifying teams will do battle in three rounds of the playoffs is still to be determined….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/chargers-leg-avoiding-wild-card-103153420.html

Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-20 10:31:00

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