The Thursday Night Football game this week is an AFC West matchup but one that should have the full attention of the Indianapolis Colts.
The Denver Broncos will be traveling to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers. And while the Colts’ remaining playoff hopes are quite slim, any possibility of getting there requires the Chargers to lose some games down the stretch.
At 6-8, the Colts are two games back of the 8-6 Chargers for the seventh and final playoff seed in the AFC. At a minimum, the Colts need the Chargers to lose two of their final three games, and that’s if Indianapolis wins out.
In this scenario, both teams would finish at 9-8 on the season, and the Colts would win the tie-breaker with the better conference record.
There is a scenario for the Colts to get in if they were to lose one of their remaining games, but then that requires the Chargers to finish 0-3 along with help from Miami and Cincinnati. So we will just leave that scenario alone for the time being.
While help from the Chargers is needed, step one for the Colts is that they need to take care of their own business or it doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere.
The Colts do finish the season with a favorable schedule facing Tennessee (3-11), at New York Giants (2-12), and Jacksonville (3-11).
Los Angeles, meanwhile, takes on Denver (9-6) and then is on the road their final two games against New England (3-11) and Las Vegas (2-12).
NFL.com currently has the Colts’ playoff chances at 11 percent.