The wild card races are exciting all of a sudden with six games left to play. Just two weeks ago there were exactly two teams in each conference with a winning record but not a division lead. The wild card races were far from finished, but slip-ups from the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons or one of the teams at the top of the NFC North were the only way teams hovering around .500 were going to have a chance.
The NFL’s wild card races are suddenly wide open
The wild card races are wide open now that the Falcons and Jets are on losing streaks.
Thanks to losses in Weeks 10 and 11 for both the Jets and Falcons, that door was left wide open. The Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams both are on three-game losing streaks and failed to take advantage of that opportunity, creating tight wild card races in both conferences.
In the NFC, 13 of the conference's 16 teams are no more than two games out of the playoff race and even the three 3-7 NFC teams are only three games back. If the Buffalo Bills lose to the New England Patriots on Monday, it will be the exact same margin for the three 2-8 AFC teams, and 12 teams will be no more than a game back.
AFC Wild Card race
*Tied with Colts for division lead
It’s premature to work out tiebreakers with so many teams in the hunt, but several head-to-head matchups have already happened between the eight teams within two games of the wild card. The Bills and Texans have beaten the Jets, the Chiefs have beaten the Steelers and Texans, and important games like one between the Bills and Chiefs in Week 12 are still on the horizon.
The Jets are in danger of dipping under .500 for the first time this season after four losses in the last five weeks, including three against teams in the wild card race. None of the next four opponents for New York have a winning record, but the Bills and Texans didn’t either when they each dealt the Jets a loss to knock them from the AFC Wild Card lead.
At the top are the Steelers, who have survived injuries to Ben Roethlisberger, but the next four weeks are brutal. After a road trip to play the Seattle Seahawks in Week 12, the Steelers play the Colts, Bengals and Broncos, three of the four division leaders in the AFC.
That leaves the door open for absolutely anyone in the AFC to string together wins. Proving most capable of doing that so far have been the Chiefs, Texans and Jaguars.
Kansas City has won four straight after a rough start to the year and are feeling especially confident after a 33-3 dismantling of the Chargers on Sunday.
“When we play like this, it doesn’t matter who we play against — we’re unstoppable,” Chiefs defensive end Mike DeVito told The Kansas City Star. “With the way our schedule has been ... we’ve been in playoff mode for the last three or four weeks.”
Next up for the Chiefs is a chance to take the AFC Wild Card lead for themselves in a Week 12 game against the Bills, followed by five consecutive games against teams with losing records, including two games against the Raiders.
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NFC Wild Card race
| Team | Record | GB | Streak |
| Vikings | 7-3 | -- | L1 |
| Falcons | 6-4 | -- | L3 |
| Buccaneers | 5-5 | 1 | W2 |
| Seahawks | 5-5 | 1 | W1 |
| Rams | 4-6 | 2 | L3 |
| Washington | 4-6 | 2 | L1 |
| Bears | 4-6 | 2 | L1 |
| Saints | 4-6 | 2 | L2 |
| Eagles | 4-6 | 2 | L2 |
While the AFC features a few hot teams closing the gap, the story in the NFC has been the inability of anybody to take advantage of Atlanta’s slide. The Buccaneers are the only team in the NFC Wild Card hunt that has managed to win in each of the last two weeks.
But as long as the Falcons keep losing, the entire NFC is in the hunt. The Atlanta offense had four turnovers in a loss to the Buccaneers, looked entirely ineffective against the 49ers and came out of a bye with another four turnovers against the Colts on Sunday. At least one or two of those games should have been easy wins for the Falcons, but now they're in trouble with games against the Vikings, Buccaneers and Panthers in the next three weeks.
“We were 5-0, we were on our high horses, and everyone was praising us and whatever, but now, you see everyone’s true colors,” Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones said. “People will talk poorly about you, but we have to stay tight here. We have to continue to keep working because we are still in it. We need to get on a roll.”
The Buccaneers, who already have a win against the Falcons and can make it a season sweep in Week 13, have forced a turnover in every week and created four against the Eagles on Sunday. The question is whether Jameis Winston can replicate the type of performances he had against Washington and Philadelphia, and avoid the showings he had against Carolina and Dallas.
The Seahawks, who have led in the fourth quarter of every game this season, are also right behind the Falcons. Seattle's five losses are against teams with a combined 37-13 record and the Seahawks are statistically in the top 10 in both total offense and defense. The Seahawks still have games against tough teams like the Steelers, Vikings and Cardinals on the schedule.
* * *
Since the second wild card was added to the NFL playoffs in 1978, six teams have won the Super Bowl despite not winning their divisions. The most recent examples were the 2010 Green Bay Packers and 2007 New York Giants who each won three of their last five regular season games to enter the postseason on a high note.
The door is open for any team to get hot and put together a winning streak to claim wild card spots that are suddenly up for grabs.
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