 The question so many people have been asking this week is, "The Titans were 0-6 and now they are 3-6, can the Titans make the playoffs?" Let's take a look at the math.
For the purposes of this exercise, let's assume the following:
- The Colts win the AFC South
- The Patriots will win the AFC East
- We'll go under the assumption that the Bengals will win the AFC North
- We'll go under the assumption that the Chargers will win the AFC West
If we assume that they only loose one game the rest of the way (assuming they run the table is not a reasonable assumption) they can get to 9 games and will likely finish ahead of the Dolphins, Jets and Bills and for sure ahead of the Browns, the Chiefs and the Raiders.
So who does that leave as their competition?
Steelers (6-3)
Ravens (5-4)
Jaguars (5-4)
Texans (5-4)
Broncos (6-3)
If you include the Titans in the mix there are six teams for two spots.
Out of the teams the Titans are up against, they only play the Texans and would need to win that game just to split and not loose on a tiebreaker on the first level (head to head).
They already lost a tiebreaker with the Steelers because they lost to them head to head in week 1 so they would have to finish a game ahead of them which is not likely. So the reality of the situation is that there are five teams for one spot.
 They've split against the Jaguars and those tiebreakers still have time to play out.
Ironically the Broncos who started 6-0 are falling apart and seem to be most likely to fall out of this group.
Here are the Titans remaining games.
Week 11 - Texans
Week 12 - Cardinals
Week 13 - Colts
Week 14 - Rams
Week 15 - Dolphins
Week 16 - Chargers
Week 17 - Seahawks
If you assume the Titans they beat the Rams, Dolphins and Seahawks that leaves them with games against the Colts, the Chargers and the Cardinals. If the Colts game were one of the last games of the year that would have worked out great for them because Manning probably wouldn't play, or not play much but it's in three weeks.
It seems to me that this discussion isn't really even relevant unless they Titans get to 6-6 that would mean that they beat the Texans and Colts.
However, looking at the landscape and the schedules of the teams that they are up against, if the Titans can somehow get to ten wins, I think they get in. Nine..... not so much. While it is certainly mathematically possible, it appears that they would just need too many other things to happen. - Jason Lockhart
Jason is an aspiring sports journalist currently enrolled at Stanford University.
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