Who to Root for: Week 17

Here’s a rerun from earlier this week, so I don’t have to spend tomorrow on twitter reminding everyone who to root for!

Normally, this is a Sunday feature, but I don’t want to answer questions about it all week. I’ll repost it on Sunday morning.

Let’s deal with the simple scenario first:

Jacksonville at Houston

Indy is in with a Jags loss, no matter what happens in the Titans game.

Oakland at Kansas City

If Indy wins and KC loses, the Colts take the three seed.  The three seed doesn’t matter too much, but it guarantees you don’t play the Pats in the second round.

Let’s assume that happens.  If Indy is 3 and KC is four, we are rooting for:

Bills at Jets

Steelers at Browns

Bengals at Ravens

That would make the bracket: 1. NE 2. Balt 3. Ind 4. KC 5. Pitt 6. NYJ.  Indy would get the Jets in the first round and Baltimore in the second.  The Pats would probably play the Steelers in the second round.

BUT…

If KC wins and Indy is the four seed, we need to root for the same situation only hope the Jets win.

This would make the bracket: 1. NE 2. Balt 3. KC 4. IND 5. NYJ 6. Pitt  Same thing would hold.  Indy gets the Jets, Pitt beats KC and goes to NE.

If Pitt wins, I don’t think it matters if we get the Ravens or Jets.  The Ravens would be a little worse of a matchup, I guess.  But neither team scares me.

In order, my preference for playoff matchups:

1. Chiefs (impossible until conference championship)

2. NY Jets-Are they worse than the Ravens…maybe a little.

3. Baltimore Ravens-We haven’t lost to them since 2001.

4. Steelers (though I’d much rather play them at home than on the road)

5. Patriots.