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We've been talking about playoff scenarios for your Houston Texans over the past few weeks (a fact that remains surreal after this team started out 2-5). In the wake of their undressing of the Titans in Nashville yesterday and with only one more week left in the 2015 regular season, what needs to happen for the Texans to clinch a playoff berth is now crystal clear. Believe it or not, it could happen as soon as tonight on Monday Night Football.
ESPN's Jeremy Mills has it all worked out here; the basic idea is that the only way the Texans will not win the AFC South is if the Colts hit a ten (10!) team parlay.
It’s still mathematically possible, but the Colts would need 10 different games to break right (including the Monday Night Football game) to win the division. According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, there’s a 0.03 percent chance of that happening. The odds against it are 3,326-to-1!
The quickest way for the Texans to ensure a division title? Why, that'd be with our friends in Cincinnati beating Gary Kubiak's Broncos in Denver on MNF this evening. If that happens, the Houston Texans are the 2015 AFC South champs no matter what happens from then on out, including a Texans loss to Jacksonville and a Colts win over Tennessee on Sunday.
What if the Bengals don't win, though? Then what?
If Cin loses at Denv on MNF...Here's WK 17 scenario -Texans get in with a win OR ANY of these teams winning, TN, NYJ, NE, Cin, SD, Saints
— Marc Vandermeer (@TexansVoice) December 28, 2015
It would therefore seem like a bit of an understatement to say that the odds favor the Texans at this point. Strange things can and do happen, but I'll gladly take the 99.97% chance that NRG Stadium is hosting a playoff game in a little less than two weeks.
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