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If your Houston Texans beat the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay tomorrow, they win the AFC South and will host a playoff game on January 4th or January 5th. What happens between the Saints and Titans on Sunday in Nashville won’t affect the Texans if Houston wins tomorrow afternoon to improve to 10-5.
If the Texans lose to the Bucs, they can still win the AFC South if the Saints beat the Titans on Sunday. Not the way you’d like to see them do it, of course, but a division title is a division title.
If the Texans lose tomorrow and the Titans win on Sunday, the division will be on the line in Week 17 at NRG Stadium when the Texans and Titans face off with both teams sitting at 9-6.
There are a couple of other scenarios in play for the Texans to clinch a playoff berth or the division title, as Adam Wexler details below. The most straightforward of the other paths is if the Steelers lose to the Jets on Sunday; that would mean Houston is guaranteed a playoff spot regardless of what happens tomorrow in Tampa.
#Texans clinch AFC South if:
— Adam Wexler (@KPRC2AdamW) December 17, 2019
HOU win OR
HOU tie + TEN tie OR
TEN loss
Texans clinch playoff berth if:
HOU tie + PIT tie OR
PIT loss
Personally, I vote that the Texans just win tomorrow and make things easier on all of us this holiday season. Here’s what you need to know to catch the game this weekend.
Kickoff Time: 12 p.m. CST on Saturday, December 21st.
TV Broadcast: NFL Network. If you’re in the Houston area, the game will also air locally on FOX.
Radio Broadcast: Sports Radio 610 (AM), 100.3 (FM), and SXM 225. NFL Game Pass also provides an audio streaming service.
Online Streaming: Viewers in the U.S. can use the NFL Mobile app if they have a Verizon subscription. Everyone else can use the NFL Game Pass subscription service to watch the game.
Opponent Blog: Bucs Nation.
Twitter: @battleredblog.
Facebook: Sure, you like us. But do you really, really like us?
NFL Network Replay: To be determined.
In terms of what we'll be doing for the game itself, expect "Countdown To Kickoff" to post at 8 a.m. CST tomorrow, with the first open thread for the game posting promptly at 11:45 a.m. CST. We'll add live open threads each quarter after that, and then we'll have a post-game reaction thread as soon as the game's over.