Oakland is finished with the Raiders. But the Raiders, incredibly, still harbor hopes for an AFC playoff berth.
You read correctly. It can happen _ even without a suspicious outbreak of ptomaine breaking out in selected NFL cities.
Here's how it happens:
1. The Raiders have to beat the Chargers in Los Angeles and the Broncos in Denver. Now, it's true that the Raiders haven't won consecutive road games since 2016 _ their win over the Bears in London, which came right after beating the Colts in Indy, was technically a home game.
This also is true: Someone has to lose. Am I right, or am I right, or am I right?
2. The Titans have to lose out (vs. New Orleans and at Houston. Combined records: 20-8). The Steelers do too, on the road against the lowly Jets and soaring Ravens.
3. Indianapolis wins out (vs. Carolina and at Jacksonville. Combined records: 10-18. If Indy can't win pull this off, the Colts' NFL charter is hereby revoked and they are relegated to the All-America Football Conference.)
4. The Browns have to lose at least one game. Baker Mayfield is already rehearsing his commercials for next year. Done.
5. Assuming the above-mentioned pigpile comes to pass, it creates a four-way tie between the Steelers, Titans, Colts and Raiders. Getting interesting, isn't it? It gets better.
By virtue of a superior division record, Indy punts Tennessee into next year.
The Raiders, by virtue of their win in Indianapolis, eliminate the Colts, while somewhere Andrew Luck says to himself, "Man, did I make the right decision."
Finally, the Raiders miraculously squeeze into the AFC postseason field based on their "strength of victory" tiebreaker over the Steelers, who hurt themselves there by beating the Bengals twice, while the Raiders only did it once.
Take that, Franco Harris.
