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Colts stay alive in playoff race (barely) as Broncos win in overtime

Thanks to the Denver Broncos' win in overtime against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Colts are still alive in the playoff race heading into week 17 - barely.

By Josh Wilson
Andrew Innerarity-USA TODAY Sports

Last night, the Denver Broncos defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 20-17 in overtime on Monday Night Football, clinching a playoff spot for Denver.  For the Colts, it had much more significance than that, however: the Broncos' win kept the Colts alive in the playoff picture heading into week 17.

A Bengals win (or even a tie) would have clinched the AFC South title for the Houston Texans, thus eliminating the Colts with one week still to play.  The Broncos' win, however, keeps the Colts' incredibly small playoff hopes alive heading into the season's final week.

As we looked at yesterday, the Colts need A LOT to go right in order for them to make the playoffs.  They will need a ten-team parlay in order to make it, so the Broncos winning last night was just the first of ten games that the Colts' playoff hopes rest on.  They, of course, need to beat the Tennessee Titans and need the Jacksonville Jaguars to beat the Texans in order to even their record up at 8-8.  Then, to win the tiebreaker, the Colts would also need the Falcons, Ravens, Bills, Broncos, and Dolphins to win and then the Raiders and Steelers to either win or tie (as long as both teams don't tie).

So, again, it's a very, very small possibility.  The Colts need just about everything to go perfectly in order to make the postseason, which means that they will almost certainly be watching from home.  But the first game turned out how they needed it to (though it took overtime to do so), meaning that they will be heading into week 17 with a chance.

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