Colts officially can no longer get a wild card spot

Based on what happened in the early slate of games today, the Indianapolis Colts now officially have only one route to the playoffs this year: win the AFC South.

The Colts entered the day with very slim chances of winning the division, and their chances of getting a wild card berth were even worse. Now, we can officially say that the Colts won’t be getting a wild card spot, as it’s no longer possible. With the Dolphins’ overtime win over the Bills today, Miami improves to 10-5. With Kansas City and Oakland both currently having double-digit wins as well (and only one can win the division), so now there are two teams that have double-digit wins in the wild card race - and the best the Colts could do is win nine games.

So Indianapolis can’t reach the status of the other wild card contenders, meaning that no matter what happens from here on out the Colts can’t earn a wild card spot. That puts all of the Colts’ hopes on the AFC South, and even those hopes are very slim. The Colts need to win today, but even if they win the Texans could still clinch the division with a win tonight over the Bengals. So the Colts will need to win out and have the Texans lose out in order to win the division, and even if the Colts manage to win and Texans lose today, that would require the Titans to beat the Texans next week without Marcus Mariota.

In other words, it’s only a matter of time before we can officially say that the Colts are eliminated from playoff contention. Their odds of winning the AFC South aren’t good, and now the wild card isn’t even an option for the hopes of desperate Colts fans.