2nd Half Reset

[HPF Bob]

I'm going to spot the Ravens a win over the Rams Monday night (if they lose, it changes nothing) so here are the Week 12 playoff standings (conference record in parentheses):

New England 10-1 (6-1)
Baltimore 9-2 (6-2)
Houston 7-4 (6-2)
Kansas City 7-4 (5-3)
Buffalo 8-3 (6-2)
Pittsburgh 6-5 (5-3)
----------------------------
Oakland 6-5 (4-3)
Indianapolis 6-5 (5-5)
Tennessee 6-5 (4-4)
Cleveland 5-6 (5-3)

Houston has the tiebreaker over KC (head-to-head but also conference record). Pittsburgh wins the four-way tie for the sixth seed (Indy owns tiebreak with the Titans but are eliminated with losses to both Pittsburgh and Oakland head-to-head, then Pittsburgh prevails on conference record)

ESPN now has that wonderful "what if", the NFL Playoff Machine

http://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

where you can tweak your favorite scenarios. In my first run-through, the Texans take the AFC South but fall behind KC into the 4th seed. Buffalo slides entirely out of the playoffs with defeats against Dallas, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and New England leaving the Steelers and Oakland as the Wild Cards. Houston hosts Pittsburgh in the first round and loses because the refs love the Steelers even with a third-string free agent at quarterback.