Week 9 Results and Their Effect on the AFC South Playoff Race
By Max Dambach
Checking in on the AFC South after Week 9 Results within the division.
After weeks in which there was little separation between all four members of the AFC South, the field has begun to spread out heading into Week 10, and two clear playoff contenders continue to emerge as the rest of the division slowly fades away and begins thinking about 2018. The Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars remain tied atop the AFC South and both came off of their bye playing great football. With both teams being relatively young, this season could portend a future rivalry. Both teams have certainly had easy schedules thus far, and that doesn’t look as though that will change down the stretch, so division games and the all-important head to head matchup in Week 17 will likely determine the winner of the AFC South.
On the other hand, the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts continue to slowly fade away. The Texans were dealt a cruel hand this season when they lost several key starters, including J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson to injury. With Tom Savage in at quarterback, the team just doesn’t look the same and the defense has not proved capable of carrying the team as in years past. The team isn’t without playoff hopes, but the odds that they can consistently win without Watson seem slim to none. However, the one silver lining is that they will most likely be a team picking in the top ten that is more talented than their draft spot, which is good for a team that gave up a first round pick in the 2018 draft. The Colts also experienced injury woes with their franchise quarterback being injured all season, but even with Andrew Luck, this Colts roster needs two-to-three years to rebuild around Luck and compete for a Super Bowl after the woeful drafting of the Ryan Grigson era.
After nine weeks, the standings in the AFC South are as follows.
- Titans 5-3 (division leader on tiebreakers)
- Jaguars 5-3
- Texans 3-5
- Colts 3-6
Let’s examine the results from Week 9 for each AFC South team and what it means for their playoff hopes.