New England is in. Indy is in.

Cincinnati and Denver lead their divisions at 9-3 and definitely have the inside track for the next 2 slots.

That leaves Jacksonville (9-3), KC (8-4), San Diego (8-4) and Pitt (7-5) fighting for two spots.

Jacksonville has the best record of the 4. They also have an almost guaranteed 3-1 finish (lose to Indy, then beat San Fran Houston and Tennessee), so they'll finish 12-4 and make the playoffs, probably as the top wild-card team. They will then play New England in the first round of the playoffs.

All of a sudden, Pittsburgh has the worst record of the 4 bubble teams. They close with 4 games that looked easy about 6 weeks ago, but the first two now look tough (Bears, then at Minnesota). They will definitely win their last two (against the Browns & Lions), but is it going to be enough?

The poor Chargers get Miami, but then go to Indy and then to KC before closing at home against Denver.

The Chiefs have it even tougher, IMO: apart from their home game against San Diego, they have to go to Dallas and the Giants and then play Cincinnati at home.

KC could close 0-4 or 1-3. San Diego could close 1-3 or 2-2. Either one gives Pitt a real chance to get back into it.

I have no clue who wins any tiebreakers.

In round 1 of the playoffs, whoever wins the last wildcard slot will play the division winner with the #3 record. Right now that looks to be either Denver or Cincinnati. So we could see a third Pitt-Cinn game, or a third SD-Denver or KC-Denver game.

I think SD has to win 3. If they go 2-2 and Pitt wins 3 out of 4, then they are tied.

Pitt beat SD so they have the heads up tie breaker. Of course if theres 3 teams ties, that throws another monkey wrench into it.

Also, after seeing Pitts offense yesterday, I think theres a 50/50 chance they can run the table and finish at 11-5 (barring another Roethlisberger injury).

Chicago is obviously very tough, but I dont think they can score on Pitts defense. This wll be one hell of a smash mouth game that no football fan should miss.

Minnesota is playing better with B.Johnson, but come on..they not very good.
Cleveland and Detroit stink. Finishing 4-0 for Pitt is not that hard to fathom.

SD still has Denver, KC and Indy.

Hmm, now that I look at it, Im not so sure Pittsburgh is out. I thought if they lost yesterday they were done, but maybe not.

I think the Chargers are going to have a tough road, they will beat the fins, and most likely the Chiefs, which means they have to beat either Indy or Denver to make the playoffs.

Here's the sports.yahoo.com poll that's up right now:

Who is the AFC's second-best team behind the 12-0 Colts?
Bengals (9-3)
Broncos (9-3)
Chargers (8-4)
Chiefs (8-4)
Jaguars (9-3)
Patriots (7-5)

Hmm, which team is missing from the list of choices? Uh-oh.

The consensus answer right now is the Bengals, follows by the Broncos and Chargers. The Patriots have gotten more votes than the Jaguars (!!?).