Titans Still Firmly in Control of Playoff Fate

Even if the worst happens over the next three weeks, Derrick Henry, Jeffery Simmons and Co. will have a chance to finish first in the AFC South.

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans missed a golden opportunity to make life easier for themselves when they lost to Jacksonville on Sunday.

Even after the 36-22 defeat at Nissan Stadium, however, they are in an excellent position to win the AFC South, which would mean a postseason berth and a home playoff game.

Tennessee still has the inside track to win the AFC South. In fact, the New York Times’ playoff simulator gives the Titans (7-6) an 89 percent chance of a first-place finish, followed by the Jaguars (5-8) at nine percent and the Colts (4-8-1) at one percent.

One obvious way to clinch the division is to win three of the four remaining games – at the Chargers, home against Houston and Dallas, and at Jacksonville. That would get the Titans to 10-7. No one else in the division can win more than nine games.

Even if Tennessee loses its next three, it still can finish first with a victory over Jacksonville in the final week of the regular season.

How so? Three more losses would drop the Titans to 7-9. If the Jags win their next three, they’d be 8-8. A Tennessee win over Jacksonville would leave both teams at 8-9, but the Titans would win the tiebreaker (division record) and earn the automatic playoff berth.

In that case, the only other thing that would need to happen is for Indianapolis to lose at least once in the final four weeks.

Other scenarios will present themselves based on other AFC South results over the coming weeks.

Of course, had Tennessee defeated Jacksonville, the Jaguars would have been eliminated from the division race, and things would seem much less dramatic for the Titans.

That would have set up a scenario in which the Titans could have clinched the division crown before they played their next game. A loss by Indianapolis next Saturday at Minnesota would have allowed the Titans to take the field next Sunday in Los Angeles already knowing they were AFC South champs.

Even if the Colts kept winning down the stretch, Tennessee would have needed just one victory its last four.

That likely would have allowed some players to rest over down the stretch, helping them get healthier for the postseason.

Bottom line?

Sunday’s loss certainly wasn’t a step in the right direction for a Titans team “at a crossroads,” as Mike Vrabel described the situation last week.

But the team still has the opportunity to control its own postseason destiny – and a very good chance at winning the AFC South for a third straight time.

“I feel like we can say that we’re lucky to still be at the same crossroad and still have a lot in front of us,” wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine said. “Still have an option to decide our fate. So I feel like you just get back to work, find a way to get back to what we were doing before, when we were winning games. And just look into that, and fight to get back to that, that mentality.”