The Indianapolis Colts have reached their long-awaited bye week and with their playoff hopes still in tact. So without Colts’ football this Sunday, who should you be rooting for?
At 6-7 on the season, the Colts find themselves as the AFC’s eighth seed, currently two games back of the 8-5 Denver Broncos, who hold the final playoff spot in the conference at the moment.
So the obvious team to root against is Denver, however, like the Colts, they are also on their bye week.
Really, any team that can somewhat impact the Colts’ playoff chances are on their bye this week. This includes the Houston Texans, who still haven’t locked up the AFC South yet, and the Baltimore Ravens, whose playoff odds are high, but at 8-5, hold the same record as Denver and are the sixth seed.
The Colts’ playoff odds entering Week 14, according to NFL.com, is at 26%. While making up a two-game deficit with only four games left on the schedule won’t be easy, what the Colts have going in their favor is that they play the Broncos coming out of the bye week and have the easiest remaining schedule in football after that game.
If Indianapolis is going to make the playoffs, it will likely have to be done by overtaking the Broncos for the seventh seed, with catching Houston or Baltimore far less likely paths, but to muddy things up, you can still root against them after the bye.
So who is there to root for–or against–this week. Well, one team to root against to get them out of the playoff hunt would be Miami, who is 5-7 and with a win would have the same record as the Colts. The Dolphins host the Jets this week.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
