A dominant win over the Dallas Cowboys and some help from the Jacksonville Jaguars have put the fate of the AFC West solely in the LA Chargers' hands. The Chargers will win the division for the first time since 2009 if they can win their last two games.
The No. 1 seed could also be in play, although that is less likely with the New England Patriots pulling it out against the Baltimore Ravens. Regardless, the Bolts could guarantee themselves two home games in the NFL Playoffs if they beat two AFC playoff teams, the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos.
This could also lead to a dream scenario that was impossible three weeks ago and seemed too complicated three days ago: hosting Philip Rivers in a playoff game. Chargers fans never got to see Justin Herbert vs. Philip Rivers, and now, it's actually quite simple with some basic schedule math.
How the Chargers can face the Colts in the AFC Playoffs:
The calculus is simple now. If the Chargers win out (assuming the Patriots do the same against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins) they can finish with the No. 2 seed. Los Angeles needs the Jacksonville Jaguars to lose for that to happen. Jacksonville plays Indianapolis and Tennessee to close out the year.
That Colts game can be the difference. If the Colts win out they will secure the No. 7 seed and a date with the Chargers in the first round of the playoffs. Jacksonville would get the requisite loss for the Chargers to usurp the team, and the Colts would get enough wins to get in over the Texans.
Is it likely? Still, probably not. The Colts have the San Francisco 49ers, Jaguars and Texans to close the season. With a 44-year-old quarterback under center, it's not that hard to imagine the Colts going 0-3 in those games.
However, crazier things have happened. The 49ers just locked up a playoff spot and haven't been an unbeatable force this year. San Francisco has two huge games against the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks to end the year and could absolutely overlook the Colts on Monday Night Football.
Crazy things always happen in the Jaguars-Colts game, so it's not out of left field to suggest Indy can pull off an upset despite how good the Jaguars have looked. And by then, the Colts would face a win-and-get-in game in Week 18 against the Texans.
In this theorized situation, the Texans would be coming off a loss to the Chargers in Week 17. This would put all the pressure on CJ Stroud and Demeco Ryans to not blow a playoff spot that seemed like a guarantee. With all that mounting pressure, who knows what could happen in a psuedo-playoff game in Week 18.
It might not be likely, but it's certainly possible. And at the very least, the roadmap is now easy to understand. Chargers fans just have to do what they've done the last two decades and root for Herbert and Rivers to win every game they play down the stretch.
And if that happens, the Chargers can poetically put Rivers out to pasture in his first (and almost certainly only) game against the team he retired with this past summer.