After suffering an embarrassing 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday, the Los Angeles Chargers finally got the chance to sit back and relax on their much-needed bye and watched a wild Week 12 play out in the AFC.
Not everything the Bolts were hoping would happen this week happened, but they did get a bump in the right direction in the AFC playoff picture, moving up one spot from No. 6 into the top wild-card slot at No. 5.
And that happened quickly, as it was the Buffalo Bills' loss to the Houston Texans to kick off the Week 12 slate on Thursday Night Football that did it.
Chargers win a tiebreaker with the Jaguars and Bills for the No. 5 slot in the AFC standings
Here's a quick look at the updated AFC playoff picture coming out of Week 12. The top seven teams, of course (four division winners, three wild cards), will earn postseason berths come January.
- New England Patriots (10-2, 1st AFC East)
- Denver Broncos (9-2, 1st AFC West)
- Indianapolis Colts (8-3, 1st AFC South)
- Baltimore Ravens (6-5, 1st AFC North)
- Los Angeles Chargers (7-4, 2nd AFC West)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (7-4, 2nd AFC South)
- Buffalo Bills (7-4, 2nd AFC East)
- Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5, 2nd AFC North)
- Houston Texans (6-5, 3rd AFC South)
- Kansas City Chiefs (6-5, 3rd AFC West)
- Miami Dolphins (4-7, 3rd AFC East)
- Cincinnati Bengals (3-8, 3rd AFC North)
- Cleveland Browns (3-8, 4th AFC North)
- Las Vegas Raiders (2-9, 4th AFC West)
- New York Jets (2-9, 4th AFC East)
- Tennessee Titans (1-4, 4th AFC South)
As you can see, the Chargers own the same 7-4 record as the other two teams currently holding wild-card slots, those being the Bills, who, as mentioned, lost to the Texans this past Thursday night, and the Jaguars, who picked up their seventh win of the season with a 27-24 overtime victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
The reason the Chargers win the three-way tiebreaker is due to the fact that they have the best record among the three in games played within the conference, owning a 6-2 mark against AFC opponents, with the Jaguars at 4-2 and the Bills at 4-3.
Had Buffalo won on Thursday night, the Chargers would have fallen to the No. 7 position, as they would have lost a direct head-to-head tiebreaker with Jacksonville, obviously due to last week's defeat. So, having the three-way tie was helpful this week and could continue to be as the season progresses.
Los Angeles is by no means comfortable, as the Ravens, Steelers, Texans, and Chiefs, who, much to the dismay of Bolts fans everywhere, scored a much-needed comeback overtime victory over the Indianapolis Colts, all sit at 6-5 and could all still make life difficult in the wild-card race.
As for the race for the AFC West, the Chargers still sit two games back of the Denver Broncos, who were also on a bye this week. Los Angeles will return to action next Sunday at SoFi Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders.