Christmas Miracle Weekend Begins... [aka Week 16 & 17 Scoreboard Watching]
 

Here's your live (well, semi-live) thread detailing the 12th-place Texans' pursuit to a playoff berth in just two weeks. How? Well, here's how:

Friday, Dec. 25th:

6:30 p.m. Chargers must beat Titans. Will the already-clinched Chargers have a let-down on the road in a short week or is locking down a first-round bye enough to get their juices flowing?

Sunday, Dec. 27th:

Noon Patriots must beat Jaguars. This win is crucial for our playoff hopes, both in helping us leap into second place in the AFC South but also to soften up the Pats for their final-week game in Houston.

Noon Steelers must beat Ravens.* This game is not really crucial but if the Ravens win, then the rest are playing for the last playoff berth. If the Steelers win, they stay in the playoff hunt but you'll have more teams sharing the same fate for Week 17.

Noon Texans must beat Dolphins. Nothing else matters if this doesn't happen but the Texans are undefeated lifetime against the Fins so I have confidence in them to win a close one.

3:15 p.m. Eagles must beat Broncos. Eagles get Westbrook back. The Broncos fired Shanahan for a late-season collapse. New coach, same collapse.

3:15 p.m. Colts must beat Jets. Hate to root for Manning and his quest for perfection but you can't choose your friends when you're begging for miracles.

If the miracle happens, the Texans will be 8-7 along with the Ravens, Steelers and Broncos while the Dolphins, Jets, Titans and Jaguars sit at 7-8 and in need of their own miracle next week. There would be two wild card slots up for grabs, so Houston would need to win Jan 3rd while any two of the Broncos (vs KC), Ravens (@ OAK) and Steelers (@ MIA) lose in order to make the playoffs.

*Should Baltimore beat the Steelers on Sunday, Baltimore clinches the #5 seed and it will be down to the Texans and Broncos for the #6 seed if the rest of the scenario plays out.

Thank you Bob for laying that out so I could understand the road we have ahead of us..

Playoff Scenario Generator
 

From Yahoo via Kuharsky's blog:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/playoffs...hm=yahooranker

Basically, you can mix and match, and it will calculate who's in, and who's not. From the looks of it, we need to all favorites, except the Titans (and I still don't understand how they are favorites) to win this weekend. That happens, and a Denver loss to KC in week 17, and we are sliding into playoff in the 6th seed.

It will be a great weekend of football, with a lot on the line for a host of teams.

Of course that will all depend on whether or not we show up against Miami, and then play balls out against NE.

Well, a Titans win tonight won't eliminate the Texans, even if you expect the Titans to win in Seattle the following week.

But the road will get immensely more difficult if the Chargers can't find a way to win tonight in Nashville. The Titans are hurting at LB now though without Keith Bulluck and David Thornton. Hopefully that opens up the Charger rushing attack.

After a slow start, the Chargers rush defense has improved. Of course, they haven't had to face Chris Johnson with the threat of Vince Young running it, either. Should be a good one.

Nice.

According to that, there's one scenario where we become the fifth seed (and face a rematch with the Patriots) as the only 9-7 team while the Jaguars survive as the sixth seed at 8-8.

If IF and BUTS were candy and nuts, what a wonderful Christmas it would be.

L.T. with a one-yard TD late in the first quarter to make it 7-3 Chargers.

Rivers to Gates for 36 Yds...TD...Tennessee challeges... Replay confirms!...TD!

XP good - SD 14, Titans 3 with 8:46 left in the second.

2nd VY turnover. Between the flags and TOs, the Titans are really helping out the Texans here.

and I love it.

A 52-yd TD pass is overturned by penalty but the Chargers shrug it off and march down the field anyway... TS pass to Sprout...XP good.

Chargers 21, Titans 3 3:13 left in the second qtr. If the Titans can't score before the half, this one can be put on cruise control.

Same ol' Oilers. Hey Bud! This finger's for you!

Should it work out this way, and the Broncos and Texans both finish 9-7 we would tie in conference record, leading to a head to head breakdown, in which we would tie at 3-2 apiece. That leads to a strength of victory tiebreaker. The Broncos are +5 points in those 5 games. We have played 4 of the games, with New England yet to be determined. We are currently +20. Any victory over the Patriots and a finish of 9-7 would give us a tiebreaker victory over the Broncos, thus if the scenario of dreams plays out and Baltimore loses out along with the Steelers losing to Miami would give us a berth.

Vince comes to life and scores just before half. This one's not over yet.

Chargers 21, Titans 10 as halftime approaches.

Only the Broncos or Ravens need to lose. The Steelers/Miami one doesnt make a difference according to the scenario maker on Yahoo.

Love it when Courtland Fooligan makes an a-hole play. Doesn't look like the Titans are going to be able to hang with the Chargers tonight. Tell you what, the Chargers are probably the scariest team in the NFL right now.

L.T. caps off a scoring drive to make it 28-10 Chargers. Not looking good for the Bud Boys in Nashpatch.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Chargers/Eagles or Chargers/Packers in the Super Bowl.

Indeed, it gives the Texans the tiebreaker with Pittsburgh if they are both 9-7 but I'm not sure why. Both will have the same crappy conference record so it must come down to common opponents in which case our win over Cincy while they lost to them twice is probably huge.

Sprout gets another TD. It's 35-10 and this one's over.

Step one accomplished.

42-10. Beatdown.

The fact that the Titans loss starts to give us more than just a glimmer of hope of making the playoffs if we win out makes it more unlikely we win in FLA tomorrow, IMO.
I can't help but be pessimistic since this team has had so many chances in key games (especially intra-division games) this year to step up and make a statement and in each opportunity it's flunked the test.

There's always a chance we can lay an egg but if Schaub has time to throw, Miami's young corners can be burned. Getting Moats/Brown started early will be a big key to that.

Missing Slaton & Daniels takes away our second and third top weapons so Baby Shan has to get more creative.

Our LBs also have to have a great game to keep their rushing attack in check. I think I heard that Ronnie Brown is out for the season and Ricky Williams (minus the dreads) is now their primary weapon. That limits the Wildcat offense somewhat. If we can get them to the point where Chad Henne has to win the game for them, I like out chances.

IMO, this is the biggest game in Texans history. They have everything to play for since they're still in it and won't know their ultimate fate at game start. If they play well, even if they lose next week or miss the playoffs, then Kubiak should get another year. If they come out flat and play poorly, Kubiak should go. If you can't get up for a game like this, then something is seriously wrong with the coaching and/or resolve of the players.

Nah, not the biggest game in Texans history. That would have been one of the four games we lost in the middle of the season. This is a "everything else is just gravy" game.

I dissagree, since the inception of this franchise we've never had a chance (albeit a minute one) to make the playoffs this late in the season. We should be going into this game with the mindset it is a playoff game.

Weren't we still in it last year going into the second-to-last week? Or maybe that was the season before?

Miracle Update: At the half of the early games...

Patriots 28, Jaguars 0.
Steelers 20, Rabens 10.

TEXANS 27, Dolphins 3

All systems are still go. Steelers have more work to do but we are well on the way to pulling off the blueprint. If these scores hold, we vault into second place in the division and we're in the playoff hunt for the final week at home against the nothing-to-play-for Patriots.

Not as easy as it looked at halftime but Mission Accomplished. The Christmas Miracle Weekend continues!

New England 35, Jacksonville 7
Pittsburgh 23, Baltimore 20

HOUSTON 27, Miami 20.

Now, we are Eagle and (ahem) Colt fans. If they both win, we go into the final week with four teams left in the wild card mix.

Hmm, in Houston, CBS showing Colts vs. Jets ..... was supposed to be Broncos vs. Eagles...

It's on 790AM if you are in Houston.

4/4 on the miracle games!!! Let's go Eagles and Colts!!!

Thanks, amigo!

Eagles score late in first qtr - Phi 7, Den 0
Colts score but botch extra point - Ind 6, NYJ 0.

Eagles and Colts both extend leads with field goals -

Phi 10, Den 0

Ind 9, NYJ 0

Halftime updates:

Phi 20, Den 7
Ind 9, NYJ 3

Jets get a TD, Colts respond with TD but fail on 2-pt conversion.

Ind 15, NYJ 10 (3rd).

I like the Yahoo scenario better, but the below link came from Solomon's blog.

http://www.playoffstatus.com/nfl/texansclinch.html

Eagles score again to go up 27-10 on Denver in the third.

Jets force a fumble and return it for a TD - 2-pt conversion is good.

NYJ 18, Ind 15 - late in the 3rd. :(

It doesnt look like Peyton is coming back even after Jets took the lead.... Chalk one up for the Jets. Go Bengals!!!

That Caldwell jackass pulled Manning. What a pisser.....:mad: