Titans seal NFL playoffs bye with victory
The AFC playoffs will be running through Music City, and the Tennessee Titans should bring back Derrick Henry for his first game this post season.
Tennessee (12-5) took its first No. 1 finish since 2008 and third overall. They needed only one win on Sunday, though they made it interesting before beating the Houston Texans 28-25 to take the top spot of the AFC.
"We understand we are in the Elite Eight," said Titans coach Mike Wrabel.
"We've gone to the second round of the playoffs without playing a playoff game."
This post season will include seven teams that missed the playoffs the previous season: Arizona, Cincinnati, Dallas, New England, Philadelphia, San Francisco and the Las Vegas Raiders, who took their places in the final game of the regular season. It wound up in a 35-32 overtime thriller over the Los Angeles Chargers when a tie put the two in.
"We didn't want a tie no matter what," said Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.
"We wanted to win the football game."
The AFC top seeding required Tennessee to lose to the Chiefs (12–5). The Titans' victory closed Kansas City to the No. 2 seed and will host the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wildcard round.
Only the Green Bay Packers had their playoff seeding set as the NFC's No. 1 seed going into the final week of the NFL regular season.
The Indianapolis Colts only needed to beat Jacksonville to reach the playoffs, but instead the Jaguars blew a wildcard berth, losing 26–11.
Ben Roethlisberger will play at least one more game after Daniel Carlson eliminates the possibility of a chaotic tie in Las Vegas. The Steelers defeated Baltimore 16-13 to take the No. 7 seed.
"I'm happy for Ben," Steelers kicker Chris Boswell said.
"We're sending him to the playoffs. This team deserves it."
The fifth seed Raiders (10–7) will visit No. 4 seed Cincinnati (10–7) in the first game of the wildcard round, while the AFC North champion Bengals lost 21–16 to the Cleveland Browns.
The Buffalo Bills (11–6) defeated the New York Jets 27–10 to win their second straight AFC East title and No. 3 seed and would host the sixth-seeded Patriots (10–7), who lost 33–24. Miami Dolphins.
In the NFC, the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13–4) defeated the Carolina Panthers 41–17 to take the No. 2 seed and would host Philadelphia (9–8) in a wildcard contest.
6th seed San Francisco (10–7) in another wildcard clash when the 49ers beat the LA Rams 27–24 to earn their playoff berth.
The Rams (12–5) won their third NFC West title in five seasons when the Arizona lost 38–30 to the Seattle Seahawks, and would host the fifth-seeded Cardinals (11–6) in the wildcard round.
