2021 AFC Week 14 Kayfabe Rankings

Now I'm pretty certain nothing is going to change the AFC from an LA Rams-Arizona game tomorrow night, so I don't need to worry about THAT this week...

So I can do this one cleanly:

Kayfabe:

East:  Patriots (9-4), 2 and the first HTH game over the Bills (7-6)

North:  Ravens (8-5), 1 over both the Browns and Bengals (7-6).  Ravens have split with the Browns, lost to the Bengals.  Browns have first HTH game over the Bengals.

South:  Titans (9-4), 2 and a HTH sweep over the Colts (7-6)

West:  Chiefs (9-4), 1 over the Chargers (8-5), 2 over the Broncos (7-6)

Oh you can see something coming over the horizon...

First off, we have a three-teamer right now to decide the 1, 2, and 3 seeds:  New England, Tennessee, and Kansas City

New England and Kansas City do not play, and Tennessee didn't sweep them both -- so no HTH.

Conference:  NE 7-1, TEN 6-3, KC 4-4.  NE is the #1.

Only one team advances per step, but Tennessee beat Kansas City anyway.

NOW THE FUN PART:

A FIVE-TEAM, FOUR-DIVISION TIEBREAKER for two playoff spots.  Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Denver.

Now the rule is that you break the CIN-CLE tiebreak first, which goes to Cleveland (first HTH game).  So Cincy is out of the tiebreaker until Cleveland is in or both spots are resolved.

There is no possible HTH sweep or be swept, because of the divisional situation and that Denver and Buffalo do not play.

So Conference:  Buffalo is 5-5, Cleveland is 4-5 (eliminating Cincinnati from any playoff consideration), Indianapolis is 6-3, Denver is 3-5.  Indianapolis is the #6, reset without them BUF/DEN/CLE.

No HTH, Conference records already given, Buffalo is the #7.

1) NE  9-4 (Conference tiebreak over the other two 9-4 division leaders.)

2) TEN 9-4 (Loses 3-way conference tiebreak to NE, has HTH tiebreak over KC)

3) KC 9-4 (Loses 3-way conference tiebreak to NE, loses HTH tiebreak to TEN)

4) BAL 8-5

5) LAC 8-5

6) IND 7-6 (Wins 4-way conference tiebreak over BUF, CLE (who eliminates CIN HTH), and DEN)

7) BUF 7-6 (Loses 4-way conference tiebreak to IND, wins 3-way conference tiebreak over CLE and DEN)

8) CLE 7-6 (Loses 4-way and 3-way conference tiebreaks above, HTH over DEN)

9) CIN 7-6 (Loses divisional tiebreaker HTH to CLE and is eliminated to here as a result, wins conference tiebreaker over DEN, the two do play next week)

10) DEN 7-6 (Loses all relevant tiebreakers to the other 7-6s at this point, largely on conference record)

11) PIT 6-6-1

12) LV 6-7 (HTH over Miami)

13) MIA 6-7 (Loses HTH with LV)

Only three teams in the AFC are outside of one game from a playoff spot.  Four weeks remain.

However, all three of those teams are now officially eliminated:  The Jaguars and Jets joined the Texans today, and all will be Squid Game-shot on UrinatingTree's weekly SportsBall YouTube post later this week.