The AFC playoffs will be running through Music City, and the Tennessee Titans should have Derrick Henry back for their first game this postseason.
The Tennessee Titans, who’ve used an NFL-high 88 players and most ever in a non-strike season, clinched their first No. 1 seed since 2008 and third overall. They needed only a win Sunday, though they made it interesting before holding off the team that replaced them in Houston 28-25 to clinch the AFC’s top spot.
Titans coach Mike Vrabel noted nobody hands out T-shirts and hats for clinching the top seed.
“We understand we’re in the Elite Eight,” Vrabel said. “We’ve moved onto the second round of the playoffs without having to play a playoff game.”
The Chiefs (12-5) beat Denver on Saturday and needed the Titans to lose to clinch the AFC’s top seed. The Titans’ win locked Kansas City in the No. 2 seed thanks to Tennessee (12-5) holding the tiebreaker after beating the Chiefs 27-3 on Oct. 24 in Nashville.
Only the Green Bay Packers had their playoff seeding set as the NFC’s No. 1 seed going into the NFL’s final week of the regular season. The AFC had teams fighting for the final two wild-card spots and San Francisco trying to hold onto the final wild-card berth in the NFC.
The Indianapolis Colts came in on a roll with seven Pro Bowl players needing only to beat Jacksonville to reach the playoffs. Instead, the Colts blew a wild-card berth by losing their seventh straight road game to the Jaguars 26-11.
Ben Roethlisberger will play at least one more game as long as Sunday night’s game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders does not end in a tie. The Steelers had been on the outside looking in until the Colts’ loss, and they beat Baltimore 16-13 in overtime for the season sweep of the Ravens.
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