AFC South Finales Worth the Wait

INDIANAPOLIS — As the Indianapolis Colts watched with understandable interest, wondering if they would be a No. 4 or No. 7 seed in the AFC playoffs, twists and turns in the Lone Star State provided memorable Sunday drama.

It’s incredible to think that this season began with so much doubt about how the NFL could pull off a complete year due to COVID-19. Games were postponed and rescheduled, bye weeks rearranged, and the Titans overcame the first outbreak to eventually win the AFC South Division.

But that was in doubt early Sunday night, when the Houston Texans were once again pushing the Titans to the limit.

The Colts had defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-14 in a stressful game that wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter at Lucas Oil Stadium. They had clinched a playoff spot, thanks to the Buffalo Bills knocking out the Miami Dolphins. But Titans-Texans took center stage.

Postgame Zoom calls were put on hold. The Colts were watching in the locker room. The media were staring down TV screens in the press box. Some of the 7,500 fans allowed to attend the Colts-Jaguars game were still seated and watching the Titans and Texans on Lucas Oil Stadium’s giant video screens.

The moment was captivating and quite ironic, considering Colts head coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard had decided earlier in the week that out-of-town scores wouldn’t be shared on the LOS video screens to ensure the Colts players stayed focused on the Jaguars.

That plan was ditched early in the second quarter with the Colts ahead 10-0 and about to make it 17-0. Highlights of the Bills’ blowout of the Dolphins appeared on the video screens. Win and the Colts are in.

Fast forward to after the Colts and Jaguars shook hands, and everyone’s eyes were glued to those screens.

If the Texans beat the Titans, the Colts would be AFC South Division champions and secure the fourth seed and a first-round home playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. If the Titans beat the Texans, the Titans would be champs and the Colts would qualify as the seventh seed with a Saturday road trip against the second-seeded Buffalo Bills in Super Wild Card Weekend.

The Titans led by 16 points in the third quarter. The Texans rallied to take a 35-31 lead with 10:14 remaining. Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson was playing lights out, as was to be expected from a Pro Bowl star who didn’t let losing on a 4-12 team stop him from ending up as the NFL leader in passing yards.

“Honestly, I assumed that the Titans won the game,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “Walking off the field, (PR executive) Matt Conti told me it was close and that it was coming down to the wire and that Tennessee was about to score and the Titans were going to get a shot to tie it up. So, came in, we talked as a team while the game was still going on and then had the game on and saw the last couple of plays there to end the game.”

The last two minutes were nothing short of amazing.

Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill scored on a 5-yard TD run for a 38-35 lead with 1:42 remaining. Not much time left, but Watson was equally determined and drove the Texans to a tying field goal as Ka’imi Fairbairn delivered from 51 yards out with just 18 seconds remaining in regulation.

Now anxious eyes expected overtime.

But the Titans pulled off the impossible as Tannehill threw a 52-yard pass to A.J. Brown. The Colts, and everyone else, couldn’t believe it.

“When Tennessee throws a post, we’re all just looking at each other stunned like, ‘What was that coverage? What’s going on right now?’" Reich said.

After Derrick Henry rushed for 4 yards, Titans kicker Sam Sloman lined up a 37-yard field goal for the division title. As fate would have it, everything in this unpredictable, unexpected year was riding on a specialist who was recently signed to replace kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Sloman made a kick just inside the left upright. Game over. But wait. Texans head coach Romeo Crennel had called a time-out.

When watching video screens without sound, you don’t hear announcers advising of this important sideline decision.

OK, do it again. Sloman’s kick fluttered right this time, bounced off the upright ... and went through.

The scoreboard clock showed zeroes. The Titans celebrated.

"That's the first last-second field goal I've ever attempted in my life," Sloman said.

The Colts couldn't help but shake their heads. But, hey, they still got in. That wasn't a certainty at the start of Sunday.

Imagine how the Colts would have reacted if they didn't get the Bills' help against the Dolphins and that Sloman kick sent Indy into the offseason? 

Yeah, that would have been excruciating.

The Colts had the same 11-5 record as the Titans, but lost the AFC South title based on the division-record tiebreaker, and, because of how a football ricocheted off an upright.

“I think we’re all in the mindset of – sure, is being AFC South champions – is that important? It is, so it hurt,” Reich said. “I’m disappointed in that, but it doesn’t take away the thrill of getting in.”

And it doesn’t take away from how the NFL didn’t disappoint, not this season, nor in the dramatic late afternoon of Week 17.