The AFC South is terrible. Horrible. It’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad division. The Indianapolis Colts are in first place with a 6-7 record, solely based on the fact that three of those six victories have come from within the division. The division, mind you, that has a collective 20-32 record with a total net points of, and this is not a typo, -217 on the season.
The Colts, after Sunday’s disastrous loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, have a -81 net points and are still winning the division.
There are only three teams in football—San Francisco (-127), Cleveland (-117) and San Diego (-84)—with a lower point differential than the team in first place in the AFC South. Writers and fans have mocked the NFC East all season long for how terrible that division is, and even that division has a better record and higher net points than the AFC South.
The Houston Texans had a chance to take hold of the division with a win over the New England Patriots on Sunday night, but failed to keep pace with Tom Brady and the Pats, falling 27-6 at home in prime time. As if anyone expected a victory.
The Texans have one of the best receivers in the game this year in DeAndre Hopkins, and J.J. Watt is still widely recognized as the best player on the defensive side of the ball in the sport (note: Khalil Mack is on line two), but Houston doesn’t have much else. They certainly don’t have a quarterback.
Speaking of quarterbacks, the Colts could get better once Andrew Luck returns from a lacerated kidney. They could (really, they could), but the chances of Indianapolis even having meaningful games left to play by the time he comes back are dwindling. This is a headline on the Colts’ website on Monday: Injuries To Andrew Luck, Matt Hasselbeck Complicate Availability For Colts Quarterbacks
Here’s the first line. Read this. Read it twice if you have to.
In the Colts most important game of the 2015 season, Charlie Whitehurst could be the starting quarterback.
Charlie Whitehurst. Did you even know he was still in the league? Even when Luck comes back, the Colts have proven they are barely good enough to compete in their own division on the defensive side, especially after getting throttled by Jacksonville 51-16 this Sunday. Can Luck play linebacker? The Colts are 29th in the league in points against and 29th in yards allowed per game. With or without Luck, how is that a playoff team?
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Is Houston?
The reality is, and who could believe this would be the case in mid-December, the 5-8 Jaguars are probably the best team in the division.
Tennessee has Marcus Mariota and three wins, so in a few years we can talk about that team some more, but the Jacksonville Jaguars and Blake Bortles look like the best team in the AFC South after this weekend’s victory. And, yes, they’re three games under .500, 1-5 on the road and 2-3 in the division.
Oh, and the Jaguars rode a two-game losing streak to horrible teams—San Diego and Tennessee—into this resounding win over the Colts on Sunday. Let’s not forget that.
The Jaguars have been offensively inconsistent and, until this week, defensively inept, ranking 30th in points allowed and 22nd in total yards surrendered even after Sunday’s big win. But the combination of Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns at wide receiver has given Bortles a dynamic tandem to throw to on the outside. If Bortles can manage to stop turning the ball over—he has 17 turnovers in 13 games this year—Jacksonville will be able to score with anyone in the league.
In just his second season in the NFL, Bortles is currently sixth in the league in yards, despite a poor 57.5 percent completion rate. His 30 touchdowns are third best in the league and while he does have 13 picks, that’s less than Matt Ryan or Peyton Manning and only one more than Luck, through more than 200 additional attempts.
Robinson’s 12 touchdowns are tied for best in the NFL for receivers and Hurns’ eight rank in the top 10. Jacksonville is one of only four teams in the NFL—Arizona, New York Jets and, if you can believe it, Cleveland—to have two receivers ranked in the top 25 in the league in yards.
Still, they are by league standards a bad football team. But in the AFC South, they just might be able to win the division and make the playoffs. This year. Seriously.
No, seriously, this year.
Jacksonville finishes the regular season with Atlanta at home, then at New Orleans and at Houston.
The Falcons just lost 38-0 to the Carolina Panthers, their seventh loss in eight games, with the only win coming in a three-point victory over Tennessee.
New Orleans is also 5-8 and has the worst defense in football. Barns will be burned when Jacksonville faces the Saints in the dome, and anything can happen in a game like that, including a Jags win.
Houston plays three division games to end the year—at Indy, at Tennessee and home against the Jaguars—so reasonable minds might suggest the Texans, with a game in hand over the Jaguars and a win between the two already, would have the upper hand in the division. Right now, even with the loss against the Patriots, the Texans probably do, but outside of Watt and Hopkins, who in Texas gives you any confidence on a professional football field right now?
That leaves Indianapolis, with games against Houston, at Miami and home to Tennessee to end the year. The Colts should run the table, and if Luck comes back at any point one would have to assume they’ll win at least one or two of those games. And yet, that headline. That first paragraph.
In the Colts most important game of the 2015 season, Charlie Whitehurst could be the starting quarterback.
The Jags are totally winning this division, aren’t they? As terrible, horrible and no good as it is.
