More Playoffs?!

My friend expounds on his playoff analysis:

Prediction -- Look for the Colts to absolutely SMASH the Chargers this weekend. Please don't place bets based on what I'm about to say, but I think the Chargers are something of a fluke.

Further gaming out my breakdowns of divisional records when playing teams outside your division, the AFC West is the 2nd worst division in football: 11-29. And before you lay all the blame on KC and Oakland, know this: San Diego went 5-1 in the AFC West.

That means they went 3-7 against non-West teams. That's not the sign of a team ready to do battle against the hottest team in football. Also, in this "run" by the chargers, consider this: 3 of the 4 wins they've rattled off in a row are against AFC West teams (Oakland, KC Denver). The other win came against the imploding Bucs, who this past weekend couldn't even hold a 10-pt lead against the Raiders.

The Colts most recent wins are also fairly pedestrian (a Tennessee team resting, Jax, Detroit, Cincy). But, in November, they gutted out wins against NE, Pitt, Houston and SD.

The other AFC divisions, against non-division opponents, went like this: East, 26-14; South, 26-14; North, 19-22-1.

The poor Buffalo Bills just got whip-sawed in that division, going 1-5 inside and 7-3 outside. Also worth noting: the Steelers may be the biggest of all paper tigers in the playoffs. 

Pittsburgh went 6-0 inside its division, 6-4 outside. I would not be surprised to see them knocked out in the 2nd round, against Miami or Indy.

To which my brother adds:

Steelers 6-4 was against some top teams – NFC East was 4 of them + Pats and Titans.  The 6-0 includes Ravens (yes the other 4 games were jokes).

Steelers are also playoff savvy, I love Tomlin and AT Pittsburgh is no easy task.  No way Dolphins win there.  Colts could.

Agree with Charges/Colts thoughts.

The Chargers comments could be used to describe the Cardinals – just replace Chargers with Cardinals and you are right on (only difference is 6-0 in division instead of 5-1).

Falcons should win.