Updated Dec. 23, 2025, 10:16 a.m. CT<\/p>\n
In every postseason conversation, there’s good news and bad news.<\/p>\n
For the Houston Texans<\/a>, the message is simple: keep winning and watch what happens next.<\/p>\n Sitting at 10-5 following a 23-21 win over the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, the Texans<\/a> are in great shape for a third straight playoff appearance going into Week 17. Even though they’ve yet to clinch a bid, having 10 wins puts Houston at a 98.6 percent chance of entering the postseason conversation for Week 17’s road trip against the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n So, can Houston clinch its spot in the postseason with a win on Saturday? Yes. And even in a loss, the Texans would make the playoffs should the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> defeat the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> in Week 17.<\/p>\n For Houston to be in the hunt for a division title, it must win on the road and then pull for the Colts to bring back 44-year-old to take care of business against the Chiefs this week at home. Should that happen, both teams would be tied at 10-5 entering the final two games of the regular season.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s the latest AFC playoff picture entering Thursday’s matchup between the Seattle Sehawks and Los Angeles Rams<\/a>:<\/p>\n NFL playoff picture (AFC)Denver Broncos<\/a>: 12-3New England Patriots: 12-3Jacksonville Jaguars: 11-4Pittsburgh Steelers: 9-6Los Angeles Chargers: 11-4Buffalo Bills<\/a>: 11-4Houston Texans<\/a>: 10-5<\/p>\n The Colts<\/a>\u00a0(8-6) and\u00a0Baltimore Ravens<\/a>\u00a0(7-8) are also still in the hunt in the AFC, though Baltimore might be out of contention for a wild-card spot since it has head-to-head losses to both Houston and Buffalo.<\/p>\n After facing the Chargers on Saturday, Houston will\u00a0head home against the Colts in Week 18.<\/p>\n Everything now is about winning. Should Houston finish 12-5, it would essentially be a lock for a playoff bid, regardless of the Ravens<\/a>, Bills<\/a>, Steelers and Chargers outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Dec. 23, 2025, 10:16 a.m. CT In every postseason conversation, there’s good news and bad news. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9268,9269,44,10910,5003,2653,5009,2518,4588,5011,22868,12478,9583,2619,184,46,216,36],"class_list":["post-98827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsnfltexans","tag-sstsntexans","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagamerican-football-conference","tag-tagbaltimore-ravens","tag-tagbuffalo-bills","tag-tagdenver-broncos","tag-taghouston","tag-taghouston-texans","tag-tagindianapolis-colts","tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","tag-taglos-angeles-rams","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}