6 NFL teams that could be dangerous IF they make the playoffs

If they’re still playing in January, watch out.

There are two full weeks left in the regular season, and only five teams have secured a playoff spot. Three teams — the Rams, Saints, and Bears — have won their division. No teams have clinched a first-round bye. That means there’s still a lot of shuffling left to be done over the final weeks of December.

Not every team still alive will get to postseason. The 14 remaining ones that have yet to clinch or be eliminated are fighting for seven spots. Some of them, like the Texans, Patriots, and Seahawks, are virtually guaranteed to make it barring a total collapse. That leaves everyone else battling for just a couple spots.

Of those teams, there are a handful of dangerous ones that could mess around and win a game in January if they’re lucky enough to slip into the postseason. Here are six of them:

In the AFC

The case for the: Indianapolis Colts

Despite their 8-6 record, the Colts have been one of the more impressive teams in the league this year. Andrew Luck is back and playing like a top quarterback again, and they have a much-improved offensive line. Plus, there’s the demon in the middle of their defense: rookie linebacker Darius Leonard, who is solidifying his case for the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

After starting off 1-5, the Colts have won seven of their last eight games. They’re one of the hottest teams in the NFL and have the components in place to win in January — if they can get there.

While their offense has taken a ton of credit for turning the season around, their defense has been solid too. Coming into Week 15, they ranked 17th in opposing adjusted net yards per attempt, 12th in sack percentage, and seventh in turnover percentage. And that was before they shut out the Cowboys 23-0. They held Dallas to 180 net passing yards, got three sacks, and forced two turnovers.

The Colts are rounding into form at just the right time. Now they need to handle business with a little bit of luck (no pun intended) to get into the playoffs.

The case for the: Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore’s offense has gotten a bit of a spark since Lamar Jackson took over at starting quarterback for the then-injured Joe Flacco. Jackson’s passing is inconsistent, but he’s turned the Ravens’ running game into a forced to be reckoned with. The Ravens averaged 92.7 rushing yards per game in the nine games that Joe Flacco started, but they’ve averaged 230.4 rushing yards per game in the five games Jackson has started.

The Ravens are still led by their stifling defense, but the added diversity of their newfound run game makes them an intriguing team. Baltimore very much controls its own destiny. The Ravens are currently in the sixth seed in the AFC, but they have to travel to the Chargers before finishing off the season at home against the Browns. If they can lock down those two wins, the Ravens and Jackson will be must-see TV come playoff time.

The case for the: Tennessee Titans

It’s tough to figure out which Titans team is going to show up any given week — a proud tradition that extends through the entirety of Marcus Mariota’s three-plus years in Nashville. Tennessee is capable of great things, like when it routed the Patriots or beat the Cowboys by 14. The club is also capable of vomiting all over itself, like it did when it lost to the Bills or got absolutely annihilated by the Colts.

Those four uneven performances all happened within a seven-week span, but Tennessee appears to be leveling out behind a power running game and a resplendent Derrick Henry. Henry’s been the foundation from which the Titans’ offense has built the past two weeks, running for 408 yards and six touchdowns in a 2-0 stretch. That’s taken the pressure from Mariota’s oft-injured shoulders — and occasionally allowed him to spread his wings as a devastating downfield blocker, somehow.

That’s probably not what the Titans want to see from a quarterback who hasn’t played a full 16-game season in his career and has already missed two games this fall, but Mariota’s effort is contagious. After allowing 38 and 34 points in losses to the Colts and Texans, respectively, the Tennessee defense has come together to give up only 31 in its last three. Granted, those performances came against the Jaguars, Jets, and Giants, but that’s what good teams do.

That defense will be paramount to the team’s road to the postseason. The Titans have been one of the league’s most efficient defenses, even if high-priced offseason addition Malcolm Butler hasn’t worked out. Tennessee boasts above-average performance across the defensive lineup in pretty much every important metric but forcing turnovers.

A game against Washington and fourth-string quarterback Josh Johnson stands between the Titans and a potential playoff-deciding showdown with the Colts in Week 17. Only a catastrophe is going to keep them from nine wins.

The case for the: Miami Dolphins

Miami shocked both the Bears and Patriots with comeback wins, and also held off the Titans in a frantic Week 1 finish. The rest of the Dolphins’ seven wins — against the Jets (twice), Raiders, and Bills — aren’t as encouraging, but there’s enough evidence on the books to believe if the football gods are rooting for anyone’s broken path to wind to the playoffs, it’s Miami’s.

Ryan Tannehill, until Sunday, was having potentially the least impressive great statistical season of all time. He came into Week 15’s game against the Vikings with a 67 percent completion rate, an 8.1 percent touchdown rate, and an absurd (for Ryan Tannehill) 105.7 passer rating. That came crashing back to earth in a 11-for-24, 108-yard performance in Minnesota, but he’s still capable of being the steady, quiet wind that fills the sails of his team’s offense.

If we’re going to worry about anything the Dolphins are bringing to the table, it’s a substandard defense that’s allowed 27+ points nine times this season. Everything we praised the Titans for before is the opposite in Miami.

The Dolphins may be the toughest fringe playoff team to believe in now that the Broncos have officially burnt up re-entering the atmosphere of contendership. But their final two games — against the Jaguars and Bills — offer an easy path to 9-7.

In the NFC

The case for the: Philadelphia Eagles

Hmm ... Nick Foles takes over with three weeks left in the season and leads a rag-tag group of underdogs to wins? If the story sounds familiar, it’s because you’re capable of remembering all the way back to last year.

There are some big differences, though. In 2017, Foles took over when the Eagles were 11-2 and had already clinched the NFC East. This time, he took the reins of a 6-7 team fresh off a 29-23 overtime loss to the Cowboys.

But the Eagles didn’t finish the 2017 season with a win anywhere near as impressive as the one Foles just led against the Rams. In the 30-23 victory, Foles completed 24 of 31 passes for 270 yards. He threw an interception and didn’t have a touchdown pass, but his efficient performance set up three short rushing touchdowns for Philadelphia.

A year ago, the Eagles limped into the postseason after back-to-back poor offensive showings against the Raiders and Cowboys. Then Foles caught fire and he ended his miraculous postseason run as the Super Bowl MVP. By the looks of it, he caught fire earlier this time around.

When Philadelphia is firing on all cylinders it has a defensive line that can control the line of scrimmage. That hasn’t been seen much in 2018, but the Eagles looked the part again Sunday when they consistently harassed Jared Goff, forced two interceptions, and shut down Todd Gurley for most of the night.

The Eagles barely held off the surging Rams in the final minutes, but the win got them right back in the hunt for the NFC Wild Card. The Cowboys’ NFC East lead shrunk to one game, though the division title’s more far-fetched after Philadelphia was swept by Dallas in two matchups earlier in the year.

All the Eagles can control are how they play in the last two games of the year against Houston and Washington. It remains to be seen if Carson Wentz will return before the season ends, but Sunday showed they’re in good hands with Foles — and they’re still capable of knocking off top teams.

The case for the: Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender all year long. After losing the NFC Championship last season, Minnesota returned almost all of its star-studded defense and made the splash addition of Kirk Cousins in free agency.

But through the first 15 weeks of the season, the Vikings have only managed to beat bad or mediocre teams. So why should we believe they’re dangerous now? Because the post-John DeFilippo era looks awfully promising.

In the first week after firing the offensive coordinator and replacing him with Kevin Stefanski, the Vikings committed to a rushing attack against the Dolphins and blew them out of the water. Dalvin Cook ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns, and Latavius Murray ran for 68 yards and one touchdown.

The 41-17 win was the first time the Vikings had over 200 rushing yards in a game since 2015. And it’s what Mike Zimmer has been asking to see since the season began.

If the Vikings get on track offensively, the defense is still tough to beat. They’re No. 4 in yards allowed per game and held the Dolphins to just 193 yards.

For all their struggles in 2018, the Vikings are still in line for a spot in the playoffs and — after firing DeFilippo — they finally look scary again.