The final two playoff spots will likely come down to a pair of Week 18 elimination games between division rivals. In the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night and got the help they needed from the Pittsburgh Steelers, who fell to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, to keep Baltimore’s playoff hopes alive. Now, the Ravens (8-8) and Steelers (9-7) will square off in Pittsburgh on “Sunday Night Football” to determine who will advance to the playoffs as the AFC North champions and who will start their offseasons early.
In the NFC South, a similar showdown has materialized, as the Panthers couldn’t take advantage of the Tampa Buccaneers’ loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, with Carolina falling to the Seattle Seahawks to set up a potential winner-take-all clash in Week 18. The Panthers (8-8) will travel to Tampa Bay to take on the 7-9 Bucs in a game that will likely send one team to the postseason as the No. 4 seed and another team home for the winter. The only way this doesn’t become a loser-goes-home game is if the Atlanta Falcons beat the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night and the New Orleans Saints next week; in that case, the Panthers would claim the division title regardless of the outcome vs. Tampa Bay.
Meanwhile, in the quest for the No. 1 seeds, the Denver Broncos are one win away from locking up the first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, while the NFC’s top seed will come down to a Saturday night showdown between division rivals: the San
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