Ravens definitely have a harder schedule, but the Dolphins have the tie-breaker over SD due to their week 11 win over the Chargers. SD would need to beat both the Raiders (trap game!) and the Chiefs, whereas the Dolphins have both the Jets and Bills even if they lose to the Pats. At least a fighting chance, I guess I wouldn't mind seeing any one of those teams go to Foxboro if they made it past the wildcard round.
It's nutty that there really aren't any dominant AFC teams. Sadly, the Patriots are the most consistent. Consistently pretty average, but they keep winning games regardless. That's all that really matters though, I guess. We'll see how far Gronk-less Brady can take them in the final 3 weeks, but I wouldn't be surprised if they win out (Dolphins-GAF, save us!)
This year has felt like a microcosm of Peyton's career. Stellar, record-breaking offensive numbers, a wishy-washy defense and suspect special teams (outside of MVPrater, naturally). At least the big losses have come in the regular season (Colts, Patriots, Chargers). Hopefully the Broncos are paying for it now instead of a one-and-done knockout in the playoffs by one of these teams. I'm just astounded by how bad the defense got when so many players from last year carried over. Who are we missing? Old man Keith Brooking? Dumervil's sack total has almost already been matched by Shaun Phillips. Justin Bannan has only played 3 games with the Lions. Missing Wolfe and Vickerson has hurt our interior pass rush as of late, but even before then we were still not getting enough consistent pressure on other QBs. Maybe the weed fuels Von to be next level.
I guess looking at last year's schedule, the defense wasn't that impressive. Outside of the New Orleans game, we didn't really shut out any of the good offenses last year. Kansas City is obviously much better this year. Maybe last year was just fortunate scheduling/circumstance and now we're struggling against better offenses this year.
Even with the Texans in full tank mode, I could still see them pulling an upset next week. Gotta get our shit together.