The No. 5 seed Houston Texans and the No. 4 seed Pittsburgh Steelers are set to wrap up the six-game Wild Card slate with a matchup on Monday Night Football, with both teams looking to join the No. 1 seed Denver Broncos, the No. 2 seed New England Patriots, and the No. 6 seed Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round.
Denver had the first-round bye, while the Patriots defeated the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Chargers and the Bills defeated the No. 3 seed Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
With the Bills guaranteed to possess the lowest seed among remaining AFC teams, regardless of who wins Monday night's game, the results of Sunday's games mean that a Texans victory on Monday would send them to New England for a Divisional Round matchup.
Houston set for New England trip if they beat Pittsburgh
The Bills, meanwhile, are set to travel to Denver.
Additionally, the game featuring either Houston or Pittsburgh in New England has been scheduled to take place next Sunday (time and TV network TBD), rather than Saturday, which stays in line with the NFL's scheduling methodology since adding the Monday night game to the Wild Card schedule back in 2021.
Never before has the Monday night winner been scheduled to play the following Saturday, and there was little reason to believe that that would change this year.
As for the Bills-Broncos game, that game is scheduled to take place on Saturday (time and TV network TBD). If Houston and Denver both win, the AFC Championship Game would be in Denver. If Houston and Buffalo both win, the Texans would get to host the conference title game at NRG Stadium. The Texans have never made it to the AFC title game.
The Texans are 0-6 in road playoff games entering Monday night's showdown in Pittsburgh, though all six losses have come in the Divisional Round. They have never played a road Wild Card game, as all eight of their previous playoff appearances had come after they had won the AFC South.
The Texans and Patriots most recently squared off in Week 6 of the 2024 season, with the Texans winning on the road at Gillette Stadium by a score of 41-21.
The Texans have played the Patriots twice in the playoffs, both times in Divisional Round road games. They fell by a score of 41-28 in the 2012 postseason, and they fell again by a score of 34-16 in the 2016 postseason.
But first, they need to take care of business against the Steelers, a team they have not faced since the 2023 regular season. The Texans are three-point road favorites. The game is set to be shown live on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.