I think two 14-2 teams and with what’s at stake. One gets a buy and home field, the other is a 5th seed and on the road. Don’t recall a team with this many wins being a road wild card
Correct. Since 1990 there has been no 14 win team getting a wild card... There is only one 13-3 team in history that got a wildcard, it was the Titans when the Jags went 14-2 in 1999. Now with 17 games you could argue they would've won their 17th game and been 14-3... but yah.
And of course the Jags/Titans were not matched up in the final week... so to your point this game is a bigger impact. Again, bold statement, but you might be right and it's hard to argue against. There's been a number of 12 win teams stuck with a wild card. Most recently the 2018 Chargers and 2022 Cowboys, but neither were matched up against the division winner (Chiefs/Eagles respectively) in the final game, those years.