contention

By all rights, he should have been out of contention weeks ago.

The Bengals, who saw Burrow return from a toe injury for that game, aren’t out of contention despite being just 4-8.

And it's worth casting one's mind back to the last time the final race had so many drivers in contention.

That includes the 9-3 Longhorns, whose three losses would ordinarily have ruled them out of playoff contention.

They lost three times on the road against ranked teams, the last officially knocking them out of College Football Playoff contention.