A Dallas win coupled with a Carolina win gives Dallas a playoff berth.
It is very possible for the Cowboys to clinch their fourth playoff berth of the current decade this weekend. It is also very possible that the Cowboys could miss the playoffs altogether. Here is what could happen:
Clinch-a-Berth-One-Week-Early Scenario: Dallas Wins and Carolina Wins
By the time the Cowboys play the Redskins on Sunday night, Dallas will know whether the team can clinch a playoff berth. If Carolina beats the Giants, the Giants will fall to 8-7 and cannot finish ahead of the Cowboys if Dallas wins either of its last two games. New York is favored by 6.5 points over the Panthers.
If Carolina and Dallas both win in week 16, then the winner of the Dallas-Philadelphia game in week 17 will take the NFC East. Even if the Eagles lost to Broncos, Philadelphia and Dallas would enter the game at 10-5, so the winner would take all.
If Carolina wins, the Giants could make the playoffs only if the Packers lost to both the Seahawks and Cardinals. The Giants have a better record against common opponents, so if New York beat Minnesota, the Giants would win the tiebreaker with Green Bay.
The best overall result, as far as the Cowboys are concerned:
Dallas 11-5 (NFC East Champion)
Philadelphia 11-5 (Wildcard)
Green Bay 11-5 or 10-6 or 9-7 (Wildcard)
N.Y. Giants 8-8 (Out)
The Ugly Scenario: Dallas Loses, New York Wins, Philadelphia Wins, and Green Bay Wins
If the Giants beat the Panthers, New York will have a 9-6 record. If Dallas then lost to the Redskins and Philadelphia beat the Broncos, the Eagles would win the NFC East. If Green Bay also beats Seattle, then Green Bay would clinch a playoff berth based on the tiebreaker with the Cowboys. Dallas would then have to beat Philadelphia and hope that Minnesota beat the Giants in week 17.
The nightmare:
Philadelphia 12-4 (NFC East Champions)
Green Bay 11-5 (Wildcard)
N.Y. Giants 10-6 (Wildcard)
Dallas 9-7 (Out, and all hell breaks loose)
Winner-Take-All (i.e., Dallas-Philadelphia) Scenario: Dallas Wins and New York Wins
If the Cowboys and the Giants both win next weekend, Dallas will be 10-5 and New York would be 9-6. It would not matter whether the Eagles won or lost vs. Denver because the Giants cannot win the NFC East under any circumstance.
Should the Cowboys and Giants both win in week 16, then the winner of the game between Dallas and Philadelphia will take the NFC East. If Dallas won that game, then the Eagles would take one of the wildcard spots, and the Giants would have to hope to overcome the Packers to take the final spot.
The NFC-East-is-still-the-beast result:
Dallas 11-5 (NFC East Champions)
Philadelphia 11-5 (Wildcard)
N.Y. Giants 10-6 (Wildcard)
Green Bay 10-6 (Out, based on common opponents compared with N.Y. Giants)
Dallas-Steals-a-Spot-Thanks-to-Pittsburgh, Seattle, and-Arizona Scenario
If the Cowboys lose either of the next two games, their playoff chances take a big hit. However, Dallas could lose one of those games and still finish ahead of the Packers for the final wildcard spot, even though the Packers win the head-to-head tiebreaker. Green Bay would have to lose to both Seattle and Arizona for Dallas to slip in as a wildcard ahead of the Packers, so it isn’t likely. However, if it did, Dallas can thank Ben Roethlisberger for completing his last-second touchdown to beat Green Bay last week.
Dallas will not steal a wildcard spot from Green Bay if the Packers win either of their final two games. If Green Bay won one of those games, Dallas would have to win both games to have a chance to finish with a better record than Green Bay. If Dallas did win both games, the Cowboys would be division champions rather than wildcard qualifiers.
The likely-as-winning-a-lottery result:
Philadelphia 12-4 (NFC East Champions)
N.Y. Giants 10-6 (Wildcard)
Dallas 10-6 (Wildcard)
Green Bay 9-7 (Out)
There are some other possible results, and none of these consider the actual playoff seedings. Bottom line: Dallas needs to win both games.
The real nightmare scenario, in my opinion, is for Dallas, NY and GB to all finish 10-6, and Dallas would not make the playoffs. That would really suck.
Very true. I was thinking in terms of the Cowboys finishing 9-7 yet again, but the tiebreaker scenario isn’t any better.
The only scenario that really matters is that the Cowboys control their own destiny and as of this moment are not relegated to scoreboard watching.
But it sure would be nice to see the Panthers upset the Giants. Of course the Cowboys still must take care of business in Washington on Sunday night(never an easy task to say the least); then if they do, they will play the Eagles for the division title with at least the Wild Card in the bag.
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I dunno what to say… Folk is gone (yeah) phillips is still there… Should just stay on defense!!!! Well hell this is whats gonna happen… Cowboys win out, first round bye and then number six tied with the steelers.. Thats what would happen in a perfect world… Oh yea, Jerry Jones, stays in his suite… Anyway, Iam a diehard cowboy fan, therefor, Jones can do whatever it takes for US to win… See you at the super bowl.
Im a Dallas Cowboy’s fan an b/f is a bigger fan then myself so im sayin tht the cowboy’s will win…