Swoop
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- Mar 19, 2019
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It appeared for a brief while that perhaps the NFC East champion actually would finish with a record north of .500. That won’t happen; all four teams currently have eight or more losses.
At this point, only Washington can finish at 8-8. Two wins will get Washington to that record, and two wins will deliver the division crown.
All four teams can still win the NFC East. If the Giants can pick up a game on Washington and the two teams are tied after Week 17, the Giants will win the division by virtue of a head-to-head sweep. The Giants finish with the Ravens and Cowboys; Washington wraps the season against the Panthers and Eagles.
The Cowboys — yes, the Cowboys — have won a pair of consecutive games, boosting the Dallas record from 3-9 to 5-9. Dallas wins the division at 7-9, with victories over the Eagles and Giants and two losses by Washington. (Washington swept Dallas, so Washington holds the tiebreaker if both teams finish 7-9.)
The Eagles, at 4-9-1, can still make that tie with the Bengals become the difference in the division standings by beating Dallas and Washington, if Washington loses to the Panthers and if the Giants lose once.
There’s also the potential of a three-way tie between Washington, the Giants, and Cowboys at 6-10. However, and without getting too deep into the weeds on this, the Giants would win the division because the Cowboys would fall out of the tiebreaker. Also, one path to 6-10 for those three teams includes the Eagles getting to 6-9-1 and taking the division.
So with two weeks left, all four teams remain alive. And one of those teams will be hosting the No. 5 seed (most likely the Rams, Seahawks, or Buccaneers) in the wild-card round.
All that said, Washington can keep it from going to Week 17 by beating the Panthers, if the Ravens beat the Giants. At that point, Washington would clinch the division. If Washington loses to Carolina, however, things will get very interesting in the final week of the season.