NFL Playoff picture: Week 10
17 November 2016 Eagles News
The Eagles are at the point in their season where not every game is a must win but they do need help to make the playoffs. There are still seven games to go but based on the play of each team this year we have an idea of how the playoffs will look. The Seahawks and Cowboys look to be closing in on the top two seeds. Seattle is hitting its stride but an Eagles win on Sunday could throw the top seeds into chaos. Regardless, I still expect Seattle to win that division. As of right now the Falcons and Lions control the 3 and 4 seeds with the wildcards being Washington and New York. The Falcons still appear to be the favorites to win the NFC South even with a setback against the Eagles. No other team in that division has shown the ability to come near them and id not expect that to change. The NFC North is a little different. Because of the records, every team in that division is likely to be in contention for the division title until the last week or two. The Vikings can’t produce points, Green Bay is getting dominated on both sides of the field and the Lions are inconsistent. If I had to pick a team I would take Detroit but I don’t feel confident in that.
Now that we have possible playoff seeding out of the way, who should you be rooting for?
- AFC teams when they play NFC teams
- NFC division leaders: Dallas, Seattle (After this week), Atlanta, Detroit.
- Teams playing Washington and New York
- NFC teams with sub .500 records
Yea, seems pretty easy right? A few disclaimers and reasonings. Every NFC loss helps the Eagles case for a wildcard berth, which is the Eagles best option with Dallas running away with the division. I know it sounds weird to root for Dallas but they play New York and Washington again this year and with those two teams leading the wildcard race its imperative that Eagles receive all of the help they can get. You want to root for the division leaders because that helps distance the gap between the the NFC’s floor and its ceiling, and conference record comes into play when it concerns tiebreakers (this was prevalent in 2014) for playoff seeding. This is also the reasoning for rooting for AFC teams, every loss for a non NFC division leader only improves the Eagle’s playoff chances. Lastly, you obviously want to root against Washington and New York because the Eagles are trailing them, and while the Eagles play each of those teams again, the schedule is favorable for both teams.
If the Eagles can win all three of their remaining division games coupled with Dallas winning all the way to week 17 it bodes favorably for an Eagles team that is currently on the outside looking.