Believe it or not, the Philadelphia Eagles are in the driver’s seat for a wildcard spot heading into their Week 14 bye.
At 6-7, they’re currently slotted in the eighth seed of the NFC playoff race, right behind the San Francisco 49ers and Washington Football Team. Both team are 6-6 and are facing other potential playoff teams in Week 14. San Fran will face the Cincinnati Bengals, while Washington will take on the Dallas Cowboys.
Obviously, Eagles fans should be rooting for Cinci and Dallas this week. But if you just can’t stand the thought of rooting for the Cowboys, that’s fine. The Eagles still have two matchups with Washington slated during their final four games, and it’s their first contest following the bye week.
The most straight forward path for the Eagles to capture that final playoff spot is to go 3-1 in the final four and sweep the season series from Washington. That would put them at 9-8 and in the final spot in the NFC playoff picture.
Unfortunatley, San Fran has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Philly since they defeated the Eagles back in Week 2. So, if the Eagles sweep Washington and put them away, they won’t have to worry about any tiebreakers.
While it feels like the Eagles have a bit of a gauntlet here in the final four games — all divisional opponents — Washington has it even worse. From Week 14 on, Washington will play Dallas, Philly, Dallas, Philly, and then close their season out with New York.
We shouldn’t completely dismiss the Minnesota Vikings in this NFC playoff race either. With their win on Thursday night, they’ve moved to 6-7 as well. They’ll play Chicago twice, Green Bay, and the Los Angeles Rams in their final four games. Even if they sweep Chicago, they probably won’t beat Green Bay since they’ve already beaten them this year, and LA is a much better team than Minnesota on paper.
At the end of the day, the Eagles will control their own playoff destiny here. It could get a little dicy if Minnesota runs the table, but that’s a long shot. As long as the Eagles go at least 3-1 down the stretch and sweep Washington, our Eagles will more than likely get a playoff berth.
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