Realistic Wild Card Hunt Analysis
Time to start seriously considering this:
3. Packers (8-4)
4. Giants (8-5)
5. Bears (8-5)
6. Seahawks (8-5)
In the Hunt:
Skins (7-6)
Cowboys (7-6)
Vikings (7-6)
Remaining Schedules:
Bears: GB, Ari, Det
Packers: Det, Chi, Tenn, Min
Seahawks: Buff, SF, StL
Skins: Cle, Phi, Dal
Cowboys: Pitt, NO, Wash
Giants: AtL, Bal, Phi
Vikings: Stl, Hou, GB
Just by looking at this, it looks like Seattle will get one of the wildcard spots with their relatively cupcake schedule outside of SF plus they own the tiebreaker over us. So I'm counting them in the playoffs. As the 5 seed.
GB should win the division even if we beat them unless the Lions help us out tonight and we pull off a big win. But i'm saying the Packers are in as the 3 seed.
Vikings - I don't see them beating Houston and GB. I'm going to count them out for now unless GB clinches early and rests its starters. But I'm going to count them out.
This leaves us battling the NFC East. One of the Giants/Skins/Cowboys will win the division. Giants def. have the hardest road and the Skins have the easiest road. The Giants have a tough schedule but they play up to the competition, so I'm going to give them the division. I believe the Redskins will be our biggest threat. They had to lose today for Bal to give us some space, but they could very well beat Cle, Philly, and knock out Dallas. Putting them at 10-6.
We need to win at the very least 2/3 and hope the NFC East loses often. It's going to be a tough road. If we win out obviously we are in but I don't see us beating GB right now. At 10-6 tied with the Skins, they would get the tie-breaker over us because they would have a better NFC winning % with just 4 conference losses and with us having 5 losses after going 2/3.
For the team its one game at a time. For us fans, it might be time to start paying attention to the other games.