We're playing for the 6 seed

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
Eagles and Vikings are most likely going to run away with their divisions, we need them to win every NFC game from here out. Ideally, Philly has clinched everything by week 17 and sits everyone for our game.

NO or Carolina will win the south and the other most likely locks up the 5 seed. Again, we should be rooting for both. This only changes if Carolina stumbles and becomes competition for the 6 seed.

LA is two games up on Seattle but Seattle has beaten them once. We REALLY need LA to win the division and make Seattle compete with us for the 6 seed.

So what we will likely have is Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and GB competing for the 6 seed. I think we can reasonably assume GB is done because they are one of the worst teams in football without Rodgers and will likely be 5-9 or 6-8 before he could return.

So Dallas/Atlanta/Seattle/Detroit. First the bad news: Atlanta owns the tiebreaker over us. The good news: They have the most difficult final 6 games in the league. They play FOUR games against teams with 7 or more wins and two are on the road. 5 of their last 6 are division games. It's tough to see them finishing better than 9-7.

Likewise Seattle has a brutal schedule and they play us in Dallas when we'll have Zeke back. We effectively control our destiny vs them assuming they lose 1 more.

Detroit will be a problem, after Minnesota and Baltimore they finish the year with 4 should be wins. It's hard to see them not getting to 10 wins.

That leaves Dallas. We have four straight games against teams with losing records, including two at home on the awkward Thursday game schedules which historically really hurt the road team. At worst, we have to go 3-1 and sit at 8-6 going into the last two games. We then get Zeke back for Seattle (a must win) and Philly.

Best case scenario: We find a way against below average teams over the next 4 weeks, beat Seattle with Zeke and Philly sits Wentz and others week 17. That locks us in unless Detroit also hits 11 wins in which case we'd have some advanced tiebreaker scenarios.

If we finish 5-1, we will need help but still a chance.

Not sure we can, but if we can find SOME way to at least get to Oakland at 8-5 we give ourselves a chance. So this week isn't a "must win", but if we lose we need to win out. 10-6 is simply a must.
 
Last edited:

Ranching

Well-Known Member
Messages
43,134
Reaction score
107,445
CowboysZone ULTIMATE Fan
Eagles and Vikings are most likely going to run away with their divisions, we need them to win every NFC game from here out. Ideally, Philly has clinched everything by week 17 and sits everyone for our game.

NO or Carolina will win the south and the other most likely locks up the 5 seed. Again, we should be rooting for both. This only changes if Carolina stumbles and becomes competition for the 6 seed.

LA is two games up on Seattle but Seattle has beaten them once. We REALLY need LA to win the division and make Seattle compete with us for the 6 seed.

So what we will likely have is Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and GB competing for the 6 seed. I think we can reasonably assume GB is done because they are one of the worst teams in football with Rodgers and will likely be 5-9 or 6-8 before he could return.

So Dallas/Atlanta/Seattle/Detroit. First the bad news: Atlanta owns the tiebreaker over us. The good news: They have the most difficult final 6 games in the league. They play FOUR games against teams with 7 or more wins and two are on the road. 6 of their last 7 are division games. It's tough to see them finishing better than 9-7.

Likewise Seattle has a brutal schedule and they play us in Dallas and we'll have Zeke back. We effectively control our destiny vs them assuming they lose 1 more.

Detroit will be a problem, after Minnesota and Baltimore they finish the year with 4 should be wins. It's hard to see them not getting to 10 wins.

That leaves Dallas. We have four straight games against teams with losing records, including two at home on the awkward Thursday game schedules which historically really hurt the road team. At worst, we have to go 3-1 and sit at 8-6 going into the last two games. We then get Zeke back for Seattle (a must win) and Philly.

Best case scenario: We find a way against below average teams over the next 4 weeks, beat Seattle with Zeke and Philly sits Wentz and others week 17. That locks us in unless Detroit also hits 11 wins in which case we'd have some advanced tiebreaker scenarios.

If we finish 5-1, we will need help but still a good chance.

Not sure we can, but if we can find SOME way to at least get to Oakland at 8-5 we give ourselves a chance.
That's a lot of info! Great job.
 

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
What makes me nervous is Minny. I'm worried they will stumble because Keenum just can't keep this up and they lose games to Detroit or Atlanta.

Honestly it's 50/50 if we get in at 10-6. We really need to win out, which is possible because we only play one team with a winning record who will be playing to win (Seattle) and that's when we have our MVP back.

The hope is that we can be healthy and find a way in, because with Lee, Smith and Zeke we're likely 7-3 right now and we can beat anyone with them healthy.
 

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
We get Tyron and Heath back Thursday it sounds like and Bailey possibly. Sean Lee out until Washington likely.

Look, at our best I think everyone would predict a 5-1 finish at worst. NY is awful, we already beat Washington and have owned them since 2013 and San Diego finds more unique ways to lose than anyone else. Oakland is getting worse and Carr just isn't gonna be fully healthy all year.

We just need to dig deep and give us a chance in the last weeks of December.
 

Sydla

Well-Known Member
Messages
60,127
Reaction score
91,969
Yeah I was looking at the schedules today, but just couldn't bring myself to start counting up wins after the watching the last 2 weeks.

This is the best way to look at it. Until this team shows something other than getting smacked around, this talk is folly.

San Diego can absolutely beat us Thursday.

The Vegas line screams San Diego. We opened as 3.5 point favorites and it's already down to a pick em.
 

CowboysFanSince88

Well-Known Member
Messages
9,350
Reaction score
3,499
Eagles and Vikings are most likely going to run away with their divisions, we need them to win every NFC game from here out. Ideally, Philly has clinched everything by week 17 and sits everyone for our game.

NO or Carolina will win the south and the other most likely locks up the 5 seed. Again, we should be rooting for both. This only changes if Carolina stumbles and becomes competition for the 6 seed.

LA is two games up on Seattle but Seattle has beaten them once. We REALLY need LA to win the division and make Seattle compete with us for the 6 seed.

So what we will likely have is Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and GB competing for the 6 seed. I think we can reasonably assume GB is done because they are one of the worst teams in football without Rodgers and will likely be 5-9 or 6-8 before he could return.

So Dallas/Atlanta/Seattle/Detroit. First the bad news: Atlanta owns the tiebreaker over us. The good news: They have the most difficult final 6 games in the league. They play FOUR games against teams with 7 or more wins and two are on the road. 5 of their last 6 are division games. It's tough to see them finishing better than 9-7.

Likewise Seattle has a brutal schedule and they play us in Dallas when we'll have Zeke back. We effectively control our destiny vs them assuming they lose 1 more.

Detroit will be a problem, after Minnesota and Baltimore they finish the year with 4 should be wins. It's hard to see them not getting to 10 wins.

That leaves Dallas. We have four straight games against teams with losing records, including two at home on the awkward Thursday game schedules which historically really hurt the road team. At worst, we have to go 3-1 and sit at 8-6 going into the last two games. We then get Zeke back for Seattle (a must win) and Philly.

Best case scenario: We find a way against below average teams over the next 4 weeks, beat Seattle with Zeke and Philly sits Wentz and others week 17. That locks us in unless Detroit also hits 11 wins in which case we'd have some advanced tiebreaker scenarios.

If we finish 5-1, we will need help but still a chance.

Not sure we can, but if we can find SOME way to at least get to Oakland at 8-5 we give ourselves a chance. So this week isn't a "must win", but if we lose we need to win out. 10-6 is simply a must.


we ain't playing for **** if we have a offense that can't score TD's and a defense that can't stop other teams from scoring TD's.
 

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
This is the best way to look at it. Until this team shows something other than getting smacked around, this talk is folly.

San Diego can absolutely beat us Thursday.

The Vegas line screams San Diego. We opened as 3.5 point favorites and it's already down to a pick em.

San Diego does things to beat themselves. They play a lot of close games and just flop at the end.

I will say their numerous close losses are a little misleading. They were down 2+ TDs in the 4th in 5 of those losses and scored garbage points late.
 

EaglesFan1

Active Member
Messages
197
Reaction score
59
It was good Atlanta beat Seattle for Dallas because now they aren't two behind Seattle for the 6 seed. But Dallas has scored 1 TD in 8 quarters and now you need them to go 5-1 after going 5-5??
 

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
we ain't playing for **** if we have a offense that can't score TD's and a defense that can't stop other teams from scoring TD's.

Obviously

The bottom line is though that while we played terribly, we got beat by two teams with a combined 15-5 record. Our next 4 opponents COMBINED only have 14 wins. By Washington we'll have everyone but Zeke playing.

Last time we were a healthy team, we blasted Kansas City. Unless Philly has something to play for, we won't play another team as good again this year.
 

CowboysFanSince88

Well-Known Member
Messages
9,350
Reaction score
3,499
Obviously

The bottom line is though that while we played terribly, we got beat by two teams with a combined 15-5 record. Our next 4 opponents COMBINED only have 14 wins. By Washington we'll have everyone but Zeke playing.

Last time we were a healthy team, we blasted Kansas City. Unless Philly has something to play for, we won't play another team as good again this year.

The skins and chargers offense looks good and both score over 21 pts against the eagles
 

TWOK11

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,074
Reaction score
11,291
Week 12 games that matter:

Vikings/Lions: HUGE and we need Minny to win

Atlanta/TB: TB upset would help

Carolina/Jets: Need Carolina to win to avoid adding teams to our 6 seed contest

Saints/Rams: Rams so they can win the West.
 
Top