Heading into Week 15 play, your Washington Redskins (6-7) are atop the NFC East division. Although they are currently tied with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants, the Skins control their own destiny and have relatively favorable matchups to finish out the year.
The Redskins will be at home against the 6-7 Buffalo Bills before finishing the season up with a Saturday night game against the 6-7 Eagles and 4-9 Dallas Cowboys to finish out the year on the road. Philadelphia has to contend against the Arizona Cardinals (11-2) and New York Giants (6-7) sandwiching their second matchup with the Redskins, while New York has Carolina (13-0) and Minnesota (8-5) to deal with before their regular season finale with the Eagles.
With both Philadelphia and New York each going up against two of the best teams in the NFC and having to play each other in Week 17, Washington can make the playoffs with a losing record even though that is clearly not the plan. The simple trajectory is win out and you are in. Unfortunately, knowing the Redskins they will probably find a way to make their fans cringe to the bitter end.
The biggest key to a second home playoff game in four years will be beating the Eagles in Philadelphia on Saturday night football on Dec. 26. In their last 23 games under the night lights, Washington is a putrid 4-19 including fumbling away a great opportunity to seize control of the division on Monday Night Football two weeks ago. If the Redskins are somehow able to put together back-to-back road victories, after losing nine straight, against the recently reloaded Eagles offense, then they will have firm control of the division.
If there is a three-way tie amongst the Redskins, Eagles, and Giants, Washington will postseason bound due to their 3-1 record against Philadelphia and New York. In the case of a two-way tie with the Eagles, Washington will win via head-to-head records, but that will not be the case with the Giants because of the possibility of the same record among division and common games.
Should there be one game the Redskins lose out of their remaining three, they will hope it is against the Buffalo Bills simply because of how tiebreakers work out. As long as New York loses one of its final three games, Washington will play meaningful football in the second week of January.
(Photo by: Redskins)
A lot can still happen between now and the end of the season. Who would have thought New England would lose at home to the Eagles? But what seemed like a possible debacle of a season following Robert Griffin III‘s benching, has turned into a pleasant few months for Kirk Cousins, Jay Gruden, and probably most importantly Scot McCloughan.
District Sports Page will keep you up to date on the latest playoff scenarios following each of the remaining three weeks of the season as things start to become clearer.