The NFC East has been a roller coaster ride all season long, mostly with lows for all four teams. Entering Week 17, three of the four teams can still win the division title, though none will finish .500 or better.
The Washington Football team is the only team that completely controls its own destiny. At 6-9 and with a season sweep of the Dallas Cowboys, if Washington wins, it is in.
However, if they lose, they will be eliminated no matter what else happens. Washington can get in with a tie only if the Cowboys/Giants game earlier in the day also ends in a tie or a Giants win.
Washington (6-9) will play at the Philadelphia Eagles (4-11-1) with an 8:20 pm ET kickoff on NBC. Washington opened at +4 against the Eagles but are now -3 in the final Sunday Night Football game of the season.
Quarterback Alex Smith did practice on Friday but is still questionable for his first action since injuring his leg on Dec. 13. Smith left Washington’s win over San Francisco with a strained calf, and Dwayne Haskins finished the game.
Haskins has since been benched and released, leaving Washington with Taylor Heinicke as the starter if Smith cannot play Sunday night.
Washington running back Antonio Gibson (turf toe) and wide receiver Terry McLaurin (ankle sprain) both missed practice all week and are listed as questionable. Gibson ran for 61 yards last week in last week’s loss against Carolina, while McLaurin did not play.
Cowboys, Giants Still Alive
While Washington and Philadelphia won’t kick off until the night game, the Dallas Cowboys (6-9) face the New York Giants (5-10) for a 1 pm ET kickoff on FOX. Dallas is -3 after opening at +1, and the winner of this game will win the division if Washington loses.
Dallas has won three games in a row with the offense clicking under quarterback Andy Dalton and the defense finally slowing teams down. Meanwhile, the Giants have lost three games in a row with a slew of injuries.
If the Giants win and Washington loses, then all three teams would finish 6-10. New York would win the tiebreaker by going 3-1 against the other two teams.
The Cowboys are trending in the right direction as Dalton engineered the offense to more than 500 yards last week against the Eagles. The defense has also forced 10 takeaways after getting just 11 in the first 12 games of the season.
Dallas started the season 2-7 while the Giants were 1-7 at one point. New York won four in a row and took over first place to start December at 5-7.
But with quarterback Daniel Jones in and out of the lineup, they lost to Arizona, Cleveland and Baltimore to fall behind Washington in the standings. Jones is second on the Giants in rushing yards but has had only three yards in the last two games while being sacked 12 times.
What’s Ahead
The winner of the NFC East will automatically get a home playoff game as the No. 4 seed in the NFC. They will host either the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-5) or the Los Angeles Rams (9-6) and one of the NFL’s top defenses.
The NFC East champion will likely be a big home underdog in the first round against either of those teams.
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