Despite loss to Dallas, Washington still controls own playoff fate

A poor home-field performance and an ever-growing injury list are major areas of concern for the Washington Football Team, but Sunday’s 27-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys didn’t do significant damage to Washington’s chances of making the playoffs. Coach Ron Rivera’s squad is still in the hunt for a wild-card slot and still controls its own playoff fate.

Washington entered the game 6-6 and the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoff picture. Following the loss, the Burgundy and Gold are the No. 7 seed — the final wild-card spot — and they own the tiebreaker over multiple other 6-7 teams.

If Washington bounces back Sunday in Philadelphia — one of the four other 6-7 teams in the NFC — it will be right back where it was before the loss to Dallas — .500, in a wild-card spot and preparing for another matchup with the Cowboys.

“We control our own destiny. We have an opportunity to do something. We got four games left, all four in the division,” Rivera said Sunday, noting the team’s remaining schedule that includes two games versus Philadelphia, one against Dallas and the season finale in New York.

The NFL adding a third wild-card team last season was intended to open up more playoff paths in December for more teams. That’s certainly the case this season, as all but four NFC teams — Detroit, Chicago, New York and Carolina — have viable routes to earn a wild card spot.

The two teams most likely to win wild-card spots are NFC West foes Los Angeles and San Francisco. That leaves six other teams — Washington, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans and Seattle — angling for the final ticket. All of those teams are 6-7 except for Seattle, which is 5-8 after winning two straight.

Washington currently owns the tiebreaker for the No. 7 seed over fellow 6-7 teams Minnesota, Philadelphia, Atlanta and New Orleans due to its 5-3 conference record. Multi-team tiebreakers are less likely to come down to head-to-head matchups since it’s unlikely that each team involved in the tiebreaker has played one another.

If it does come down to a head-to-head tiebreaker, Washington has wins over Atlanta and Seattle, a loss to New Orleans and no game against Minnesota.

Potentially the most important tiebreaker, though, will be with Philadelphia — Washington’s opponent on Sunday. A loss Sunday wouldn’t kill the team’s playoff chances, but they would be severely damaged. A win would put Washington squarely back in the driver’s seat of the middling NFC teams eyeing the final wild card spot.

“Some interesting things can happen, somebody else can lose a game or two as well,” Rivera said. “Who knows?”