The least of the East
A losing-record team like Cowboys will win NFC division
For the first time since 2014, there will be an NFL playoff team with a losing record.
The NFC East race comes down to Week 17. Washington is 6-9 and will win the division by beating Philadelphia. The Dallas Cowboys are also 6-9. To get in, they’ll have to beat the Giants and Washington would have to lose.
The Giants are 5-10 but would claim the division with a win over Dallas and a Washington loss.
The last team to win their division with a losing record was the Carolina Panthers in 2014. They won the NFC South at 7-8-1 and defeated an 11-5 Arizona team in the wild-card round before losing to Seattle.
Washington could have clinched the division Sunday but lost to Carolina 20-13.
Meanwhile, Andy Dalton threw for 377 yards and three touchdowns, two to Michael Gallup, and the Cowboys (6-9) stayed alive in the playoff race with a 37-17 victory over the Eagles for their third-straight win.
“If you gave up five, six weeks ago, we wouldn’t even want you on our side,” said running back Ezekiel Elliott, who returned after missing a game because of injury for the first time in his career and finished with 105 yards.
“We’re competitors. The whole team is. We weren’t out of it. Gotta win next week and need a little help from the guys we just played.”
The Eagles (4-10-1) led 14-3 in the first quarter after DeSean Jackson’s 81-yard touchdown catch in his first game in two months coming off an ankle injury, and they would have controlled their playoff fate against Washington with a win.
Instead, Philadelphia and Jalen Hurts couldn’t keep the offense rolling while giving up points on five consecutive Dallas possessions. The defending NFC East champion was eliminated from the postseason with its sixth loss in seven games.
“It’s disappointing,” defensive back Jalen Mills said. “Even from the start of the offseason, we feel and we know that we are a playoff team. It is what it is.”
The top three Dallas receivers each had a catch of at least 50 yards. Rookie CeeDee Lamb’s 52-yard touchdown put the Cowboys up 27-17 early in the third quarter, Gallup’s 55-yarder on a screen set up a field goal between his two TDs, and Amari Cooper had a 69-yard catch before another of Greg Zuerlein’s three field goals.
Dalton, who was 22 of 30 while surpassing 300 yards for the first time since replacing the injured Dak Prescott five weeks into the season, gave the Eagles life late in the third quarter by forcing a deep throw to
Lamb that Darius Slay intercepted.
But that opportunity fizzled when coach Doug Pederson elected to go for it on fourth-and-15 from the Dallas 33 early in the fourth quarter and Zach Ertz was stopped well short on an underneath throw.
Hurts had two turnovers with Philadelphia in scoring range later in the fourth quarter. Anthony Brown intercepted the rookie at the goal line, and Hurts fumbled at the end of a run on a close call that was held up on review. Hurts had a second interception with the game well out of reach in the final minute.
“It’s not always the team with the best record in the regular season ... it’s the hottest team,” said Dalton, who is 4-4 as Prescott’s replacement. “You’ve just got to get a chance. Once you make it to the playoffs, that’s when you have your opportunity to make a run.”
A month ago, the Cowboys were blown out by Washington on Thanksgiving two days after conditioning coach Markus Paul collapsed in the team’s weight room. Paul died the day before the game.
Prescott’s injury is the biggest for an offense that has endured plenty, particularly on the offensive line. Now, coach Mike McCarthy still has something on the line not long after his Dallas debut looked like a lost and wrecked season.
“Coach just told us that in the locker room, he was like, ‘You guys have strained for this, you’ve worked for this through all the ups and downs that we’ve had this season,’” said Gallup, whose touchdowns were from 21 and 7 yards. “Just to have it happen like it’s happening, just a great feeling.”