How the NFC East Playoff Race Stacks Up After Week 14

The Giants loss to the Cardinals really hurt, but they're not out of the hunt just yet.

Ugly…disappointing…take your pick of adjectives to describe the Giants 26-7 loss to the Arizona Cardinals Sunday.

In terms of the NFC East division race, the best adjective that comes to mind is “damaging.” The Giants, the only team in the division to have lost their Week 14 game, fell behind the Washington Football Team, who earned a hard-fourth 23-15 win over the 49ers Sunday to improve to 6-7 while the Giants fell to 5-8 and have assured themselves of not finishing with a winning record this year.

 Behind the Giants are the Eagles, who beat the Saints 24-21 to improve to 4-8-1, and the Cowboys, who won their game 30-7 over the Bengals to improve to 4-9.

So where does this leave the four NFC East teams for the playoff race?

 Washington, whose remaining games are against Seattle, Carolina, and the Eagles, is currently 3-2 in the division, same as the Giants, who must still face the Browns, Ravens, and Cowboys. But if the two teams should end in a tie, the Giants own the head-to-head tiebreaker 2-0.

The Eagles are 2-2 I the division and 1-1 in the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Giants. They must still face Arizona, Dallas, and Washington to close out their regular season. 

The Cowboys are 1-3 I division play and currently hold a 1-0 head-to-head tiebreaker over the Giants, whom they’ll see again in the regular-season finale. Before then, the Cowboys have the 49ers and Eagles. 

According to NFL.com, the Giants fell to the 12th seed in the NFC. If it came down to a wild card berth between the Giants and Cardinals or the Giants and 49ers, New York would find themselves on the outside looking in since they lost to both of those teams.