Friday, December 23, 2011

The Final Stretch - Scenarios

We are getting down to the wire... Dallas won their game against Tampa Bay and currently stand at 8-6... The Giants lost to Washington and are now one game back at 7-7 and The Eagles are still somehow alive in the playoff hunt at 6-8 after winning against the Jets...

There are two games remaining and it's going to be intense... Here are the scenarios for Week 16 and 17... (keep in mind, Dallas plays Philly this week, and The Giants next week... The Giants play The Jets this week... and Philly plays Washington to end their season...)

- If The Giants win this week, and Dallas wins this week... the Eagles are knocked out and whoever wins the finale' will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas wins... The Eagles are knocked out, and Dallas will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas loses and The Eagles lose their finale... whoever wins the finale' will win the division

- If The Giants lose and Dallas loses and Dallas loses the finale and the Eagles win their finale... The Eagles will win the division

- If The Giants win and Dallas loses... The Eagles are knocked out and whoever wins the finale' will win the division...

Whew.... I think that's all of the possible scenarios... I will be crossing my finger that Giants lose and Dallas wins this week, that way The Cowboys will win the division and the final game won't even matter... meaning it'll probably be Stephen McGee time...

Monday, December 12, 2011

Final Stretch Predictions: NFC East

Things in the NFC East are as bad as ever, and once again I will go into my predictions for how the rest of this crazy season could play out for this division.


Washington Redskins:

I think it's pretty safe to say that Washington is no longer in the playoff hunt with their 4-9 record, so I'm pretty much going to skip over them... they do play The Giants next week and in Philly for the final game, so I can only hope they become a spoiler.


Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles are holding onto a 5-8 record right now, and although it's possible that they can win out, get some help and then win the division, it's a very long shot. Their remaining games are against The Jets, at Dallas and then they host Washington to finish the regular season.

The Jets are playing pretty good right now, which I think could send Philly to 5-9... if that were to occur, they would already be done and out of the playoff talk. Dallas is the next game and after the first Dallas/Philly game (which was the Cowboys biggest loss of the season (in terms of point margin,)) The Cowboys will be hungry for revenge, plus they'll be at home. This should put Philly at 5-10. Eagles final game will be against Washington, and there's a good shot they do indeed win this one... I predict Philly will finish with a 6-10 record.


New York Giants:

The current leaders of the division at 7-6 since they got the tiebreaker victory against Dallas last night. This is going to be a heated head to head battle to finish the season, Giants host Washington this week, play The Jets next week and then finish the season against Dallas which could very likely become the determining game to see who makes the playoff.

Against Washington, it's very probable that Giants win and go 8-6... I'm not sure about The Jets game, it really could go either way, but I'm crossing my fingers, legs and arms to hope Jets win and send Giants to 8-7. To finish the season against Dallas, again I am praying a'la Tim Tebow pose, hoping Dallas wins that and sends them to 8-8 and ending their season.


Dallas Cowboys:

The final stretch is when Dallas usually collapses, they will need to improve in all aspects to have a chance and finally play good in December.

This week they will head to Tampa Bay for a Saturday Night game... there's a good shot they win this and stand at 8-6. The next week they host Philly, and with Vick back it's going to be a tough game. Hopefully the 34-7 loss from earlier in the season will be remembered and Dallas will pull off a victory here, going 9-6. If they lose and end up 8-7, it will be up to the finale' against The Giants, in the Meadowlands, that will determine everything. Potentially it could be 8-7 against 8-7, winner will make playoffs. Dallas will be heading to New York and will absolutely need to play better than they have been, and if they do indeed pull it off, they will win the division at 9-7 and Giants fall to 8-8.

The stars will have to be aligned for it to play out like this, and considering the way The 'Boys have been playing, I really don't have too much hope that it will, although they have shocked me before.


The Sky is Falling

Sorry for not updating in a while, been very busy with life, responsibilities and all that jazz. Anyway, let me briefly break down the last 4 weeks.

For a moment this season, about two games ago, it seemed like Dallas was finally ready to walk right into the playoffs. Not saying they were playing great football or anything, but the rest of the division was even worse and Dallas was somehow pulling off victories.

After the Buffalo game, Dallas was 5-4 and on their way to lead the division. They played @ Washington the next week and won, barely (27-24) propelling them to 6-4. Things were starting to look up.

Dallas hosted Miami at home on Thanksgiving, and they kept their Thanksgiving streak alive with another close victory (20-19) and they were almost comfortably leading the division with a 7-4 record.

Things couldn't be going better... the way the rest of the division was playing, it became very possible that a win against Arizona and then The Giants would clinch a playoff berth for Dallas. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, The Cowboys did what they usually did when given an opportunity and blew it.

They played at Arizona the next week and ended up losing after Jason Garrett iced his own kicker. 13-19 was the score and Dallas stood at 7-5. I wasn't giving up hope yet, it's always a tough game against The Cardinals, especially when Dallas goes to their stadium.

Last night's game against The Giants could have given Dallas a 2 game lead in the division, as The Giants were 6-6. A win would propel Dallas to 8-5 and knocked Giants under 500% at 6-7. Their destiny was in their hands... and again, they blew it.

New York played really good, and for most of the game Dallas played good too, but when it mattered most, the defense couldn't get the stops they needed (and injuries all over the place didn't help anything.) At the end, it came down to another 49 yard Dan Bailey field goal attempt to send the game into overtime (the same distance as last week's debacle in Arizona.) Luckily Garrett decided not to ice his own kicker this time, but Coughlin did... during Bailey's second attempt, the ball was blocked and the field goal was missed, Dallas 34 - Giants 37.

Now Dallas and The Giants hold 7-6 records, but if it was determined today, The Giants would get the playoff berth because of the tiebreaker and it would still be tough for Dallas to get a wild card spot considering how crazy the rest of the NFC is going right now.

Next week is a Saturday night game at Tampa Bay, which should hopefully be a Dallas victory and help The Cowboys build up their confidence. The Bucs haven't been as dynamic this year as they hoped.

So in conclusion... it appears that the sky is indeed falling... Dallas could have easily secured a spot in the playoffs these last two weeks and due largely to sloppy play, they have failed miserably and now the chances of making the playoffs are looking more and more slim.