Does anyone actually want to win the NFC East?
In the past two weeks, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins each had a chance to grab a stranglehold of the division. Both choked.
The Redskins, Giants and Philadelphia Eagles each sit at 5-7. The Dallas Cowboys cling to playoff life at 4-8 after beating Washington 19-16 on Monday night.
The Giants have lost three straight. The Eagles pulled off a miraculous win in Foxboro after giving up a combined 110 points in their own three-game losing streak. The Redskins just lost to the Cowboys at home. Dallas is starting Matt Cassel the rest of the season.
This is an atrocious division.
As much as the 2015 NFC East feels like the worst division in the history of mankind, terrible divisions have been commonplace. In just the past five seasons we've seen four teams enter the postseason with eight or fewer wins: 2014 Carolina Panthers (7-8-1); 2013 Green Bay Packers (8-7-1); 2011 Denver Broncos (8-8); and, famously, the 2010 Seattle Seahawks (7-9). Three of those teams won a playoff game.
Given the perplexing play of the 2015 NFC East, trying to extrapolate which team holds an advantage down the stretch is a foolish game -- an NFL version of pin the tail on the donkey.
Let's simply look at the remaining scheduled for each team:
Redskins: at Chicago Bears (5-7), vs. Buffalo Bills (6-6), at Eagles (5-7), at Cowboys (3-8)
Eagles: vs. Bills (6-6), vs. Arizona Cardinals (10-2), vs. Redskins (5-7), at Giants (5-7)
Giants: at Miami Dolphins (5-7), vs. Panthers (12-0), at Minnesota Vikings (8-4), vs. Eagles (5-7)
Cowboys: at Packers (8-4), vs. New York Jets (7-5), at Bills (6-6), vs. Redskins (5-7)
One thing we are sure of: the division race will once again come down to Week 17. Get ready for another NFC East prime-time game to close out the year.
