Here’s how Dallas Cowboys can lock up a playoff berth by beating New York Giants
The Dallas Cowboys don’t want to talk about the NFC East title or clinching a playoff berth until they get 10 wins, per coach Mike McCarthy’s team edict.
At 9-4, both are seemingly inevitable at this point heading into Sunday’s game against the last-place New York Giants (4-9).
It’s just a matter of when, and there are scenarios where it could happen this weekend.
The Cowboys can clinch the NFC East title with a win against the Giants plus a tie between Washington and Philadelphia — a game that on Friday was moved to Tuesday night due to COVID issues — or a win plus a Washington loss plus the strength-of-victory tiebreaker over Philadelphia.
To get the latter, they need these five results: The New England Patriots to beat the Indianapolis Colts, the Arizona Cardinals to beat the Detroit Lions, the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Denver Broncos, the Miami Dolphins to beat the New York Jets or the Minnesota Vikings to beat the Chicago Bears.
Or they could at least secure playoff berth with a win against the Giants and five other complicated scenarios with the easiest being a New Orleans Saints loss or tie or a San Francisco 49ers loss.
The others are: a Dallas tie plus a Minnesota loss or tie plus a New Orleans loss or tie plus an Atlanta loss or tie; a Minnesota loss plus an Atlanta loss plus a New Orleans loss plus a Philadelphia-Washington or Minnesota loss plus an Atlanta loss plus a New Orleans loss plus Dallas clinching the strength-of-victory tiebreaker over Philadelphia.
“We can’t talk about that until next week,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s just an opportunity to keep everybody focused because your messaging is really about focal points. I get that everybody has to write the narratives on it but I just felt there wasn’t any value in talking about it before you needed to. Ten wins usually gives you clarity on what you needed to do to get to where you wanted to go.”
McCarthy then caught himself.
One week after guaranteeing a victory against the Washington Football Team that garnered headlines before the team’s 27-20 triumph, he made a point to offer some clarity.
“It’s not a guarantee,” he said. ”I’m just saying. You have to get to 10 wins before you talk about it.”
A win against the Giants gets the Cowboys to 10 wins and a win against Washington on Dec. 26 would clinch the division title outright, unless one of the aforementioned scenarios comes to fruition during the remainder of Week 15.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 3:47 PM.
