For the first time since 2018 and the 24th time in the history of their franchise, the Dallas Cowboys are once again NFC East champions. Although they have yet to take the field for Week 16, combined results from the Sunday afternoon contests completed the formula for the currently 10-4 Cowboys, as two of the six needed results came through to eliminate the Philadelphia Eagles from the race.
Dallas is guaranteed at least one game at AT&T Stadium in the coming playoff tournament. No team has repeated as NFC East champions in the last 17 tries, dating back to the Eagles in 2004.
While Philadelphia won their contest, handily, against the New York Giants and first-time starter Jake Fromm, the ridiculous number of things that would’ve been necessary for them to beat Dallas in a potential tiebreaker scenario fell flat on its face Sunday.
While Dallas didn’t mathematically clinch prior to the weekend, one was hard-pressed to find any of hundreds of thousands of simulations that came up with an example of the necessary wins to happen. As it stood, victories by the Atlanta Falcons and Las Vegas Raiders sealed the deal on Sunday.
If Dallas were to lose out and Philly win out, they’d have a head-to-head split and similar division records, conference records and common-opponent records, leading to Strength of Victory winning percentages. A combination of two results comprised of victories by Minnesota, New England or the L.A. Chargers or losses by the Detroit Lions, New York Jets or Denver Broncos would be necessary for Dallas to be officially secure. This could happen over any of the final three weeks, which was all but assured even if the math said it was technically possible.
The football gods decided not to draw anything out.
The Falcons took down Detroit, 20-16 in the early game, but Dallas had to wait until the Raiders sealed their win over the Broncos in the late-afternoon window.
In more important matters, the Cowboys are eyeing as high a seed as possible in the NFC playoffs and while they didn’t get the ultimate help they craved, they did get the push result they at least needed.
Because Dallas lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1, Dallas can only finish with a higher seed if they have a better record or if there is a three-or-more team tie which would bring conference record into the equation. While the Arizona Cardinals lost and the Green Bay Packers won on Saturday, the Los Angeles Rams kept pace with Tampa Bay on Sunday as both teams won to improve to 11-4.
Dallas will need to handle their business over their final three games, but if the Rams also don’t lose, then the Cowboys will finish ahead of both L.A. and the Bucs in a playoff scenario.
Dallas would also defeat Green Bay in such a tiebreaker, but the Packers have escaped the last two weeks and now have a 12-3 overall record, requiring them to lose one of their final two games.
The Cowboys will take on the Washington Football Team on Sunday night to help close out the Week 16 slate of games.
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