No matter what the upcoming schedule says, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers are in the rearview mirror. The St. Louis Rams? Yeah, they’re gone, too.
The NFC West is a thing of the past, Seahawks fans, and now it’s time to start looking ahead.
For the final four weeks of the season, the Seahawks are joined by the New Orleans Saints and the Dallas Cowboys in a little league called the Bye Division. The winner of that division will join Chicago in watching the first week of the playoffs on television before hosting a second-round game the following week.
While it may be premature to start looking that far ahead – coach Mike Holmgren refuses to talk playoffs until the Seahawks officially clinch a spot, which could happen as soon as Sunday – fans and media types can’t help but peek at the postseason preview.
The potential playoff teams fit into three groups. The Chicago Bears (10-2) are their own group. Then there are the three teams in the so-called Bye Division, followed by seven teams that are battling for the two remaining postseason berths.
As of now, the Bears (North), Seahawks (West), Saints (South) and Cowboys (East) have fairly comfortable leads atop their respective divisions. Two other teams can make the playoffs as wild cards, so we’ll call them the Wild Card Division.
Here is a look at how things stand as we head into Week 14 of the 17-week regular season:
* The Chicago Division
Team: Bears (10-2)
What’s at stake: Homefield advantage throughout the playoffs
Key player: Bears QB Rex Grossman
Barring an unforeseen meltdown, Chicago is likely to earn the NFC’s top seed. New Orleans and Dallas stand two games back, while the Seahawks, who lost to Chicago on Oct. 1 and gave up the head-to-head tiebreaker in the process, would have to win out and see the Bears go 0-4 down the stretch to wrestle away the top seed.
Despite the Bears’ record, they seem pretty ripe for the picking in the playoffs. Grossman is struggling so badly that some fans are calling for backup Brian Griese. And all but two of their wins – over the 8-4 Seahawks and 7-5 New York Jets – have come against teams that are at or below .500.
* The Bye Division
Teams: Saints (8-4), Seahawks (8-4) and Cowboys (8-4)
What’s at stake: A first-round bye
Key player: Cowboys QB Tony Romo
If tiebreakers are applied through 12 games, the Saints would win this division because of a superior record against NFC opponents (7-1). Both Dallas and Seattle are two games back in that tiebreaker, so each team would probably have to sport a better overall record to leapfrog New Orleans.
With a win at Arizona on Sunday, the Seahawks can get a leg up on one of these teams because the Saints and Cowboys play against each other. Common sense says that Seahawks fans should root for Dallas, but the Cowboys have won four in a row and have an easier schedule down the stretch. Dallas may well be the favorite.
* The Wild Card Division
Teams: Giants (6-6), Panthers (6-6), Eagles (6-6), Falcons (6-6), 49ers (5-7), Rams (5-7) and Vikings (5-7)
Key player: Eagles QB Jeff Garcia
What’s at stake: The final two playoff spots
Every team in this group has frantically been trying to jump off the ship of contenders as of late. The seven teams have a combined 11-24 record in their past five games, and every single one of them has lost at least two of its past three.
Five of the seven teams vying for a wild-card spot lost in Week 13, with the Panthers’ Monday night loss to Philadelphia muddying the playoff picture even more.
Carolina and New York seem to be the most qualified contenders, but their respective quarterbacks – the Panthers’ Jake Delhomme and the Giants’ Eli Manning – are struggling right now. The teams square off Sunday at Carolina, which will be one of the most important games of the week.
There will be plenty of key head-to-head games down the stretch, as 15 of the 28 remaining games for these seven teams come against fellow NFC contenders.
It’s gotten to the point of the season where every win and loss has added importance. The Seahawks can’t afford to lose at Arizona or they could have to make up two games in the final three weeks to get the first-round bye. The loser of the Saints-Cowboys game could find themselves scrambling just to hold onto their division lead.
So no matter how tempting it is to start talking playoff positioning, most players and coaches aren’t willing to go there.
“Until the actual event happens where we’re mathematically set, we’ll just choose to play the game and play the best we can,” Holmgren said on Monday. “There are still a lot of teams in the NFC that are still battling for a lot of stuff.”
Eleven of them, to be exact. And only six will come out alive.
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