The Draw Play

A few years ago the NFC East was a laughingstock as nobody could win a game and they sent the second-ever losing record team to the playoffs. We came inches from getting a 6-10 Giants team in the postseason but the Eagles went and ruined it. I will never forgive Philadelphia for that. All I heard all that year was that the NFC East was so bad that they should literally change the playoff format. This is a fairly common gripe when an entire division is bad. Well, 2 years later and the NFC East is the best division in football. The Eagles are super bowl contenders with a stacked roster absolutely dominating most teams they face, led by a young QB who took a huge leap. The Cowboys have a stifling defense led by the best defender in the sport right now and Dak is back and playing great ball. The Giants have significantly outperformed expectations with an extremely limited roster, and the Commies have bounced back after some early struggles to seize the day. Now they even refuse to lose to each other.

Both the Giants and Commies are essentially fighting for the 6 or 7 seed. The Eagles will be a top seed and the Cowboys will likely be comfortably 5th. One of these teams is going to make the playoffs. They both might make it. The question over the next few weeks is who, because Sunday did not answer anything.

If I’m being honest I think the Giants should have won that game. It felt like they left more on the field while the Commies did what they could late to salvage their chances. The Giants in fact should have won it after Slayton put them in field goal range and then the center ruined it by getting a questionable taunting call (the report is that he was flexing to Slayton, not to the Commies players, which I think is true but still unclear and never give the officials an excuse to ruin your day, bad rule or not). The Giants have stagnated in recent weeks and the go for it all squad from the first half isn’t there anymore. It doesn’t help that Slayton is the only WR worth half a damn (he’s a good #3 or #4 on any other team) and they only have one O-lineman worth anything. The creative playcalling has quieted since the bye week though. Almost no Daniel Jones designed runs or bootlegs even though he’s actually good at those. The defense is still outplaying its talent level but several important pieces (mostly in the secondary) are missing due to injury. On top of that they have the toughest remaining schedule in the league, with only the Colts game being one they should be favored for.

Most teams have pretty much figured out the limits of this squad now (Bottle up Barkley and force Jones to beat you by throwing to scraps) and I think there is a distinct possibility the Giants miss the playoffs entirely despite starting 6-1. It would be a bummer for sure, but it’s hard to be too mad. They already outperformed my expectations and have given me hope for the future.

The Commies are a very odd team. They came in with low expectations (not Giants low, but low), and mostly looked like exactly that team for the first quarter of the year with Carson “the conman” Wentz under center. Wentz busting his hand against the Bears was a blessing in disguise because the squad immediately rallied around mediocre backup Taylor Heinicke to actually start playing to potential. Wentz is now on the bench despite being healthy. However, they haven’t beaten a hard slate of teams (outside the Eagles upset) in that timeframe, and the Giants game kind of showed they are still limited. Something to keep in mind as well is that the NFC East has been blessed with a schedule against the AFC South, a truly garbage division, so their stats might be inflated.

As of right now the Commanders are on a bye and the Giants will probably lose to the Eagles before they meet once again in two weeks in flexed primetime to finally settle the score once and for all on who gets to get eliminated by the 49ers or Vikings in the first round.

Or, in what would be the funniest result possible, both make it and both get eliminated by both the 49ers and Vikings. I want them to tie again. That would be really funny.