Washington playoff rooting guide for Week 15

The Washington Football Team lost to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in a game that likely sealed their hopes of winning the division.

With three games behind Dallas with four to play, Washington would need everything to go perfectly over the final month. Given how many injuries this roster is dealing with, it’s tough to envision that happening.

Having said that, Washington’s hopes of returning to the playoffs are still very much alive. Even after Sunday’s defeat, the squad owns the No. 7 seed.

The only problem? There are currently five teams with a 6-7 record, so there isn’t much separating them from a playoff berth and the No. 11 seed.

Washington needs to handle their business vs Philadelphia first and foremost, but fans will undoubtedly be scoreboard watching throughout the Week 15 slate, which will feature Saturday night games for the first time all year.

Here’s what the fan base should be rooting for.

Washington playoff rooting guide for Week 15

Cowboys at Giants

This one goes without saying, right? Fans constantly find themselves rooting for division rivals near the end of seasons, and 2021 is no different.

The Giants will be hard-pressed to hold serve at home against the Cowboys, but anything is possible right? While pulling for the G-Men feels yucky, just think about it like you’re rooting for Dallas to lose.

Don’t need much convincing there.

Falcons at 49ers:

Unfortunately for Washington, both the Falcons and 49ers picked up wins over the weekend. San Francisco’s victory hurts a lot more given they were on the road in Cincinnati, but if you really thought it was going to be easy you haven’t been paying attention this year.

The Football Team owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta, so fans should be pulling for a Falcons win. Furthermore, Washington has the conference record tiebreaker edge over the 49ers, so they could leapfrog them in the standings with a Falcons win and a dub over the Eagles.

Seahawks at Rams

If you take your sports fandom seriously, you’ll want as little competition for the eight playoff spots as possible. In other words, we’ll welcome a scenario that sees a team gasping for breath be put out of its misery.

Recent history suggests this will be a nail-biter, but we’ll be cheering like heck for Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp and Co. to come out as the victors.

No need to give a quarterback as good as Russell Wilson a glimmer of hope that Seattle’s season can be saved. Very quietly, the Seahawks have won two straight and sit at 5-8 since their Monday night loss in Landover.

Saints at Buccaneers

The Saints’ season was on the line this past Sunday, but they lucked out by having what amounted to a bye week against the Jets.

While we don’t believe New Orleans has enough firepower to make a definitive playoff push, it’d be nice if the Buccaneers hammered another nail in their coffin, especially since they own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Washington.

Vikings at Bears 

Same logic applies here as the previous two games.

The Bears have nothing to play for, but they’ll welcome the opportunity to play spoiler versus a division rival.

The Vikings have a propensity to make every game unnecessarily dramatic, so fans should be in for an entertaining edition of Monday Night Football; one that hopefully finishes with Soldier Field in celebratory mode.