Week 17 Reality Checks: Washington vs Eagles
By Tim Payne
2. The Reality Is, there are different kinds of losing seasons.
Though relatively small, Washington does still have an outside chance at making the playoffs. If they manage to win on Sunday and follow that up with a win against New York next week, they don’t need ALL that many other things to go their way to make the playoffs.
Here’s solid summary of what the Skins/WFT need to make playoffs after laying an egg in Big D from my buddy @NFLScenarios
— Joe Ferreira (@JoeNFL) December 30, 2021
WAS wins almost all tiebreakers (except NO)…only reason they have a shot @JPFinlayNBCS pic.twitter.com/U9Mt0QRcGV
If things break their way, it would be yet another sub-.500 playoff appearance for Rivera (the third of his career). Even if the other factors don’t work out, and 8-9 finish in a season where their starting quarterback played under two quarters and they played three games dramatically impacted by Covid protocols would be relatively easy to sell as “progress”.
A 6-10 or even 7-11 game which includes a 2-4 or 1-5 division record really can’t be spun positively by anyone other than those who thought that even the Jim Zorn era was loads of fun. These final two games matter. A lot. I’ll be watching to see if Rivera has his team and staff convinced of that truth.