Cowboys playoff picture and rooting guide after the win over Washington

If the Dallas Cowboys lost to Washington on Thursday night, the general consensus was their season was over. Conversely, that would mean if they won, then their season would still be alive even if by the slimmest of margins. They won, so for the moment we’re going to treat their season as living, therefore the playoffs are still out there, even if out there is really out there.

Dallas is 6-6 and moved up one spot to ninth in the NFC, but only because Green Bay at 5-6 has yet to play this week. They hold the tiebreaker over Dallas, so worst-case scenario for Dallas, the Pack win, and the other wild card contenders win, and basically everything stays status quo. Dallas would be back in tenth, but with one less week to work with.

There is also a best-case scenario for Dallas.

For playoff rooting purposes, every Cowboys fan should focus on Atlanta (7-4), Seattle (7-4), Detroit (6-5) and Green Bay (5-6). Atlanta and Green Bay hold the tiebreaker over Dallas, so they need to finish at 9-7 or worse for Dallas to overtake them.

This weekend:

Atlanta (home) vs. Minnesota (1 PM ET FOX): Cowboys fans are Vikings fans this weekend. Skol!

Seattle (home) vs. Philadelphia (8:30 PM ET NBC): Suck it up Cowboys fans and root for the... hard... to... say... Eagles.

Detroit (away) vs. Baltimore (1 PM ET FOX): Go Ravens. They will try to hold on to their AFC Wild Card spot and do the ‘Boys a favor.

Green Bay (home) vs. Tampa Bay (1 PM ET FOX): Maybe the Bucs can steal a win, last thing we need is Aaron Rodgers returning with the team still in it. Avoid the rush Green Bay, start losing now.

That’s your weekend rooting guide, if you believe the Cowboys still have a shot.

Here are the current NFC playoff standings:

1. Eagles 10-1
2. Vikings (9-2)
3. Rams (8-3)
4. Saints (8-3)
5. Panthers (8-3)
6. Falcons (7-4)
7. Seahawks (7-4)
8. Lions (6-5)
9. Cowboys (6-6)
10. Packers (5-6)
11. Cardinals (5-6)