The state of the NFC East after Washington’s huge win against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night

That sound you hear is the clinking of glasses among the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Coincidentally, the perfect ‘72 Dolphins have the team that they beat in Super Bowl VII to thank for their unique piece of eternal glory surviving yet another NFL season. Those Dolphins took down the Washington football franchise in the Super Bowl, and on Monday night the Washington Football Team took down the no-longer-undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. Welcome to the upside down.

Washington has been playing rather solid football as of late. They are definitely a better team than the Dallas Cowboys as evidenced by the two beatdowns that they put on them, but they may not be as better as Thanksgiving Day would have made it seem.

Still, Washington is one of the better teams in the NFC East. Some would say that they are even the favorite to win the division. The New York Giants began Week 13 in first place and managed to finish it in the same spot as they shocked the world by beating the Seattle Seahawks. Washington is keeping pace as of Monday night which has turned the division into quite the bit of theater.

The NFC East isn’t at all what we thought it would be at the beginning of the week

We spoke on Sunday evening about the state of the NFC East after the aforementioned New York Giants win and latest Philadelphia Eagles loss. It seemed like, with what looked to be an inevitable Washington loss on Monday, that the Giants were well-equipped to maintain their pole position. Things have changed!

Whatever happens with the Cowboys on Tuesday night will not impact what is going on at the top. The G-Men and Football Team are now tied yet again, this time with five wins on the season. It is hard to know what to make of the Philadelphia Eagles’ short-term future as it looks like a quarterback change is on the horizon, needless to say Jalen Hurts presents one of the league’s biggest wildcards over the remaining month of the season considering that his team is playing some squads that are squarely in playoff contention.

If you are Team Tank for the Cowboys then you are likely pleased to have seen two division wins so far this week. The Cowboys now trail both New York and Washington by two wins each and are likely to lose to Baltimore on Tuesday night (although we live in a world where Washington did what they just did so who knows) which means that things are going to have to break in an oddly specific way for them over the final four weeks if they are going to wind up winning this thing.

Maybe the Cowboys will provide a similar shock across the league that their division rivals did this week. If they do then obviously they are still well-within striking distance and cannot be counted out. They visit Cincinnati on Sunday and will likely get a win there which will keep them hanging around, but the teams at the top are starting to separate themselves just a bit.