Arizona Cardinals and the Idea of Playoffs

The hard part is making sure enough teams in front of them are also eliminated.

Here’s one scenario that would vault the Cardinals into the playoffs:

1)      The Cardinals win their remaining four games.

2)      Two of the following three teams (the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Atlanta Falcons) each lose three out of their remaining four games. Let’s figure that the team that does not lose three of their last four games secures one of the wild card berths.

3)      The New York Giants win three of their remaining four games (including both of their games against the Cowboys).

4)      The Dallas Cowboys win no more than two of their final four games (losing two to the Giants).

Under this scenario, the 9-7 Giants win the NFC East by virtue of the fact that they beat Dallas twice, and the Cowboys and Cardinals also end up tied with 9-7 records.  However, the Cardinals would secure the second wild card slot because they beat the Cowboys in the regular season.  There are several other scenarios that are much more complicated, and which might allow the Cardinals to still advance to the playoffs, but they involve conference records and potentially games against common opponents.  It’s really too early to figure out all of the possibilities, unless you have a computer program.

After next week’s games, things will certainly sort themselves out more.  For now, Cardinals fans can still hope and pray that the stars just might be in line, and that Kolb and company somehow find a way to win a wild card spot this year.  Stranger things have happened.