What Cowboys’ Week 14 loss to Lions means for Dallas in NFC East, playoff picture originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.The Dallas Cowboys entered Week 14 with almost zero margin for error but didn’t get the win they so desperately needed.Dallas dropped its contest against the Detroit Lions on Thursday night, which snaps the Cowboys’ three-game winning streak and halts their momentum.Making matters worse, the Cowboys lost wide receiver CeeDee Lamb during the contest due to a concussion and now his status for Week 15 is up in the air.Here’s how the Cowboys’ loss to the Lions in Week 14 impacts their outlook in the NFC East and conference playoff picture.Cowboys playoff chancesAccording to Ali Bhanpuri of NFL.com, the Cowboys’ loss to the Lions drops their chances of making the playoffs to just 6%.Had they won on Thursday night, the Cowboys would’ve been up to a 31% chance.As you can see, we weren’t kidding when we said the Cowboys had almost zero margin for error. A borderline miracle is needed for Dallas to get to the playoffs.NFC East standings1. Philadelphia Eagles (8-4)2. Dallas Cowboys (6-6-1)3. Washington Commanders (3-9)4. New York Giants (2-11)The Cowboys remain in second place in the NFC East, but their loss now drops the Eagles’ magic number down to three, and it’ll fall to two if the Eagles win on Monday against the Los Angeles Chargers.And, if the Eagles win next week versus the Las Vegas Raiders and the Cowboys lose to the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia will clinch the NFC East.NFC playoff pictureRankTeamRecord1Chicago Bears9-32Los Angeles Rams9-33Philadelphia Eagles8-44Tampa Bay Buccaneers7-55Seattle Seahawks9-36Green Bay Packers8-3-17San Francisco 49ers9-48Detroit Lions8-59Carolina Panthers7-610Dallas Cowboys6-6-111Atlanta Falcons4-812Minnesota Vikings4-813Arizona Cardinals3-914Washington Commanders3-915New Orleans Saints2-1016New York Giants2-11The Cowboys entered the week in the No. 9 spot but now fall back to No. 10 behind the Carolina Panthers, who are idle this week.The only good news here is that the Cowboys can’t fall any further than that.More NFL NewsPlayer Bills cut to make room for Darius Slay claimed off waiversTee Higgins injury update is great news for Bengals WR’s Week 14 statusMarvin Harrison Jr., Trey Benson injury updates are more bad newsMicah Parsons makes strong statement on Penn State’s next head coachCowboys’ Dak Prescott gives Lions bulletin board material