Dallas Cowboys May Need To Go 4-0 in December

The home stretch to the playoffs is upon us and the Dallas Cowboys are on the outside looking in despite an 8-4 record.

Other than winning, everything else that could have gone wrong for the Cowboys did this past Sunday. Tampa Bay (9-3), Atlanta (8-4) and Carolina (9-3) all won.

The Cowboys have the toughest stretch of the schedule upon them. The Steelers host them this week, with the Ravens, Giants and Eagles remaining.

The other three teams already in the playoffs if they started today don’t have cakewalk schedules, either. Of the three teams, the Bucs have it the easiest. But even the Bucs cannot stand to lose a game if the Cowboys win out, because the Cowboys own the tiebreaker against the Bucs.

What’s difficult to do is predict who will come out on top of these three teams, especially considering these teams play one another minus a Falcons-Panthers matchup. Here are the remaining games for the teams who the Cowboys need to lose games:

Carolina plays Tampa Bay, Denver, New York Giants and New Orleans Saints.

The Falcons play Saints, Bucs, Vikings and the Rams.

The Bucs play the Panthers, Falcons, Chargers and Raiders.

The best hope for the Cowboys is for the Panthers to flourish, while the Falcons and Bucs struggle. If the Falcons lose any one of those games, it really hurts their playoff chances because they are all against NFC teams. The Cowboys could go 2-2 and still get in if the Bucs go 1-3. The same holds true with the Falcons.

But to ensure a playoff spot, the Cowboys need to go 4-0 in December. That will get them in.