Heading into their Sunday Night Football matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, the Dallas Cowboys had seen their already-low playoff odds take a significant hit, given the results of several games on the Sunday afternoon slate.
With the way things went down earlier in the day, a loss to the Vikings would completely eliminate Dallas from wild-card contention. And with the Philadelphia Eagles taking an easy 31-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, winning the NFC East, which was the Cowboys' easiest path to the postseason (but still a long shot), would become all but impossible.
Of course, this is the scenario that played out, as America's Team took a dreadful 34-26 defeat, with the Dallas defense allowing J.J. McCarthy to throw for a career-high 250 yards and two touchdowns, also letting the 22-year-old waltz into the end zone untouched on a two-yard touchdown run.
The Cowboys' offense racked up 423 total yards of offense but some stalled drives at inopportune times and a pair of missed field goals from Brandon Aubrey certainly didn't help matters.
With the loss, Dallas dropped to 6-7-1 on the season. And while the NFC East is technically still within reach, the likelihood of that happening just fell from slim to almost zero, as NFL.com now has the Cowboys' playoff probability odds at less than 1%.
Cowboys have virtually no shot to make the playoffs after loss to the Vikings
Here's an updated look at the NFC playoff picture coming out of Week 15. As you'll notice, only 10 of the 16 teams in the conference are included, as the Minnesota Vikings (-), Atlanta Falcons (5-9), New Orleans Saints (4-10), Washington Commanders (4-10), Arizona Cardinals (3-11), and New York Giants (2-12) have all been officially eliminated.
Updated NFC playoff picture
- Los Angeles Rams (11-3, 1st NFC West)
- Chicago Bears (10-4, 1st NFC North)
- Philadelphia Eagles (9-5, 1st NFC East)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-7, 1st NFC South)
- Seattle Seahawks (11-3, 2nd NFC West)
- San Francisco 49ers (10-4, 3rd NFC West)
- Green Bay Packers (9-4-1, 2nd NFC North)
- Detroit Lions (8-6, 3rd NFC North)
- Carolina Panthers (7-7, 2nd NFC South)
- Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1, 2nd NFC East)
As you can see, the Cowboys would need to win their last three against the Los Angeles Chargers, Washington Commanders, and New York Giants to finish 9-7-1 and then have the Eagles lose their last three to end the season at 9-8. And while the Birds could certainly lose to the Buffalo Bills in Week 17, they still have two games to play against the Commanders. And one wouldn't think they're going to drop both.
For those wondering why the Cowboys can't catch the Green Bay Packers, who dropped into the final wild-card slot at 9-4-1 with a loss to the Denver Broncos, both teams could finish at 9-7-1 if Dallas wins out and Green Bay loses its next three. Even then, though, the Packers would still win a tiebreaker. So, that's why the Cowboys are out of the wild-card race.