The New York Giants ended their winning streak with a lackluster performance against the Cardinals, but the worst outcome from this game doesn’t just have to do with this result. Rather, the combination of the Giants losing and other teams winning has taken the Giants out of first place in the NFC East. While they controlled their fate before and could have made it into the playoffs by holding on down the stretch, it’s now possible for the Giants to win out and not make it in.
New York Giants no longer control their destiny
They have three games left. During that stretch, they’ll face the Browns, Ravens, and Cowboys. The Browns right now are a 9-3 team that takes on the 7-5 Ravens on Monday Night Football, so there’s no guarantee the Giants are able to win out. Even Dallas, a struggling team, won on Sunday and blew out the Bengals by a score of 30-7.
But even if the Giants do somehow win out, or even take two of the thee games, they might not make it into the playoffs regardless. That’s because despite beating Washington two times this season in a sweep, the Giants lost today when Washington won. And with six wins, Washington is set to finish with more wins than the Giants if they can pull off victories against Seattle, Carolina, and Philadelphia in the last week of the season. And that’s no matter how many wins the Giants pick up in their last games.
Considering Philadelphia’s struggles and the 4-9 record of the Panthers, it does look entirely possible that Washington could win out over the Giants. Still, New York isn’t eliminated yet. It looks like their games will mean something right up until the end of the season.
This result, however, is a warning that a good finish for the Giants is still far from solidified. And if they want to be a playoff team, they’ll have to play far more like they did in Seattle and a lot less like they did against Arizona.