The Dallas Cowboys clinched the NFC East before they even took the field on Sunday, and when they did, it marked an NFL record 17th consecutive year without a repeat winner in the NFC East.
Dallas had the Sunday night game against Washington, but after clinching a playoff berth when Tennessee defeated San Francisco Thursday night, the Cowboys knew they could be division champions before taking the field on Sunday.
To do so, they needed either Philly to lose to or tie the Giants – that would’ve left Philly and Washington with a maximum nine wins, short of Dallas’ 10 so far – or a combined two wins by the Falcons, Vikings, Jaguars, Patriots, Chargers, and Raiders to clinch the division based on strength of victory tiebreaker.
Philly cruised after a slow start over the Giants, and the Cowboys watched the early window as Atlanta topped Detroit but Minnesota (Rams), Jacksonville (Jets), New England (Bills), and Los Angeles (Texans) all lost.
Thankfully, in the late window, Las Vegas took care of Denver, giving the ‘Boys their 23rd NFC East title overall and fifth since the current division alignments took hold in 2002. Philly could still tie the Cowboys at 10-7, but in doing so, the teams would be 1-1 against each other head to head and have similar divisional, conference, and common game records, leaving strength of victory as the next tiebreaker.
That leaves the 2001-04 Eagles four-peat as the last run of consecutive NFC East titles by the same team, and in the 20 years under the current division alignment, the breakdown has been eight for Philly, six for Dallas, and three each for Washington and the Giants.
Dallas still has an outside chance at the No. 1 seed and lone bye in the NFC East should they win out or see some help, but as it relates to Sunday, a win in the nightcap could also all but eliminate Washington from playoff contention; a loss would drop them to 6-9, leaving them behind two 8-7 teams (Philly and San Francisco), two 7-8 teams (Atlanta and Minnesota), and New Orleans (currently 7-7 ahead of their Monday night game) in the race for the final two NFC playoff spots.
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