In any other year, the Washington Football Team at 2-6 would be talking about next year, not still in contention for a playoff berth.
But because the NFC East is the NFL’s embarrassing, dumpster fire of a division, Ron Rivera still has an outside chance at making the playoffs by winning the division. And he still really believes his team can do it.
"We're still in it,” Rivera said. “I mean, let's be realistic, what's the best record in our division?"
After a long pause, the reporter answered a half-hearted "Yeah..." unable to summon the correct answer: the Philadelphia Eagles at 3-4-1.
Rivera jumped back in: "You see my point? So, keep your fingers crossed, you just never know."
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Right now Football Outsiders gives Washington a 14 percent chance at making the playoffs.
“We’ve got a few more games going forward that we’ve got to play and see exactly where we are as this thing unfolds,” Rivera said after Sunday’s 23-20 loss. “The nice thing about it that the division is still up for grabs and we’ll see what happens.”
Of course, Football Outsiders also gives Rivera’s playoff-hopeful Football Team a 4.2 percent chance at finishing with the league's worst record and 'earning' the No. 1 overall pick.
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If the season ended today, Washington would have the No. 5 pick in the NFL Draft, behind division rivals the Dallas Cowboys (2-7) at three and New York Giants (2-7) at four.
Rivera says nothing has changed in his mind since he benched starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins after a 1-3 start in favor of Kyle Allen even with his team now sitting at 2-6 and with Allen (likely) lost for the season and Alex Smith as the starting quarterback.
"We’re in the same situation,” Rivera said. “Nothing has really changed in the NFC East other than we’ve lost the tiebreaker now to the Giants.”
“It's still a close race,” he added.
However, time is running out for the optimistic Rivera: "At some point, we have to win football games. That's the truth of the matter.”
Follow @BenKrimmel for the latest.
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