Sunday went about as well for the Cardinals playoff hopes as it could have.
Not only did they pick up a pivotal 26-7 victory in the Meadowlands against the New York Giants to improve to 7-6, but their prime wild-card competition, the Minnesota Vikings, lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to drop to 6-7. Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers, both 5-7 teams entering Sunday, also lost.
The only teams in the wild-card race chasing the Cardinals who won were the 6-7 Washington Football Team, which now leads their division over the 5-8 Giants and are more likely to win that than achieve the wild-card, and the 6-7 Chicago Bears.
The Cardinals now "control their own destiny" sitting alone in the seven seed of the NFC. They are one game behind the six seed and ahead of the eight seed.
Arizona has three games to take care of business, starting next Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles at home, then hosting the San Francisco 49ers and finally traveling to Los Angeles to face the Rams in Week 17.
As far as odds to make the playoffs, several outlets have different percentages, but the Cardinals are in a much more favorable position to make the postseason this week than they were last week.
FiveThirtyEight projections have the Cardinals with a 54-percent chance to make the playoffs while giving the Vikings and Bears a 20-percent chance and the 49ers at 9 percent.
Football Outsiders gives the Cardinals 62.3-percent chance of making the playoffs. They have the Vikings at 15 percent, the Bears 22 percent and the 49ers only a 3-percent chance.
The New York Times has the Cardinals at 51 percent. followed by the Vikings at 25 percent, the Bears 19 percent and the 49ers 10 percent.
Of course, the only sure things is that all the percentages will change after Week 15.
The Vikings' remaining games are against the Bears, a big matchup in the wild-card shakeup, as one of those two teams will emerge 7-7, unless they tie, putting pressure on the Cardinals to defeat the Eagles next week. The Vikings also have 10-3 New Orleans and then Detroit to close out their season.
As for the Bears, the game against Vikings, they face the Jaguars and then the Packers at home. The trick is whether or not the Packers will have anything to play for, as they could have the No. 1 seed in the NFC locked up by then. They currently are tied with the Saints for that spot, but they have the tiebreaker edge. The Bears could be a dangerous threat to Arizona if they get past the Vikings and then face a one-win Jaguars team and some of Packers' backups.
The Cardinals' mantra this week was they have everything they want right in front of them and they have to earn it. That hasn’t changed after defeating the Giants, as with three weeks left, the wild-card spot is theirs to win.
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December 15, 2020 at 12:15AM
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Standings Update: Cardinals Spot to Lose in the NFC Wild-Card After Week 14 - Sports Illustrated
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