The Washington Football Team is the 2020 NFC East champion.
It feels good to write that. It feels good to know that as the truth. Does it mean a likely defeat at the hands of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Yes. Does it mean a more difficult schedule in 2021? Unfortunately.
Despite that, this team took a step forward. Fighting for a better draft pick every season does not build a winning culture; winning builds a winning culture. The Washington Football Team lost more games than they won, but in this division, going 7-9 was enough.
Playoff experience, even if it’s just one game, is huge for the team’s young core. If one day soon, hopefully, this team is built for legit contention, it means this group can roll into the -offs knowing it ain’t their first rodeo. Knowing they’ve been there before will make future success a whole lot easier, should it ever come.
Of course much controversy came from the WFT’s Week 17 matchup that decided the winner of the NFC East, and there’s a lot to unpack from it.
It was underwhelming to clinch the division in a sloppy, close win over an Eagles team that seemed to do everything in their power to lose the game, but despite what every one of their fans will tell you, the New York Giants were not robbed of a playoff spot.
The Giants won six (6) games and lost ten (10). If that’s a record deserving of a playoff berth, then why don’t we expand the entire postseason to field all 32 teams? To say the Giants were deserving of a playoff spot is just wrong.
Well Joe, 7-9 isn’t much better. It’s still a losing record. Washington doesn’t deserve a spot either.
You’re not wrong, but here’s the difference: I’m not saying Washington deserves a playoff spot. I don’t believe any team in the NFC East deserved a playoff spot this year, but by rule, someone had to make it, and the team with the most wins got it by default. Let’s not act like the Giants had the spot ripped away from them.
Entering Sunday, Washington was in the driver’s seat. They were in control of their own destiny, regardless of what happened in the Giants-Cowboys tilt. If the Giants want to be mad about losing something they never had, they can join their neighboring Jets pouting about missing out on Trevor Lawrence.
Speaking of Lawrence, how about that double standard? The Jets are encouraged to “Tank for Trevor” and are ridiculed when they mess it up, but the Eagles aren’t allowed to try and better their own draft position? I understand the Eagles won’t have Lawrence sitting there at the sixth overall pick, but the principle is still the same.
In nearly every case, I don’t think tanking is worth it, and even I question the thinking behind coach Doug Pederson’s decisions last night. Yet I find it funny how the Eagles are shamed for their supposedly deliberate losing when just three years ago, some Giants fans actively rooted for their team to lose enough games to have the 2018 second overall pick and select Saquon Barkley.
Not all Giants fans felt that way, but of all the people I saw complaining last night, I know many of those people did. You know who you are.
The Giants are only mad about the situation because it was worse for them. Sorry, but don’t expect another team to do anything other than what’s best for themselves (or what they believe to be what’s best for themselves at least). You want to get to the playoffs? Win enough games so you’re in the driver’s seat and won’t have to rely on anyone else to get you there.
But if the Eagles won, then New York and Washington would have had the same number of wins, and New York beat Washington twice, so the Giants really were robbed.
“If” is such a great word. We can use it to spin any hypothetical into reality, and at the end of the day, it still doesn’t matter, because the “if” didn’t actually happen.
If the Eagles won… let’s address that first. The Eagles effectively “rolled over” with just over 12 minutes left in the game by replacing Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfeld at quarterback. Can we all agree on that? Until then, they were in it to win it? Well at that point, Washington was up 17-14.
Are we forgetting that Washington led the entire game? I don’t blame you if you did forget; it certainly didn’t feel like a lead given how the Washington offense looked, but let’s not act like the Eagles were up by three scores and fumbled the lead away.
The Washington offense was bad, and Hurts was doing well with moving the ball with his legs, but to just outright assume the Eagles would have won the game if Hurts stayed in is just wrong. It could have happened. In fact, it easily could have happened, but Washington also could have held on and won. Say what you want about how likely either outcome was, but a lead is a lead is a lead.
Don’t get me wrong, Sudfeld was atrocious, and absolutely contributed to the Eagles losing the game. (Poor guy, he didn’t ask for this.) Taking out Hurts effectively ended any chance the Eagles had of winning, but keeping him in would not automatically mean a win for Philly.
Still not satisfied? Let’s keep playing the “If” game. New York beat Washington twice. That’s true, but what if Washington had won one or both of those games? It certainly could have happened.
In Week 6, Washington scored a touchdown trailing 20-13 with 36 seconds left to cut the score to 20-19. An extra point would have tied the game, likely sending it to overtime. Instead, Washington went for the two-point conversion and the immediate win. They failed, and the Giants won.
You could argue Washington handed the Giants that victory. If Washington had kicked the extra point and sent the game to OT, they could have won.
But they didn’t.
In Week 9, New York had a 20-3 lead over Washington entering halftime. The game ended 23-20 in New York’s favor. If Washington had managed to pull off a complete comeback, or not allow New York to get as far ahead as they did in the first half, then Washington would have won.
But they didn’t.
We can spew as many “ifs” as we want, but it just doesn’t matter. If Washington had defeated the Giants in one of those games, Washington would be 8-8 and the Giants would be 5-11, and the Giants would be out of the running entirely.
Tough breaks happen all the time. The Giants have benefitted from some and have been screwed by others; same goes for Washington. If the season had broken one way, the Giants would be 8-8 division champs. In another way, they would have been 4-12 and not in the conversation to begin with.
At the end of the day, they didn’t win enough games to secure themselves a spot, so they have no one to be mad at but themselves.
And honestly, if the Giants had won the division at 6-10, would that be any more respectable? Everyone has rightfully viewed the NFC East as a trash division all season long, and it would have been that way no matter who won the division.
You want to be upset about missing the playoffs? That’s perfectly reasonable. I know I would be upset. Building up hope for that final game only to have it ripped away in that fashion is understandably frustrating.
But to feel entitled to that spot this year is just silly. Go ahead and cry, no one should feel sorry for you.
You want to feel sorry for a team? How about the 10-6 Miami Dolphins that also missed the playoffs? At least they had a winning record. Between the Dolphins, Giants and WFT, Miami deserves a postseason spot the most.
And yet that’s not how the NFL works.
The Washington Football Team won the NFC East and is going to the playoffs. It may not be pretty, but take it for what it is, Washington fans: a trip to the playoffs. Enjoy the ride unapologetically. If this is a Mickey Mouse division championship, then hot dog, hot diggity dog.
See you Saturday night.
Cover Photo Credit: The Athletic
The Wildcard 