A win by the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night would have moved them into the final playoff spot in the NFC. Instead, they were outclassed on their home turf by the Chicago Bears. Seattle still sits in eighth place in the conference and just one game out of a playoff spot, but that tiebreaker could come back to haunt them.
All four NFC North teams are in playoff spots right now and at least two games over .500 while the Seahawks are even at 4-4, a game back.
In the NFC West, the San Francisco 49ers
were on a bye and moved into the one seed in the NFC anyway after the Minnesota Vikings lost. The Los Angeles Rams won to tie Seattle at 4-4, but the Seahawks have the tiebreaker on division record. The Arizona Cardinals won a wild game over the Dallas Cowboys and are just ag ame back of Seattle and L.A.
NFC playoff standings after Week 8
1. San Francisco 49ers (6-1, strength of victory .456)
2. Minnesota Vikings (6-1, strength of victory .400)
3. New York Giants (4-2-1)
4. Carolina Panthers (3-4)
5. Chicago Bears (6-2)
6. Detroit Lions (5-2)
7. Green Bay Packers (5-3)
8. Seattle Seahawks (4-4, 1-1 NFCW)
9. Los Angeles Rams (4-4, 0-2 NFCW)
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5, win over ATL, 1-0 vs DAL+ARZ, 3-2 NFC)
11. Atlanta Falcons (3-5, loss to TB, 3-3 NFC record)
12. Arizona Cardinals (3-5, 1-0 vs DAL+ARZ, 2-4 NFC)
13. Dallas Cowboys (3-5, 0-2 vs TB+ARZ, loss to ARZ)
14. Washington Commanders (2-4-1)
15. New Orleans Saints (2-5, 1-3 NFC)
16. Philadelphia Eagles (2-6)
Explaining the 3-5 tiebreaker in the NFC
First, you get to one team per division so the Falcons and Buccaneers are against each other. Tampa has a win over Atlanta, so they have the tiebreaker.
Tampa vs Arizona vs Dallas is a head-to-head tiebreaker where Atlanta and Arizona move on since they both have wins over Dallas. The Bucs are 3-2 in the NFC vs the Cardinals at 2-4, so Tampa is the 10 seed.
Then the Falcons go into a three-way tiebreaker with the Cardinals and Cowboys. It goes straight to NFC record where the Falcons are 3-3 and the Cardinals and Cowboys are 2-4. Atlanta is the 11 seed.
The Arizona Cardinals beat the Cowboys so they win the head-to-head tiebreaker in the two-way decision. Arizona is 12th and the Cowboys are 13th.
