How the Redskins Won’t Make the 2017 NFL Playoffs, Even If They Beat Giants

The Likelihood of the Washington Redskins making the Playoffs is good but not guaranteed….and they obviously must win against the Giants in Week 17.  New York is already in the Playoffs and will likely rest starting quarterback Eli Manning and other key players (at least if they are wise).   

Win, they’re in hosting the New York Giants in Week 17. 

The two scenarios that the Redskins needed to happen courtesy of other teams in Week 16 did so.  Tampa Bay and Detroit both lost.

Of course, Washington did its part to grasp a Playoff berth by beating Chicago on the road.

Herein lies the problem in Week 17 (outside of a Redskins loss), according to Fox Sports:

A Lions-Packers tie means the Redskins are out of Playoff contention.

From FoxSports.com:

Here’s how it would go down: Washington would have a 9-6-1 record after beating the Giants. Since both the Packers and Lions are 9-6 at the moment, thanks to Detroit’s Monday night loss to Dallas, a tie would make for a three-way tiebreaker — technically. In reality, there would be separate tiebreakers applied. The first would determine the winner of the NFC North, and since Green Bay won the first meeting with Detroit, it would win the division based on its 1-0-1 head-to-head record.

That would drop Detroit into a tiebreaker with the Redskins for the last wild-card berth, which the Lions would win based on their head-to-head win over Washington, which came back in October when the Redskins had a 17-13 lead and 99.54 percent win probability with 1:05 left before the Lions marched 75 yards in 43 seconds for the win.

As Fox Sports noted, should the Lions-Packers game end up being played beyond regulation, this will prove the most exciting overtime play in the 2016-2017 NFL regular season.

Washington had 60-1 odds of winning Super Bowl 51 incidentally.

- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com