NFC Playoff Picture, Week 13

The NFL playoffs are just around the corner, and though most New England fans seem to think the playoffs are just a formality this year, plenty of teams are still chasing that shiny Lombardi Trophy. With that in mind, here's a look at how the NFC playoff race is stacking up at this point in the season...

Seed	Team	Record	Div.	Conf.
1	Dallas Cowboys	10-1	4-0	7-0
2	Green Bay Packers	10-1	3-1	7-1
3	Seattle Seahawks	7-4	4-1	6-2
4	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	7-4	3-0	6-2
5	New York Giants	7-4	2-2	5-4
6	Detroit Lions	6-5	3-1	4-5
--	6 teams tied at	5-6

TIEBREAKERS:

• Dallas wins the tiebreaker over Green Bay based on conference record. (For now.)
• Seattle wins the tiebreaker over Tampa Bay based on head-to-head matchup.

Was it just me, or did every Wild Card hopeful in this conference take a huge step backward last week?

After Detroit lost to Green Bay on Thanksgiving, at least three 5-5 teams had an opportunity to overtake the Lions and jump into that #6 seed. So what happens? Washington turns the ball over seven times and loses an otherwise winnable game to Tampa Bay. Arizona suffers through a Neil Rackers miss in overtime and loses to San Francisco. Philadelphia comes oh so close to getting Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris on Sunday night, only to watch A.J. Feeley throw a last-minute interception against the Patriots.

Add to that Eli Manning's disgraceful performance, and suddenly, you have a morass of 5-6 teams, all still one game behind the Lions. I didn't list all those 5-6 teams in the table because I have a policy when it comes to these playoff pictures: if you're not at least a .500 team, you don't deserve to be listed here. No sub-.500 team has ever made the NFL playoffs, and while the NFC is trying its hardest, I don't expect that to change this year.

Besides, given the dominance of Dallas and Green Bay, it may not matter all that much. These two teams, much like the Colts and Patriots in the AFC, are the class of the conference, and everyone else is merely gunning for one chance to knock them off. I'm not saying a upset wouldn't happen -- the Eagles proved that it might be possible, after all -- but after seeing what everyone else did last weekend, I'm not exactly holding my breath here.

THIS WEEK'S IMPACT GAMES (All Times Eastern):

• Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys (THU, 8:00 PM, NFL Network): Both of these teams seem to be locks for first-round byes. If they meet again in the NFC Championship, this could decide where that game will be played.
  
  
• Seattle Seahawks at Philadelphia Eagles (SUN, 1:00 PM, FOX): The Eagles came awfully close to upsetting the unbeaten Patriots, while the Seahawks needed a Gus Frerotte fumble at the end to beat the lowly Rams. Of course, that now means nothing, except that this could be very entertaining to watch.
  
  
• Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings (SUN, 1:00 PM, FOX): Can the Lions recover from another Thanksgiving Day defeat? Or will the Vikings resurrect Purple Jesus to save their season?
  
  
• Buffalo Bills at Washington Redskins (SUN, 1:00 PM, CBS): Both these teams have suffered tragedies this year -- the Bills with Kevin Everett, the 'Skins with Sean Taylor. There could be a lot of emotion flowing at FedEx Field on Sunday.
  
  
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints (SUN, 4:15 PM, FOX): A Bucs win here all but secures the NFC South for them, but they better hope Jeff Garcia is healthy, because Bruce Gradkowski isn't going to lead that offense anywhere.
  
  
• New York Giants @ Chicago Bears (SUN, 4:05 PM, FOX): Can Eli Manning recover after throwing three interceptions returned for touchdowns? More importantly, will the Giants know better than to kick to Devin Hester?
  
  
• Cleveland Browns @ Arizona Cardinals (SUN, 4:05 PM, CBS): Does anybody really know what to make of the Buzzsaw? We'll find out for sure when they face an AFC Wild Card contender.

Bookmark this page and visit it every Tuesday at noon EST for the latest NFC playoff picture. Click here for the latest AFC playoff picture.