Playoff calculations do not come any more straightforward than this. Win and you're in, lose and the season is over. In the very last game of the 2012 regular season, one of these two teams will be crowned as division champs. The other one will be eliminated from contention for another year.
The scenario is hardly a new one for the Cowboys. This will be the third time in four years that Dallas have been involved in a head-to-head clash for the NFC East title on the final weekend of an NFL season. In 2009, they crushed Philadelphia 24-0 at Cowboys Stadium to leapfrog the Eagles and win the division. Last year they lost 31-14 to the Giants in New York and consequently missed out on the playoffs at 8-8.
This time it is the Redskins who stand in their way. Washington have not won the NFC East since 1999, and did not look likely to do so this year as they slipped to 3-6 by early November. At that point even the head coach Mike Shanahan seemed ready to wave the white flag, saying that "now you're playing to see who is going to be on your football team for years to come".
Since then, though, the Redskins have won six straight – a run that took in their first-ever Thanksgiving Day victory over the Cowboys. Now it all comes down to this game, and whether they can repeat such success on their own field.
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