As we get nearer to the top of the 2025 season, the surging Cowboys have all of a sudden moved into the NFC playoff dialog. One huge wrinkle for Dallas, and the also-contending Inexperienced Bay Packers, is their tie consequence from Week 4. What does this standings anomaly imply for Dallas and the remainder of the convention within the ever-developing playoff image?
Cowboys followers could be forgiven in the event that they’re undecided the way to really feel about or perceive the affect of a tie. They don’t occur usually: Dallas and Inexperienced Bay’s is the one one up to now this yr and the primary since 2022. From 2002 to 2014, there have been solely 12 whole ties over 13 seasons. And for Dallas, amazingly, this was the primary tie for the franchise since 1969.
What’s humorous about ties is that, for as uncommon as they’re and as inexperienced as we could also be with them, they really make issues easier. In order for you complexity, undergo the NFL’s tiebreaking situations for issues like division winners, playoff seeding, and draft order. Particularly when you get into ranges like widespread opponents and energy of schedule, issues get actually tedious and unappealingly mathy.
When one crew has a tie in its report and one other crew doesn’t, all of that different stuff goes out the window. It comes right down to the essential comparability of total information, and significantly every crew’s successful share. Let’s say Dallas finishes the yr with a 9-7-1 report: 9 wins, seven losses, and one tie. That could be a higher report with the next successful share (.559) than a 9-8 (.529) report. It’s additionally a worse report than 10-7 (58.8), nonetheless retaining issues easy.
Mainly, if the Cowboys and one other NFC crew (aside from Inexperienced Bay) end the yr with the identical variety of wins, the tie instantly lifts Dallas above them within the standings. Any crew that’s received extra video games than Dallas this yr will routinely be above them, no totally different than if the Cowboys didn’t have the tie in any respect.
That is particularly related given how shut Dallas and the Carolina Panthers are proper now within the NFC. Carolina beat the Cowboys in Week 6, which might typically grant them an vital head-to-head tiebreaker if wanted. However now, if the Panthers and Cowboys have the identical variety of wins after Week 18, Dallas’ loss to Carolina merely received’t matter. The Cowboys would have the higher total report, because of the tie.
Should you already understood all that, sorry for the lecture. However we’ve seen plenty of posts and different writings that point out there’s nonetheless plenty of confusion about how this works: Cowboys followers anxious over tiebreaking situations which have a really low likelihood of truly coming into play. The mission going ahead is straightforward, with Dallas simply needing to at the least match the win totals of most different NFC contenders to maneuver forward of them within the playoff race. That is additionally true within the NFC East, the place the Cowboys may nonetheless steal the division if they will achieve two extra wins than the Eagles over the following 5 weeks.
If we get by way of Week 18 and Dallas falls wanting the playoffs, particularly if it’s solely by one win, many are going to level to the tie because the wrongdoer. As a result of it’s uncommon and somewhat extra intriguing, it makes for good fodder. However the fact is that the tie has as a lot likelihood of serving to the Cowboys as hurting them. It’s a 50-50 variable, depending on the win whole of that different crew vying for that very same playoff spot.
If we wind up needing guilty outcomes for costing the Cowboys a postseason bid, there are way more egregious sins than tying one of many high groups within the NFC. How concerning the atrocious loss to the now 3-9 Arizona Cardinals? Or perhaps no-showing in opposition to the Bears and Broncos? Or permitting Rico Dowdle to run for 183 yards within the loss to Carolina? Specializing in a sport we didn’t truly lose, and in opposition to a troublesome Packers crew, could be foolish by comparability.
Hopefully, after January seventh, the Cowboys’ tie with Inexperienced Bay can be one thing that reinforces their standing within the NFC somewhat than diminishes it. It is going to additionally play an element in figuring out the 2026 NFL Draft order, however we’re centered on the playoffs proper now because the crew has discovered momentum. We’ll see the place we end up, and the function that Dallas’ first tie in over 50 years has on the longer term.
