Can the Philadelphia Eagles get over the hump against the Dallas Cowboys?

(Image credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

The NFL only has two playoff spots remaining. One is the AFC's No. 6 seed which will be decided mostly by a two-way battle between the 8-6 Pittsburgh Steelers and 8-6 Tennessee Titans, though the Cleveland Browns and Oakland Raiders (both 6-8) are still lurking around. The final spot in the NFC, meanwhile, comes down to two old school rivals, The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

Both teams are 7-7 and have had relatively disappointing seasons. But thanks to a less-than-stellar division, they each still have a shot to lay claim to the NFC East and get a home playoff game against a superior team come Wild Card weekend in January. If Dallas pulls out Sunday's victory, they'll clinch the division, while Philadelphia would still have to win next week even if they win Sunday. But that's against the lowly Giants, so the Eagles-Cowboys clash sure feels like a winner-take-all game.

The Eagles are only two years removed from a Super Bowl Championship and boast a talented roster, but they've struggled against the Cowboys of late. Dallas beat Philadelphia twice last season, winning the division by just one game, and they handled them easily earlier this year in a 37-10 victory in Dallas. Maybe quarterback Carson Wentz and the Eagles will bounce back behind their home crowd, but either way their playoffs hope are tied to whether they can shed their issues against Dallas. The Eagles and Cowboys will square off in Philadelphia at 4:25 p.m. on Fox.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.