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Week 12 NFL Scoreboard: What Struggling Teams Still Have Chance At Playoffs?

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 15:03 PST, Nov 29, 2015

As NFL Week 12 nears a close, the overall scoreboard seems to suggest something rare: A season where practically every team, no matter how terrible their record, still has a playoff shot.

Keep in mind, we’re in Week 12. By now, the really promising teams would have already separated themselves from the pack. To a degree, a few teams have done that. The New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, and Arizona Cardinals are NFL teams currently poised to win their divisions. Of those teams, two (as I write this) have perfect records.

Yet as you look down the NFL scoreboard this week and compare it to weeks past, it becomes apparent just how mediocre most teams look at present. So much so that it’s obscuring just how bad the truly terrible teams are. It’s kind of hard to call one NFL team’s season godawful when they’re only two wins away from potentially winning their division.

That’s the season the NFL is experiencing — and it’s a rather familiar situation. Anyone remember the NFC South last season? It was a bizarre situation where no matter how bad teams performed, one was still destined to get a playoff spot. In Week 12, we are truly in a strange place. Not only is this situation still likely to play out…it just might play out across multiple divisions.

Last season, it was the NFC South, but this NFL season, the divisions to watch in this tragic regard are the AFC South and NFC East. Although the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans currently have one more wins than losses, there’s enough time left in the regular season for this to change and change drastically. Even if it does, one or both teams would still be eligible for the playoffs. As for the NFC East, two NFL teams are tied as well, but both have losing records.

If the situation with that division doesn’t change, this will make for a couple of unfortunate NFL records. The 2015-16 NFL season would mark just the third time a team with a losing record made the playoffs. It would also mean it happened in back-to-back NFL seasons — an NFL first.

Although a few teams have stood out as good and in few cases, outstanding, the best teams after that mostly boast 6-5 records or worse. This means that as we near the regular season home stretch, quite a few teams who’d otherwise be looking to next year still have a chance.

Of those mediocre to terrible teams right now, there are a few I’m betting on to make things interesting as the NFL season winds down.

The Detroit Lions are probably one of the few teams with a losing record that don’t deserve it. Bad calls and bad luck have made this team 4-7 when it should actually be 7-4, if not 8-3. However, the Lions seem to have found their stride at last. After crushing the Philadelphia Eagles this week, they’re currently on a three-game winning streak.

This boost in confidence could grant the team a winning record by the end of the season. If things sour for the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings from this point forward, a loss or win could be all it takes for this NFL team to be completely vindicated. It’s a long shot, but nothing’s impossible at this point.

Speaking of “nothing’s impossible”, it’s worth pointing out that any team in the NFC East still has a chance to win the division. Not only that but the situation around the NFL means that at this point…every NFC East is still in the hunt for an NFL wildcard spot. Yes, even the Dallas Cowboys at 3-8. Their quarterback situation is dire, but until someone puts the Cowboys out of their misery, they have just as much reason to hope for a miracle as the Baltimore Ravens (3-7).

What explanation is there for so many mediocre to bad teams still having a shot at the playoffs following NFL Week 12? Which mediocre/bad teams do you think best have a shot at the playoffs? I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories in the comment section below!

[Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images]

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