Cowboys Would've Been Team to Beat in West

Just imagine if the NFL was like Major League Baseball, and the DFW team was in placed in the West division like the Rangers?

Your Dallas Cowboys might very well be preparing to host a playoff game next week despite the God-awful season they've had that included a 1-7 start.

If "ifs" and "buts" were candies and nuts, we'd all be happy, or however that saying goes, but what if?

The Cowboys finished 6-10 after beating the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, which put them exactly one game back of the Seattle Seahawks, which won the NFC West in a winner-take-all game on Sunday night by beating the St. Louis Rams, giving them a 7-9 finish.

That 7-9 finish was good enough to not only somehow make the postseason with a losing record, but to win the putrid NFC West and by definition of NFL rules, host an opening round playoff game.

The NFC East finished with two 10-6 teams, the Eagles and Giants, and the West finished with two 7-9 teams atop the ladder.

What are the statistical odds of having a four-team division with four teams as bad as the ones in the West? I'm not a math expert, so I don't know. But the Seahawks, Rams, 49ers and Cardinals comprise what is arguably the worst division in the history of the game.

To say that rookie quarterback Sam Bradford was likely the best quarterback in the division says a lot. Jon Kitna would've been the cream of the quarterback crop in that group and the Cowboys likely could've gone at least 8-8 despite how bad they were this year.

And now the Seahawks, at 7-9, get to host an NFL playoff game against the 11-5 New Orleans Saints, who were the Wild Card in the NFC South, finishing behind the NFC-best Atlanta Falcons (13-3). Insane.

And the Seahawks have a legitimate shot playing in what equals one of the best homefield advantages in the NFL in Qwest Field with their famed 12th Man.

Rules are rules, and something needs to be said for winning your division, but this is a statistical anomoly that might never happen again.

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