The Arizona Cardinals have greatly complicated their playoff chances. With their 38-10 loss Monday night to the San Francisco 49ers, they now have lost tiebreakers to two teams in their division.
The 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks are both 6-4 currently. The 49ers currently are the division leaders with a head-to-head tiebreaker over Seattle.
Both Seattle and San Francisco hold tiebreakers over the Cardinals.
Seattle beat the Cardinals twice this season already, so they hold a head-to-head tiebreaker.
With the 49ers’ win over the Cardinals Monday night, while the two teams will play again in Week 18 and the Cardinals could still beat them, but because the 49ers are 4-0 in division games and the Cardinals are 1-4, the 49ers already hold a divisional record tiebreaker.
So when it comes to both the division race and the wild-card race, as both Seattle and San Fran are both in the NFC top seven, it will take an extraordinary turnaround for Arizona and a colossal collapse by either team for the Cardinals to overtake them.
If they wish to finish ahead of either team, the Cardinals must win three more games in their final six than either the Seahawks or 49ers do in their final seven.
What does that look like? It would mean that if the Cardin als were to go 5-1 in their final six games, the Seahawks and 49ers would have to go no better than 2-5 in their final seven games.
It means that there is almost no chance for the Cardinals to get themselves out of the hole they began the year making. They are virtually eliminated from the division race and have badly hurt their chances for a wild card berth.
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