San Francisco 49ers at Dallas Cowboys
- Game Time: Sunday, 12:00 pm CT (FOX)
- Who Needs to Win: Cowboys
Okay, this one is a little odd, but worth talking about. Most situations that will land the Vikings in the playoffs this year will involve the purple and gold winning all three of their remaining games. But there is still a path that the team could take if they do lose one of those games.
Looking down the road a bit, Minnesota can still get in if all of these things happen:
- The Vikings win two of their three remaining games
- Arizona loses two of their last three games
- The NFC East runner-up doesn’t have a better record than Minnesota (or own the tiebreaker)
- San Francisco loses one of their last three games
For that reason, Vikings fans should be watching the scoreboard this weekend and be happy if the 49ers end up losing to Dallas. Thankfully, San Francisco’s final two games of the season are against the Cardinals and Seahawks, both of which should be major challenges for the 49ers after dropping their two previous games.
If this one doesn’t happen this week, it’s okay. But if Minnesota does lose one more game, it will be something for fans to keep an eye on.
Good luck to the Vikings this week. Plus, this week will hopefully be kinder to the purple and gold than last week was when it comes to games that could have helped this team reach the playoffs this year.