The Tampa Bay Buccaneers extended their winning streak to four games on Sunday with a rousing 30-12 win over the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars, a game that pitted two teams that were technically in first place in their divisions based on tiebreakers. Jacksonville remained in that position thanks to losses by Houston and Indianapolis, but the Buccaneers gained a clear advantage on their NFC South foes. Tampa Bay is now one game up on both the Saints and Falcons with two weeks to go, and they have some encouraging tiebreaker advantages to boot.
The Detroit Lions became the fourth team to clinch a spot in the NFC playoff field with their win in Minnesota, and Philadelphia is in the driver’s seat in the NFC East after their win on Monday over the Giants. Still, there is still a lot left to be determined in how the seedings fall out among the division winners – the 49ers, Lions, Eagles and (barely) Cowboys all still have a shot at the first-round bye – and the final two Wild Card spots are a jumble of six teams (seven if you count the Buccaneers) with records of either 8-7 or 7-8.
Here’s how the NFC playoff race stands after 15 weeks:
1. San Francisco (11-4), NFC West Champion
The 49ers lost a heavyweight battle to the Ravens, the current number-one seed in the AFC, on Monday night but they remain in the top spot in the conference despite a new three-way tie with the Eagles and Lions. When breaking a tie for seeding between three teams from different divisions, head to head record is only applied if all three teams have played each other. The 49ers beat the Eagles convincingly Week 13 but don’t have the Lions on their schedule. That puts San Francisco’s 9-1 conference record – which wasn’t hurt by the Christmas night loss – into play, and it’s two games better than Philly and Detroit at the moment. The 49ers would clinch the first seed and a first-round by in Week 17 if they win while both the Lions and Eagles lose.
2. Philadelphia (11-4), NFC East Leader
The Eagles stopped their three-game slide and moved into pole position for the NFC East title with a 33-25 win over the New York Giants on Christmas. They’ve got identical division (4-1) and conference (7-3) records as the Cowboys, but they also have a final-two schedule of the 3-12 Arizona Cardinals at home and the 5-10 New York Giants on the road. The Eagles can clinch the division in Week 17 if they beat Arizona and the Cowboys lose to the Lions. Philly…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at News…