December 15, 2024
The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, and the Detroit Lions — the team the Eagles are chasing for the 1 seed in the NFC — lost to the Buffalo Bills. Both teams are now 12-2.
The Lions still currently hold the tiebreaker over the Eagles. If you read us regularly, you have probably already seen our Eagles-Lions tiebreaker primer. But if not:
• First tiebreaker: Head-to-head matchup: Not applicable.
• Second tiebreaker: Better conference record: Both of the Eagles' losses were to NFC teams, so they cannot win this tiebreaker if they and the Lions both finish 15-2.
• Third tiebreaker: Record against common opponents (minimum of four): The Eagles and Lions have five common opponent this year, shown below:
| Common Opponent | Eagles result | Lions result |
| Rams | Win | Win |
| Buccaneers | Loss | Loss |
| Jaguars | Win | Win |
| Cowboys | Win, ??? | Win |
| Packers | Win | Win, Win |
As you can see, the Lions are 5-1 against their common opponents. With their win over the Packers Week 14, they clinched at least a tie in common opponent records.
• Fourth tiebreaker: Strength of victory in all games: The combined winning percentage of the teams the Lions have beaten is way higher than the combined winning percentage of the teams the Eagles have beaten.) The Lions are going to win this tiebreaker.
Heading into Week 15, the Eagles needed the Lions to lose at least two games down the stretch. One down, one to go. Detroit's remaining schedule:
• Week 16: At Bears (4-9)
• Week 17: At 49ers (6-8)
• Week 18: Vikings (11-2)
The Eagles also have to worry about the 11-2 Vikings for the 1 seed, even if the Lions falter. The Eagles-Vikings tiebreaker would be decided by strength of victory. As Deniz Selman mapped out, the Vikings' would be highly likely to win that tiebreaker:
If #Eagles & MIN both finish 15-2, it will go all the way to strength of victory, for which the running tally of uncommon victories currently looks favorable to MIN. 👇 (Eagles could theoretically catch up, but very unlikely.) https://t.co/vH8gwEY4AO pic.twitter.com/SfGWi60RKH
— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) December 11, 2024
So the Vikings would ideally lose at least one more game, too. The Vikings face the Bears on Monday Night Football. Their remaining schedule:
• Week 15: Bears
• Week 16: At Seahawks
• Week 17: Packers
• Week 18: At Lions
The Eagles remaining schedule:
• Week 16: At Commanders
• Week 17: Cowboys
• Week 18: Giants
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