The New York Giants and Washington Commanders collided for the first time this season on Sunday at MetLife Stadium and played to a 20-20 tie.
The game was the first of two meetings over the next three weeks between the Giants, the sixth seed in the NFC, and the Commanders, who held the seventh spot (at the time of kickoff).
A win for either team would have given them a leg up in the playoff seeding — between 73 and 83% for the winner as opposed to between 29 and 39% for the loser.
But what does the tie do?
For the Giants, who are now 7-4-1, not much. It doesn’t hurt them, really at all. They remain No. 6 for another week.
For Washington (7-5-1), they took a bit of a hit as the Seattle Seahawks won their game on Sunday. That elevated Seattle to seventh, dropping Washington out of the playoff picture.
The Giants are surrounded by teams they don’t have head-to-head advantage over. They lost to Seattle this year, and Detroit — the ninth seed. They can’t realistically catch fifth seed Dallas (9-3), who beat them twice this year, unless the Cowboys go into a complete freefall.
Currently, the Giants have a 66% chance to make the playoffs and if they beat the Eagles, that rises to 81%. If they lose, it drops to 58%. The rematch with Washington is far more important (93% if they win, 43% if they lose).
They need to find at least two (but likely three) more wins somewhere, and hopefully for them, one of those wins will come against the Commanders in two weeks.
