IRVING, Texas --At the risk of looking infinitely past this week's showdown for the NFC East championship, Monday night's Saints-Falcons game did shed more light on a potential first-round matchup for the Cowboys or Giants.
Sunday's winner at the Meadowlands will earn the No. 4 overall seed and a Wild Card home game against either the Lions (10-5) or Falcons (9-6).
The Lions get the No. 5 seed with a win Sunday over the Packers, who might sit quarterback Aaron Rodgers and other starters with home-field advantage locked up, or a Falcons loss to the Bucs.
The Falcons get the No. 5 seed with a win Sunday over the struggling Bucs and a Lions loss to the Packers. Both teams would finish 10-6, and the Falcons own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Lions.
The Cowboys didn't play the Falcons this year. They blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead to the Lions in October and lost at Cowboys Stadium, 34-30.
Same thing happened against the Giants three weeks ago. Needless to say, the Wild Card round isn't (and can't be) on their minds yet.
