NFL Playoff Scenarios: New York Giants and Teams That Hurt Themselves in Week 15

There's no such thing as a "good" time for contenders to tank. But doing so in December, with the NFL playoffs right around the corner, is particularly crippling to a team's dreams of competing in the Super Bowl.

For these three teams, losing as embarrassingly as they did in Week 15 will prove damaging to far more than just their professional egos.

New York Giants

Okay, realistically speaking, nobody expected the Giants to compete for—much less win—the NFC East. Amidst a harrowing rash of injuries on defense and a reshuffling of the offensive line, Big Blue was projected to finish behind the Dallas Cowboys, in Tony Romo's return, and the "Dream Team" Philadelphia Eagles.

That being said, the situation in the Big Apple proved to be much less dire than anyone anticipated, which makes Sunday's 23-10 loss to the lowly Redskins at home so deflating. It was a typical trap game for the G-Men—Eli Manning and company were riding high after a thrilling road win (at Dallas) and returning home to a heroic welcome against a supposedly inferior opponent (Washington).

And, rather predictably, the Giants got too cocky and fell flat on their faces. As a result, Tom Coughlin's club now has to fight its way into the postseason, with the counterbalance between the team's need to beat the Jets and the Cowboys and its typical late-season nosedive tugging ever so tenuously on the patience of its fans. 

Chicago Bears

I think we can all comfortably write off the Bears at this point—not that we shouldn't have weeks ago.

No Jay Cutler, no Matt Forte, no Johnny Knox...no offense. Simple as that. The defense and special teams are still solid and did an excellent job of keeping Chicago close.

That is, until Sunday's debacle at Soldier Field, in which the Bears gave up five turnovers in an ugly 38-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Now, Chicago will have to win out at Green Bay and at Minnesota and hope either the Falcons or the Lions drop their final two games just to have an outside shot at making the playoffs.

Unfortunately for folks in the Windy City, with the Bears struggling so mightily with injuries as is, I rate their chances of playing past New Year's Day somewhere between slim and none.

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens have already secured a spot in the playoffs, but for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, Sunday's 34-14 epic fail in San Diego could prove to be particularly damaging.

If the Steelers defeat the 49ers in San Francisco on Monday night, then Pittsburgh will leap to the top of the AFC North and overtake the Patriots as the No. 1 seed by way of a head-to-head tiebreaker. That would drop Baltimore, with its 3-4 road record this season, all the way down to the fifth seed.

You know what that means? That's right—the Ravens would then have to win three road games against quality opponents to punch their tickets to Indianapolis.

John Harbaugh's squad has shown itself capable of pulling off such feats (see: Heinz Field, Week 9)—but has also displayed an equally perplexing propensity for dropping duds against inferior opponents (see: EverBank Field, Week 7).

In any case, Joe Flacco and company will keep their fingers crossed that Ben Roethlisberger isn't able to play in the Bay and that the Steelers, as a result, leave the Ravens safe and sound as the second seed in the AFC.

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