Painting a playoff picture

By John Clayton
ESPN.com

With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, it's time to take another look at the teams still in the wild-card hunt. What do their remaining schedules look like, and how will the races shake out?

NFC

• Dallas Cowboys (9-5): The Cowboys are in the playoffs. Now, it's a matter of whether they head into the playoffs as NFC East champions or as a wild-card team. If they lose to the Eagles on Monday, they'll fall behind Philadelphia in the NFC East standings. The ace in the hole is the Cowboys' final game against the Lions. Detroit visits Dallas in Week 17, and most of the Lions' top players are on injured reserve or have already started scheduling their postseason vacations. Because they lost to the Saints two weeks ago, the Cowboys now need to win their last two games and New Orleans to lose at least one of its last two (against the Giants and Carolina Panthers) to get the No. 2 seed and a week off. The Saints need one more win and one more Dallas loss to be the NFC's second seed. So the Cowboys still have a shot as long as they beat the Eagles on Monday.