The Cowboys lost to the Bears last night, falling to 6-7 on the season but remaining in first place in the NFC East.

It’s pretty bad, the division, which is going to come down to the Dallas/Philly game at Lincoln Financial Field in a few weeks. That’s where we’re headed, unless the Eagles continue to stink up the joint and lose to New York and Washington before we even reach December 22nd.

But how ’bout them Cowboys, yeah? They started 3-0 and are 3-7 since, this time getting cooked by Mitch Trubisky for 244 yards and three touchdowns, plus 10 carries for 63 yards and a score.

Surely, Jason Garrett will be gone after the season, but Jerry Jones continues to kick that can down the road, saying this after the game (via ESPN):

“I’m not trying to be funny here, but the point is we’ve got to win a football game,” Jones said. “I don’t care what the standings are, what the numbers are. We had thought that we could come up here and play a good team, play a fine football game and get our act to where we’re starting to look like a team that could — if we, by the slim chance, get in the playoffs — where we could win. We can’t do that until we play and start winning the football games, and we’ve got three more to play. When we do that, we can go.”

It’s true. The Cowboys do have to win a football game.

As it stands, the division now looks like this:

That’s the graphic representation. As for the actual standings:

  1. Dallas (6-7)
  2. Philly (5-7)
  3. Warshington (3-9)
  4. New York (2-10)

Even if the Birds win on Monday night, Dallas remains in first place by virtue of their earlier victory over Philly. Mostly every scenario comes down to the December 22nd game, though there’s no guarantee the Eagles handle their business outside of that matchup. There’s also an outside chance Washington gets into the playoffs at 7-9, which would be amazing, but unlikely, since they play in Green Bay this weekend.

Fun times in the NFC East.