John Taylor The Washington Times - December 17, 2008, 06:26PM

There’s been a lot of doom and gloom talk since the loss to Cincinnati, but there’s a faint flicker at the end of the two game tunnel:

Playoffs!

SEE RELATED:

Believe it or not, I’ve actually gotten a few calls from readers asking for this information, so here it is. Now don’t get too excited, Redskins fans; these playoff chances aren’t neccesarily good, you see. But I’m telling you there’s a chance.

In order for the Washington Redskins to make it into the playoffs, the following things must happen during the final two weeks of the NFL regular season:

• Washington must win both of its games (vs. Philly, at San Francisco)

• Tampa Bay must lose both of its games (vs. San Diego, vs. Oakland … uh oh)

• Atlanta must lose both of its games (at Minnesota, vs. St. Louis)

• Chicago must lose at least one of its two games (vs. Green Bay or at Houston)

• Dallas must go either 2-0 or 0-2 (vs. Baltimore, at Philly)

Now that’s a lot of dominoes to all fall in the right direction, and frankly the two most unlikely things are the first two: Washington winning out and Tampa Bay going 0-for-2.

But, it’s a chance.

Something else to keep in mind: The Dallas/Baltimore game is on Saturday night, and more importantly Tampa plays San Diego at 1 p.m. So by the time the Redskins kick off (most likely out of bounds) against the Eagles at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, they may already/finally be eliminated from the postseason.

- John Taylor