At the midpoint of their season, the Redskins find themselves where they often do at this time of year.

They are in the playoff picture if you use a wide-angle lens.

They can remain relevant but they don’t have much of a margin for error.

At 4-4, the Redskins are currently the 10th seed in the NFC. The top six make the playoffs so, yes, they have some work to do.

They are behind two other 4-4 teams, the Falcons and Lions, due to their conference record. The Redskins are 3-3 in the NFC, with the three losses coming against the NFC East and the three wins against the NFC West. They can help themselves tremendously in the coming weeks, with games coming up against the Vikings and Saints. If they can notch those two conference wins, they will be sitting in good shape in that tiebreaker category.

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The Redskins picked up a potentially big tiebreaker with their win over the Seahawks. Seattle currently sits a game ahead of the Redskins at 5-3 but if the two teams do wind up with the same record, the Redskins will have the upper hand with their head-to-head victory. Their earlier win over the Rams could help them in the same way if the Seahawks rise up and take the NFC West and Los Angeles is in the wild card hunt.

None of this will matter if the Redskins can’t take advantage of their softening schedule over the last six games of the season. So far, the Redskins have played eight games and their opponents have won a combined 42 games. That is the second-most in the NFC. That may help them as strength of schedule is on the list of tiebreakers but it is fifth in priority, so it’s unlikely to come into play.

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After two more games against the division leading Vikings and Saints, both 6-2, they have one more game against a team that currently has a winning record. That one is against the 5-3 Cowboys in Dallas, a game that shapes up to be big in terms of the standings, head-to-head record, and division and conference records.

The other games are against the 1-7 Giants (twice), the 4-4 Cardinals, and the Broncos and Chargers, both 3-5. Those are not guaranteed wins by any stretch but if they play the second half of the schedule as well as they played the first half against a buzzsaw, they may be in good shape when it comes to sorting out the teams in and out of the playoffs.

Stay up to date on the Redskins. Rich Tandler covers the team 365 days a year. Like his Facebook page Facebook.com/TandlerNBCS and follow him on Twitter @TandlerNBCS.