During baseball season, we found ourselves obsessively checking playoff odds reports to get a sense of how comfortable and/or doomed certain teams appeared to be. And so we’re well aware that one checks this sort of thing with a month remaining in the season at their own risk, especially in football, where one game — like this Sunday’s Giants–Cowboys matchup — can have such a big impact. But we’ll note anyway that NFL-Forecast.com currently gives the Giants a 36.276 percent chance of making the playoffs, while giving the Jets a 29.582 percent chance of getting in. As the Times’ Fifth Down blog points out, if the Giants get in, they’ll almost certainly do it by beating out the Cowboys and winning the NFC East and claiming the fourth seed. (They have a 34.918 percent chance of winding up with the No. 4 spot in the NFC, and just a 1.358 percent chance of getting one of the other playoff seeds.) If the Jets get in, meanwhile, it’ll most likely be as the sixth seed in the AFC: They have a 28.356 percent chance of grabbing that seed, and just a 1.226 percent chance of finishing in any other playoff position. [NFL-Forecast.com via Fifth Down/NYT]