Heading into the fourth quarter of the season, the Super Bowl matchup now looks like the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. They are the hottest teams in the NFL, with the Patriots on an eight-game winning streak and the Eagles on a seven-game winning streak.
In the NFC, only two other teams have won more than one game in a row: the St. Louis Rams with four straight and the Bears with two straight.
The 5-7 Bears seem more optimistic than the 5-7 Buccaneers, who are busy conceding their Super Bowl title.
“I realize that buzzards are flying around here and there’s funeral arrangements that are being made,” Bucs coach Jon Gruden said Monday. “I won’t tolerate that.” The first December games will help sort it out:
Cincinnati (7-5) at Baltimore (7-5): The Bengals won the first game between the AFC North rivals. The loser is going to have a hard time gaining a wild-card spot.
Indianapolis (9-3) at Tennessee (9-2): The Colts won the first game between the AFC South rivals. The loser has an easy wild-card route.
Dallas (8-4) at Philadelphia (9-3): The Cowboys won the first game between the NFC East rivals and need an upset sweep. Otherwise, they look like a wild-card team ahead of the 6-6 Packers and Saints.
Seattle (8-4) at Minnesota (7-5): This could be a first-round playoff preview if the Vikings hang on in the NFC North and the Seahawks fail to catch the 9-3 Rams in the NFC West.
Miami (8-4) at New England (10-2): After losing the first game in this AFC East matchup, the Dolphins are just trying to stay in the lead for the sixth and final AFC playoff spot.
Denver (7-5) at Kansas City (11-1): The Chiefs want to avoid slipping and losing home-field advantage. The Broncos are hoping for a slip by Miami.
Tampa Bay (5-7) at New Orleans (6-6): The Bucs have lost three straight to the Saints in the NFC South. A fourth loss could drive the final, final nail.
Bears (5-7) at Green Bay (6-6): Dream game in the NFC North between teams dreaming for the Vikings to keep losing.
New chances: If the playoffs started now, four of six AFC teams–New England, Miami, Cincinnati and Kansas City–and five of six NFC teams–Dallas, Minnesota, Carolina, St. Louis and Seattle–would be different from last year.
Rams way: Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, deemed by coach Mike Martz as a top head-coaching candidate, demonstrated a most unconventional way to beat the Vikings. The Rams gave up 465 yards, 330 passing yards to Daunte Culpepper, 160 receiving yards and a touchdown to Randy Moss, 98 rushing yards to Michael Bennett, 70 more on quarterback draws by Culpepper yet completely dominated the 48-17 victory.
Smith simply wrote “turnovers” on the blackboard at halftime, and his players obeyed. Smith blitzed more, and the Rams got all three of their turnovers, six of their eight sacks and outscored the Vikings 28-0.
“Total yards, that stat’s important, but it’s about turnovers and scoring,” Smith said. “We didn’t play a great first half, but that’s why they play the second half. With blitzing, we have a better chance for something big to happen.”
The return of pass rusher Leonard Little was welcome, and so was the obvious ability of the Rams’ offense to move the ball at will. They went 396 yards in only 47 plays, an average of 8.4 yards per play. When a defense knows it can count on its offense to score, it can afford to blitz. Although trailing only 20-17 at the half, the Vikings’ defense had shown no ability to slow the Rams’ offense. Smith “contained” Moss by allowing him into the end zone only once and refusing to retool his defense.
“I just don’t think you can do that for one player,” Smith said. “He’s a great player, make no mistake about it, [but] it doesn’t matter who we play, we’re going to play our defense. You can’t start creating new defenses for whenever you play a good player. There’s a good player each week.”
Little more: Little has developed into a great pass rusher, with 11 sacks in only eight games. Since 2001, he has 37 1/2 sacks in 37 games.
“We have a great player who plays as hard as anyone out there,” Smith said. “It’s a tough combination to beat. When you put the `great’ title on a guy, you expect him to make plays. He’s got a lot of plays on his highlight tape right now.”
Little has come a long way in St. Louis since his rookie year in 1998, when he killed a 47-year-old mother in a drunken-driving accident. He spent 90 nights in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
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“It’s always going to be there,” he said three years ago. “I can be All-Pro one day, and it’s still going to be the same situation. Time heals a lot of things, but it’s never going to heal this.”
Eagles fly away: The Eagles are the best road team in the NFC at 5-1. The Rams are undefeated at home. So home field is more important to the Rams than to the Eagles, who lost the NFC title game in St. Louis two years ago and at home last year.
Overtime tally: Remember when NFL owners thought seriously last March about experimenting with a two-possession overtime for one season? The proposal won a majority vote of 17-14-1 but was defeated because it did not get the required three-fourths majority. The Bears voted against a change.
In the 19 overtime games this year, only five have been won on the first possession. That means both teams got a chance 74 percent of the time, which is higher than the 71.5 percent since the current overtime rule was adopted in 1974.
The team that has won the toss has won 12 of this year’s 19 games, but seven of those winners required more than one possession. Owners would have been trying to “fix” something that really isn’t broken.
Vick back: It was supposed to be a six- to eight-week injury. Instead, Michael Vick is expected to start at quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons 16 weeks after breaking his right leg. “The leg feels great, and I’m just looking forward to getting back out there,” Vick said Monday, a day after he played for the first time during Atlanta’s 17-13 loss to Houston.
Receiver talk: Seattle Hall of Fame receiver Steve Largent on today’s receivers: “Marvin Harrison is the guy I like to watch play. He’s a hard-working guy that is really a class act. Both receivers for St. Louis [Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce] are very good. I hate to say [it], but Terrell Owens down in San Francisco, he is so doggone big and he’s really a talented receiver, but I can’t stand him as a person. It’s hard for me to put him in my top five. … The older guys, I’ve always been an admirer of Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, but they are beyond their prime now. … Randy Moss–there is another guy who is really a talented guy, but I can’t stand a lot of the extracurricular type stuff.”
What is to blame for the extracurricular stuff?
“I think responsibility rests with the head coaches and the general managers,” Largent said. “If I were in their position, those kinds of guys, regardless of how talented they are and what they bring to the field, they are a disruptive force on your team. And I just think you never get the chemistry right when you have somebody like that.”
Old guys unite: San Diego fullback Lorenzo Neal, on why fans are fascinated by quarterback Doug Flutie, 41: “It’s like George Foreman. It wasn’t that he was the best fighter. It’s because everyone’s like, when you’re over 35, you’re on the decline. People don’t think you can win. So that’s why you see the crowd just gravitate to the older guys, the Fluties, the Foremans. Because he’s defying age. Guys at 41 are usually sitting back in a chair or on the couch drinking a beer watching the game. This guy’s out there and making guys 20 years younger look bad.”