it was nice to hear madden's buddy comparing ladanian tomlinson's season to wayne gretzky's run in the 1980s. he set so many records in tonight's game... that it's inconceivable that he still has games to go. against weak rushing defences, no less. seattle, maybe not so much. & arizona, maybe not so much (hey, they beat seattle last week).

so many teams did themselves no favours losing games they should have won, what with their playoff lives hanging in the balance of every game. seattle... atlanta... miami (so much for my dream)... minnesota... the giants... kansas city... jacksonville... carolina... & the saints.

they all lost... & they all lost bad. for the record... i think one could define a BAD loss as a loss to an inferior team by more than 4 points, usually immediately following a "good" win.

the saints limped to claim their division. but my question is why seattle can't beat up their division? without the excuse of not having hasselbeck or alexander in the lineup, & they STILL lose bad to san fransisco. a week after losing bad to arizona.

a small group of teams stepped up to draw some attention this week: dallas recovered nicely against atlanta (thanks to my boy t.o.!!); baltimore proved they didn't NEED steve mcnair to win... i'm just not so sure they'd have the same result against a team that wasn't cleveland; philadelphia, riding the coat-tails of another cfl champion holding a clip-board in the nfl... jeff garcia. how is the mcnabb-less eagles still in the hunt for the division title? & denver, who recovered from their run-in with l.t. in time to thump arizona. if cincinatti can knock off peyton & the colts, then i'll back denver & the bengals to hold their wild card spots. however... i don't see both the giants AND eagles holding their spots.

the giants' last two games (hosting the saints, then in the always-tough washington for a division game) aren't going to be easy. ask new orleans about washington... but the same is true for philly (in dallas, then home to atlanta).

so just to make it interesting... here's how i see BOTH my-hated eagles & my-hated giants missing the playoffs. michael vick leads his falcons to a home-thrashing of the slumping carolina panthers & a hard-fought road win in philly, with the final playoff spot on the line. the giants lose to my saints & the redskins, while the eagles drop like a stone in dallas (hey, jimmy johnson said they would) & lose their grip losing at home to atlanta.

meanwhile... outta nowhere, the ageless wonder brett favre (now the all-time career receptions man) becomes the first quarterback to throw for 5000 completions as he leads his beleagured packers to a frozen home win against his-hated vikings & an impossible win in chicago, playing a team that has nothing left for which to play.

makes it... san diego, baltimore, indianapolis, new england, denver & cincinatti in the afc & chicago, new orleans, dallas, seattle, atlanta & green bay in the nfc.

& san diego over dallas (although i previously took dallas over san diego... just in case i need to deny this later pick...).