ShareThisA look back at the weekend in the NFL and ahead to this weekend.
THREE BEST PERFORMANCES
-- Arizona Cardinals: This is a high five for a season's worth of work so far. On Sunday, the Cardinals and QB Kurt Warner clinched their first division title since they were in St. Louis in 1975. Appropriately, the NFC West Division-clinching victory came against the St. Louis Rams. The Cardinals will host a playoff game for the first time since 1947. That alone is worth a parade.
-- Steelers defense: In its past two games, the Steelers have intercepted five passes, including DeShea Townsend's game-winning TD Sunday, sacked the quarterback eight times, forced five fumbles and allowed 23 points against New England and Dallas. The league's No. 1 defense hasn't allowed more than 13 points in a game since Nov. 9..
-- QB Matt Schaub, Texans: Wonder where the Texans might be if Schaub had been healthy all season? He returned Sunday from missing four games and threw for 414 yards and two touchdowns in a win at Green Bay. He has won four of his past five starts, completing 70 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns in that span.
THREE WORST PERFORMANCES
-- Bills and Dolphins: More than 52,000 showed up in Toronto to watch the Bills and QB J.P. Losman play the Dolphins, and the result was a dud -- Miami won 16-3. A Toronto Sun headline read, "NFL in T.O. A Colossal Bore." Columnist Steve Simmons wrote, "It angered people in Buffalo. It angered people in Toronto. It cost Rogers Communications all kinds of money. And it entertained almost no one."
-- QB Tony Romo, Cowboys: We're knocking our heads trying to figure out whether Jessica Simpson's boyfriend has ever come up big in a big game. As the Cowboys blew a late 10-point lead at Pittsburgh, Romo missed receivers all day and threw three interceptions, including Townsend's game-loser.
-- WR Plaxico Burress, Giants: No, he didn't shoot himself in the leg again, but his distraction likely played a hand in the Giants nodding off at the wheel in a 20-14 loss at home to the Eagles, which snapped New York's seven-game winning streak.
THREE THINGS THAT STRUCK US
-- Conference parity: Some years, the AFC is the better conference. Some years, it's the NFC. Often, the gap is huge. This season, it seems about even. The Giants are an elite team in the NFC, but the Bucs, Panthers and Cardinals look good, too. The AFC has strong contenders in the Titans, Steelers, Ravens and maybe even the Jets. There isn't much difference in any of those teams.
--What happened to Jacksonville? We just don't get it. The Jaguars went 11-5 last season. They beat the Steelers twice in Pittsburgh, including in the playoffs. And they hung right with the then-undefeated Patriots before losing in the divisional round. So how are they 4-9, including a loss to the 1-12 Bengals?
-- The Lions are not going to win a game: Sunday was it. That was Detroit's best chance to win a game, and the Lions fell to 0-13 with a 20-16 loss to Minnesota. The Lions play at Indianapolis on Sunday then host New Orleans before traveling to Green Bay for the season finale. Maybe they can beat New Orleans, but we don't think so.
THREE TEAMS ON THE RISE
-- Baltimore Ravens: The Steelers are playing as well as any team in the league, but they can't shake the Ravens in the AFC North because Baltimore has won three in a row and seven out of eight. The Ravens thumped Washington on Sunday night and have allowed only 20 points in the past three wins.
-- Indianapolis Colts: Indy has the longest win streak in the NFL -- six games and counting after destroying Cincinnati on Sunday. The Colts have played a few cream puffs in this stretch (Bengals, Browns, Texans), but they have knocked off Pittsburgh and New England. No one should want to face the Colts come playoff time.
-- Minnesota Vikings: When the Vikings lost to the Bucs on Nov. 16, they dropped to 5-5. But that's the only game the Vikings have lost in their past six. They have reeled off three in a row to take over first place in the NFC North. In fact, Minnesota is 7-2 since starting the season 1-3. But the final stretch won't be easy to nail down the division: at Arizona then home against Atlanta and the Giants.
THREE TEAMS ON THE DECLINE
-- New York Jets: The J-E-T-S won back-to-back toughies against New England and Tennessee and have now given them back with losses to Denver and at San Francisco. Those losses have allowed the Dolphins and Patriots to climb back into the race. All three teams are tied atop the division with 8-5 records.
-- Green Bay Packers: At one point, the Packers were 4-3 and in decent shape in what appeared to be a mediocre NFC North. Since then, the Packers are 1-5 including three straight losses. They are 5-8 after a bad loss to Houston on Sunday, and their postseason hopes are pretty much gone. Now the debate about whether the Packers messed up with Brett Favre can begin in earnest.
-- Buffalo Bills: Stick a fork in the Bills. Their 5-1 start made them the NFL's feel-good story. Since then, they have crumbled to a 1-6 slide. The thing is, they were still in the thick of the division race as of Sunday. But a 16-3 loss to the Dolphins has put them two games behind three teams in the AFC East.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
columnMust credit St. Petersburg Times.
