It was supposed to be a battle of NFC titans, two teams many picked to meet in the NFC championship game, as the streaking Green Bay Packers traveled to the City of Brotherly Love to challenge the Philadelphia Eagles and their 10-1 record.
By the end of the game, everyone realized that we'd all been caught up in a storm of wishful thinking. The referee's coin hitting the ground marked the end of any kind of "battle," and 10 minutes into the game only two questions were still up for debate:
First, would NFL poster boy Brett Favre extend his streak of 36 consecutive games with a touchdown pass despite the Eagles' 47-17 rout, and second, would anyone in the NFC be able to stop the Eagles?
Addressing the latter question first, the Eagles clearly are in a class of their own. In an incredible display of offensive firepower, Donovan McNabb threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns. Running back Brian Westbrook continued to heat up and find the end zone, netting three touchdown receptions, 156 receiving yards and 38 rushing yards. Terrell Owens had a typical day at the office with 161 yards and a score.
All this came against a miserable Packers secondary notorious for bad tackling and letting up big plays, but the numbers represented what the Eagles have been accomplishing offensively all year.
Getting back to that first question, Favre failed to throw a touchdown pass, ending his bid at the record 11 games shy of Johnny Unitas's 47 game streak. Despite that, Favre's leaving the game during garbage time instead of sticking around only to attempt to extend the streak was a refreshing and somewhat unexpected move. America loves Favre, maybe even more than it loved Johnny U, and would love to see him break the record, but even more than the streak, fans should appreciate the selfless move of ignoring the record.
Partly thanks to the Minnesota Vikings' upset loss to the Chicago Bears, the Packers are still tied at the top of the NFC North at a make-or-break moment in the season. Risking injury to the team's leader and best player in a game that was already over would have been folly.
Keeping the NFC playoff picture complex, the St. Louis Rams managed to eke out an ugly win over the league-worst San Francisco 49ers, but looked miserable doing so and lost quarterback Marc Bulger for the game, and possibly the next week. The falling star in the NFC playoff picture, the New York Giants, lost their fifth straight game to the Washington Redskins and Clinton Portis's 148 yards, one touchdown and red socks. The team usually wears white stockings.
"I'll probably get fined, but white socks have been killing us, man," Portis told ESPN. "I had to go out and change my outfit. If you're not looking sweet, you really can't play too sweet."
In the AFC, it was the San Diego Chargers who had to be feeling pretty sweet after their division win over the Denver Broncos. The Chargers have now won six in a row, stand at 9-3 and are two games up in the AFC West.
While the entire Chargers season has come as a surprise (with the win, the team guaranteed its first winning season since 1995), the key to their victory, as well as their entire playoff campaign, was defense.
Four interceptions, including one in the red zone with little time left and San Diego only up three, reminded everyone that the Chargers' D, while pushed to the background amid the Drew Brees comeback story, may be the real savior in San Diego.
The Broncos now find themselves in hot water as their second straight loss pushes them into a wild card battle with the Baltimore Ravens, who are looking less like a playoff team each week, and several 6-6 teams, including the Jacksonville Jaguars and the resurgent Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills.
The New England Patriots continued to play like Super Bowl Champs in a 42-15 trouncing of the Cleveland Browns, while the other top team in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers, struggled to beat a tough Jaguars squad.
In its 17-16 win, Pittsburgh proved a couple of things to the rest of the league. The Steelers won in a close game for the first time in a while, and they did it on the shoulders of rookie Ben Roethlisberger, who was a near-perfect 14-17 for 221 yards and two scores. Pittsburgh has been winning games by amassing insurmountable leads and handing the ball off to Deuce Staley and Jerome Bettis, but this game showed an offensive versatility that will be necessary when the Steelers take on teams who plan on pressuring the rookie come playoff time.
