Win and you’re in
by Mark Rothstein
He needs to lead
The last week of the regular season is upon us. It’s a bit quieter than most years with so many playoff positions already locked up, but there is still plenty of drama to make Week 17 well worth watching.
The most intriguing matchup of the week has the Carolina Panthers visiting the Atlanta Falcons. The Panthers are tied atop the NFC South Division with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 10-5; however, Tampa Bay holds the tiebreaker and has the relative luxury of hosting the New Orleans Saints this week. The Bucs are 14-point favorites and likely to put a hurting on the Saints, who are playing out the string after a horrible post-Katrina season. That leaves Carolina needing a victory to lock up at least a playoff berth. A loss combined with a Dallas Cowboys win (again, a heavy favorite this week versus the visiting St. Louis Rams) would knock the Panthers out of the postseason.
Carolina has plenty of motivation. So do the 8-7 Falcons. Their playoff hopes were dashed last week by the Bucs, and they’re none too happy about that turn of events. Coach Jim Mora stormed out of a post-game interview and could face disciplinary measures from the franchise. Many of his players have a burr under their collective saddle from wasting a 6-2 start to the campaign. The Panthers may be entering a world of hurt when they arrive at the Georgia Dome. Atlanta has beaten Carolina five times in a row at home, going 4-0-1 against the spread. This Sunday, however, the Falcons are 4 ½-point underdogs with a total of 42. Kick-off is at 1:00 p.m. on FOX.
The other game with some mustard on it features the 11-4 Cincinnati Bengals at the 9-6 Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City is notoriously difficult to defeat at Arrowhead Stadium, going 6-1 straight up and against the spread at home this season. The Chiefs need to make it 7-1 SU to reach the postseason, but they also need the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose to the lowly Detroit Lions. Both games get underway at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (CBS will provide the coverage from Arrowhead), so there will be plenty of scoreboard watching in K.C. The Chiefs will play with a lot of passion no matter what happens in Pittsburgh. Coach Dick Vermiel is mulling retirement and a loss to the Bengals would probably cement his decision. His players will do what they can to keep Vermeil around for at least one more year.
As for Cincinnati, coach Marvin Lewis has a dilemma on his hands. The Bengals have locked up the AFC North crown. A win would give Cincy the No. 3 seed in the conference over the New England Patriots, but the No. 4 seed gets to play the Jacksonville Jaguars, who had to turn on the afterburners to beat the sad-sack Houston Texans last week. They could be relatively easy pickings with quarterback Byron Leftwich on the mend.
The possibility that the Patriots and the Bengals could be looking to ensure a matchup with the Jaguars should send an instant red flag up for handicappers. Several Patriots had to leave last week’s win over the Jets with injuries, including star linebacker Tedy Bruschi. It would be prudent regardless of playoff seeding for coach Bill Belichick to rest his starters Sunday. Lewis may be thinking the same thing after coughing up a potential first-round bye in a 37-27 loss to the Buffalo Bills. With that in mind, and with QB Carson Palmer officially listed as probable with a slightly pulled groin, linemakers in Las Vegas had the Bengals-Chiefs matchup off the board at the time this article was written. Expect Kansas City to be favored by at least a touchdown once the line becomes official.
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