And the results are..... Still muddy.

Here is how I am seeing it play out looking at the health and the heart of the teams.


NFC North (1 team coming out of this division at this point)

• Chicago Bears
  barring a collapse, home field advantage

NFC South (1 team coming out of this division)

• Carolina Panthers
  team is healthy, playing well on both sides of the ball. This is your division winner.

NFC West (2 teams from this division at this point)

• San Francisco 49ers (division winner)This team is improved, and if Gore can keep the 49ers running game going at this pace, they will take the NFC West title.
• Seattle Seahawks
  Second team to make the playoffs out of this division. Offensive line is not as good as last season, Shaun Alexander is not coming back to his 2005 status, Hasselbeck will be rusty upon his return.

NFC East (2 teams from this division)

• Dallas Cowboys (division winner) After switching quarterbacks and giving him his first three starts on the road, Romo is clearly capable of leading this team. One of the best quarterbacks in the league at this point? The receiving corps looks to be one of the most solid in the league, and the tandem of Julius Jones and Marion Barber are working together wonderfully. On defense, it is now showing that the attention paid to defense in the past couple drafts is paying off with Ellis gone.
• New York Giants
  6 relatively tough games coming up, three of them divisional games. In this division, no game is a lock to win, no matter how good or bad a team is. Even with the injuries, the Giants should be able to go 3-3 and finish with 9 wins. What can kill the Giants, even worse than the injuries, is if Eli Manning doesn't start thinking. Not playing well with Toomer gone, and two teammates (Shockey and Burress) are quick to point fingers when things go wrong. The Giants biggest battle to stay in the playoff may be against themselves.

The Rest

• New Orleans Saints
  Best chance to knock the Seattle Seahawks or the New York Giants out of a playoff spot if they can turn their season around. With their remaing 6 games, I can easily see going 2-4, finishing 8-8. Colston's ankle will play a big factor in this. December 24th @ the Giants could be a very important game for this team.
• Atlanta Falcons
  Chances are almost as good for the Falcons if they can get things back on track. They are a better team than the Saints, just need to play that way. Giants hold the tiebreaker after beating the Falcons in week 6. This may be the meltdown that comes back to haunt this team.
• Philadelphia Eagles
  This team was taking themselves out of the playoffs before McNabb went down. It started with a losing streak that was saved after the bye week thanks to a Redskins team that played very poorly. Even that victory gave the Eagles no momentum lifts as they found themselves quickly losing to the Titans this past week. Losing McNabb in this game didn't help, but the team was losing before McNabb went out.
• St. Louis Rams
  This team was struggling for a shot at a wildcard, never had a chance to win the division. Losing Orlando Pace eliminated any shot they had. Bulger was sacked repeatedly last week, and that trend will most likely continue.
• Green Bay Packers
  They had their shot last week against the Patriots, and got blown out at home. The Packers were fighting back hard from a bad start to the season, but find themselves with too much of an uphill battle to get back in the playoff race.
• Washington Redskins
  Playing for next year at this point. This team had no chance at the playoffs to start the season, just made it worse with the ijuries that Portis has sustained this year. At least they get to look at Jason Campbell now. This team may actually be playing pretty decently in the last 2-3 games of the season, could be in the spoiler role for a couple teams.
• Minnesota Vikings
  There is absolutely no reason for Brad Johnson to be getting snaps on this team at this point. Let Tavaris Jackson play and start working on your 2007 draft board.
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  Nothing left for this team other than getting a good evaluation of Bruce Gradkowski. This weeks report that Jon Gruden was contacting Dallas about a possible coaching vacancy next year is not what the team needs to be hearing right now.
• Arizona Cardinals
  Four words for this team - Offensive Line, get one. The Cardinals are faced with a decision on Denny Green at the end of this season. If they give up on him, they find themselves with a hunt for a new coach that must be done quickly because they will then have to teach Leinart a new offense. Tough decisions for this team coming up.
• Detroit Lions
  I hope this team enjoyed making their point with Mike Williams this year. It must be a curse in Detroit, nobody can seem to make this team win.

Top 3 Playoff Teams - Chicago, Dallas, Carolina

NFC Champion

• Dallas Cowboys
  • Dallas vs. Carolina
    Dallas has shown they are better than the Carolina Panthers, and at this point, the Cowboys are a much improved team than the one the Panthers already lost to at home.
  • Dallas vs. Chicago -
    I give the advantage to Dallas due to their ability to get into Rex Grossman's head early in the game.

I gotta basically agree with you here...with some slight tweeks...
First
Divisions:
North - Chicago
East - Dallas(yes this hurts to say.... )
West - Seattle(not totally buying San Fran yet)
South - Carolina

WC is where we differ. I think NO can pull a wild card out. I think the last Wc is between Giants and San Fran.

As for division winner...I will go with Carolina. I do this for two reasons. First, S.Smith is healthy, and two, I think DeAngelo Williams emerges and gives them a more legit running game.

Dallas does get due consideration...and might even be deserving(damn it that hurts....) but I just don't feel it yet.

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Expert on nothing, opinionated on everything...

East: Dallas
North: Chicago
South: Carolina
West: Seattle

WC: Atlanta & New York Giants

Not buying SF, and NO is a sinking ship. Good news for them though, they are done with the AFC North who they were 1-3 against. I like the Falcons to turn it around and the Giants to hang on.

I think you will see a Dallas @ Chicago NFC championship. The Bears D will rattle Romo and Tuna will fall just short as Chicago makes a trip to the Super Bowl. I picked Dallas preseason ,and they still could do it, but the Bears are looking like the class of that confrence at this point.

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i think seattle will still win the division. im buying what SF is doing, but seattle is still a top 5 team at home. being awesome at home and average on the road will be good enough to get this team to the playoffs and probably to win once as well.

chicago is clearly the class of the nfc. they have hfa basically locked up and will be tough to beat at home, but not untouchable with the way grossmans been struggling again. i think that the giants, cowboys, and panthers are the only three teams who could potentially beat the bears on the road.

right now i would pick my division winners as the cowboys, bears, seahawks, panthers. i would award the two wild card spots to the giants and saints, simply based on having the most talent. the falcons are done. i think the 49ers could still have a shot if they can spring one or two more big upsets.

i basically think the home teams will win, with the nfc championship game being a chicago home loss to either the cowboys or panthers. right now dallas is playing best, but carolina is gathering some momentum and getting healthy, and i would pick them right now.