With two notable exceptions, NFL realignment has worked its magic on this year's playoff races. Indeed, it could produce strange bedfellows in January when the postseason kicks off.
Who would have thought the Atlanta Falcons a contender when the season started? Or the San Diego Chargers? Or the Buffalo Bills? Or even the New York Giants?
Ten weeks into the season, most division races are too close to project with any certainty. Three teams are tied for the tepid AFC East lead with 5-4 records and the fourth-place team is just a game behind. The NFC and AFC South divisions have co-leaders.
In two other divisions, the AFC North and NFC East, the front-runner fell back to the pack this week to create a race in which there appeared to be none.
The Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers are the anomalies in this thicket of NFL parity because they control their destinies as well as their divisions. The Packers, with a league-best 8-1 record, can clinch the NFC North title in Week 11 if they win in Minnesota and the Detroit Lions lose to the New York Jets.
The 49ers dominate the NFC West at 7-2, but will have to hold off a late run by the St. Louis Rams (4-5) to win their first division title in five years. San Francisco's three-game lead is not foolproof. The 49ers face San Diego (6-3) and Philadelphia (6-3) in the next two weeks, and have stretch-run dates against the Packers and Rams.
This season, the NFL is nothing if not topsy-turvy. St. Louis looked unbeatable in September, but didn't win until mid-October. Now, with a four-game winning streak and considerable momentum under former third-string quarterback Marc Bulger - who, the team announced yesterday, will get one more start before Kurt Warner returns - the Rams will take on the Chicago Bears in Monday night's game.
All the breaks the Bears received a year ago have gone against them this season. For the second straight week, they watched a game they could've won slip away, letting the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots back from a three-touchdown deficit.
This is a year when no lead is safe and no victory is automatic. Altogether, there were five fourth-quarter comebacks on Sunday, and none was more shocking than the game that unfolded in Pittsburgh.
The Falcons trailed the Steelers 34-17 early in the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh quarterback Tommy Maddox was winging his way toward a franchise-record 473 passing yards.
But the Falcons, led by the mercurial Michael Vick at quarterback, scored 17 points in the final eight minutes of regulation to force overtime. Both teams played the overtime not to lose, each had a field-goal try blocked and, perhaps fittingly, the game ended in a tie with the Steelers on the Atlanta 1.
Despite their 645 total yards, the Steelers (5-3-1) lost ground to the Ravens and idle Cleveland Browns, both 4-5, in the AFC North.
If the playoffs started today, the Falcons, at 5-3-1, would be in the NFC field.
That's what having a quarterback can do in this crazy realignment season.
The Falcons trail the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, both 7-2, in the NFC South, but they will get a chance to prove their playoff mettle in the next few weeks.
Having already beaten the Saints in New Orleans, the Falcons face them in Atlanta on Sunday. Then they're on the road for three weeks against Carolina, Minnesota and Tampa Bay.
They will go as far as Vick can carry them.