Parity keeps pulling the front-runners back to the pack this season in what promises to be a wonderfully chaotic finish to the AFC playoff race.
The Oakland Raiders started 4-0, but sank to 4-4.
The Miami Dolphins started 5-1, lost their quarterback and quickly retreated to 5-4.
The San Diego Chargers started 6-1, but have been blown out twice since then.
Now, the AFC is set for its craziest December stretch run in recent history. In the 10th year of free agency and the first year of realignment into eight divisions, the NFL has created a mad scramble for playoff berths.
The top 13 teams in the AFC are separated by only two games. Only three teams in the conference are out of contention going into Week 14, and one of those is an expansion squad.
Of the five teams stacked up at 6-6 in the hopeful line, the Ravens - with 18 first-year players - have the best chance to break into the postseason because of their 6-3 record in the AFC.
By contrast, the NFC's playoff field appears nearly settled. Six winning teams fill the six slots at the moment, and only a collapse by Atlanta or New Orleans would alter the lineup.
What has happened in the AFC, though, is the culmination of several changes within the league in the past decade.
"It's parity," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "It's the salary cap, free agency, [new] divisional alignments. After nine years of the cap and coming to terms with what it represents, this is the future."
The future looks like a smorgasbord of playoff possibilities. While four more teams - in addition to Green Bay - can clinch division titles or playoff berths in the NFC this week, there will be no clinching of any kind in the AFC. And that raises the stakes, along with the level of anxiety.
"I think the NFL is like that now," Broncos quarterback Brian Griese said. "Every team in the AFC that has a chance to get to the playoffs has to play that way. And every week really does mean do or die for a lot of teams."
Some teams are better positioned to handle December's pressures than others. The Pittsburgh Steelers play three of their final four games at home, and even though they lost the AFC championship game at Heinz Field last season, they have a distinct comfort level now.
"It's bad weather and it's a physical time of the year where you have to be able to run the football and be able to stop the run," said Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. "We feel that we can do both of those."
Bad weather, running game, stout defense and hot quarterbacks are among the critical factors that separate contenders from pretenders in December. There are different factors for different teams, however.
"Each team has its own equation," Billick said. "I don't know that anybody can look at it and say, typically, this team will do it because of the quarterback. Maybe Atlanta in the NFC [because of Michael Vick].
"In the AFC, a lot of quarterbacks are playing well, but I don't know that anybody's dominant, other than [Oakland's] Rich Gannon. Gannon's the closest thing to it, where you rely on the passing game."
At least three AFC teams hope to improve their passing game this week, though, by welcoming back injured quarterbacks. The Steelers get Tommy Maddox back from a frightening concussion that knocked him out of two games. Jay Fiedler returns to the Dolphins from an extended absence in which Miami went 2-4. Griese returns in Denver after missing two games with a knee injury.
The Broncos lost two overtime games in Griese's absence to slip to 7-5 and on the periphery of the playoff hunt. They face a must-win game at the Meadowlands on Sunday against the New York Jets.
"I hope I'll bring a little spark to our offense and hopefully we can be better on third downs," Griese said. "That is a big area of work that we need to get better at."
Fiedler looked rusty in a relief appearance Sunday for Miami. Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt hopes simply that Fiedler will be efficient in a Monday night game against Chicago.
"It would be fantastic if he picked up where he left off seven weeks ago," Wannstedt said. "I believe that he'll be effective enough. It might be a little unrealistic to think that he'll be back to that point."
It's probably also a little unrealistic to think that 9-7 will be good enough to earn a wild-card berth this season. Under the new alignment, there will be four division champions and two wild cards in each conference. Since 1990, there had been three division champs and three wild cards. That alone makes the wild-card spots more competitive.
"It's hard to believe 9-7 will do it," Billick said. "Probably there'll be some 10-6 teams that don't get in. It's hard to figure out. For us, the focus is on winning out and at least getting to Pittsburgh [in Week 17] having won the next three."
The division to watch is the AFC West, where the four teams will take turns beating up on each other. The Raiders and Chiefs each have three division games left, and the Broncos and Chargers have two apiece. Sunday's game between Oakland and San Diego, both 8-4, could determine the division champ.
Similarly, the Indianapolis Colts play the Tennessee Titans on Sunday with first place in the AFC South at stake. The Titans (7-5) have beaten the Colts (8-4), so a sweep would give them the tiebreaker.
Miami and New England share the AFC East lead at 7-5. They'll meet in Week 17 in Foxboro, Mass. The defending Super Bowl champion Patriots are just 1-5 against winning teams, but have three of their last four at home.
For the 6-6 teams, like the Jets and Buffalo Bills, there is no margin for error.
"We've been playing like that for the last five weeks, just trying to win as many as we can, stay away from that No. 6 loss," said Jets coach Herm Edwards. "After that, if you lose another one, then you're hoping this team does this and this other team does that. You don't want to get into that."
Inside track
If season ended today, here's how AFC playoff teams would be seeded:
(Overall and AFC record in parentheses)
Colts (8-4, 6-3)
Chargers (8-4, 6-3)
Steelers (7-4-1, 7-3)
Dolphins (7-5, 6-4)
Raiders (8-4, 6-2)
Titans (7-5, 5-3)
Outside looking in
Other AFC teams still in contention:
Broncos (7-5, 4-5)
Patriots (7-5, 4-4)
Ravens (6-6, 6-3)
Chiefs (6-6, 5-4)
Browns (6-6, 5-4)
Jets (6-6, 4-6)
Bills (6-6, 3-6)