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NFC teams on the playoff bubble

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ÂÂÂÂ* By Art Shell
Special to NFL.com

(Nov. 18, 2003) -- There are exactly six teams in the NFC right now with winning records, so the playoff picture is fairly clear -- for now.

If the season ended today, the NFC playoff teams would be Carolina (8-2), Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis (7-3) and Minnesota (6-4). But there are six teams in the conference that are sitting at 5-5 or 4-6 hoping to make a run. It won't be easy, of course.

Here's a team-by-team look at these hopefuls:

Green Bay: The Packers are right in the thick of things. At 5-5, they're one game behind the Vikings in the NFC North. The Vikings started out of the gates real fast and have hit a wall. They haven't responded to losing their first game of the season four weeks ago, and the weaknesses they've shown defensively have been exploited. And this is a copy-cat league, so until they figure out how to stop giving up a lot of rushing yards, every team will try to come after them in that way. Green Bay has split the season series with Minnesota, and now it's coming on strong. It's going to be interesting down the stretch, and Green Bay might have a better chance of winning the division than getting in as a wild card. At least both of those are viable options, which helps their chances.

New Orleans: It's going to be difficult to catch Carolina in the NFC South, but at 5-5 the Saints are in the wild-card hunt. If they can play like they did last week and finish strong, they've got a shot. Their defense has been up and down, but the key is for the offense to understand they have a true weapon in running back Deuce McAllister and they have to use him. In order to win in this league, you need a good running game. When you are able to run the ball, your play-action passing game becomes a whole lot easier. For a while at the start of the season, I thought the Saints were a little too wide open, too reliant on the spread offense. They weren't utilizing McAllister enough. This guy is darn good, and he can make a lot of things happen for you. And the more McAllister runs the ball, the more dangerous the New Orleans passing game will be.

San Francisco: The 49ers seem to be turning things around at the right time. Tim Rattay has done well filling in for Jeff Garcia at quarterback; if Garcia can come back healthy, then they can make a playoff run. At the beginning of the season, I thought Dennis Erickson could have success in his first season at the helm because he was inheriting a good football team. And that's happening now. They're utilizing the running game better, and that's helping the passing game. They're getting the ball down the field a little bit more. And the defense is really coming along and making big plays for them. I think they've got a good shot to make the playoffs. ÂÂÂÂ*


N.Y. Giants/Tampa Bay: At 4-6, it's going to be tough for either of these teams to make the playoffs. What they need to do is run the table because I don't think 9-7 will be good enough. They've got to circle the wagons and really finish strong. The Giants will play Monday night at Tampa Bay, so this has a chance to be an elimination game of sorts. I think the winner of this game will have a slight chance to run the table. I would give the Bucs the edge here since this game is in Tampa Bay. I still think they can find a way to get things done. They've just got to get back to the drawing board on a few things and understand that teams are gunning for them every week because they are the world champs. But they've still got a lot of the same players who won the Super Bowl last year, so they can get it done.

Washington: Another 4-6 team that needs to run the table. It will be awfully difficult for the Redskins to do that, in my mind. I worry about their ability to protect the quarterback. It's not entirely the offensive line's fault. When you talk about blitz pickups, you're talking about the line, the blocking backs -- and even the quarterback himself, because he's got to make sure he has the right protection called to take care of the blitz. For that reason, I don't see this team winning six in a row.