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| Sunday, December 4 Contenders streaking into December ESPN.com wire services |
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WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
The Bears extended their winning streak to seven games with another dominant defensive performance. AP/Steve Nesius It's getting chilly out. And with five weeks remaining in the NFL season, now's the ideal time for teams to start heating up. For it often is the hot teams, the ones that win after Thanksgiving, and not necessarily the better teams, that do the most damage in the playoffs. Indeed, streaking is in right now -- at the end of the day Sunday, seven teams had strung together four or more victories, with the Colts looking to go 11-for-11 on Monday night against Pittsburgh. Just look at the AFC West, probably the deepest division in football. The Chargers and Chiefs both stand at 7-4, the former having won four in a row after Sunday's come-from-behind win in OT at Washington, but neither can gain any ground on the division-leading Broncos (9-2), because Denver has won four straight, too. The Chargers trailed the Redskins 17-7 in the third quarter before scoring 13 unanswered, the winning points coming on LaDainian Tomlinson's 41-yard touchdown run in OT, one of LT's three TDs. Tomlinson ran for 184 yards and in our opinion turned in the best individual offensive performance of the day. The Jags (8-3) earned their fourth straight victory, over Arizona, but in the process lost quarterback Byron Leftwich for a month or more to a broken ankle. If Jacksonville were in any division other than the AFC South, the Jags would be thinking division title. But they have to keep winning just to hold off the likes of Cincinnati or Pittsburgh, San Diego and K.C. in the wild-card chase. Like the Chargers, two of the NFC streakers survived scares Sunday. Seattle (9-2) won its seventh straight, 24-21 over the Giants, who had three opportunities to win the game at the end of regulation and in overtime. But kicker Jay Feely missed all three field-goal attempts. Just last week, Bucs coach Jon Gruden talked about how nice it was, for the first time in three years, to have a reliable kicker in Matt Bryant. And then, wouldn't you know it, Bryant missed the potential tying field goal, from 29 yards, late in a 13-10 loss to Chicago. The win allowed the Bears (8-3) to extend their surprising run to seven games. The past two weeks Chicago has quieted its critics by ending Carolina's six-game winning streak and winning at Tampa. The Bears' defense was dominant again, with Alex Brown turning in a Richard Dent-type effort, circa Super Bowl XX.
Meanwhile, a couple clubs can feel good about themselves for a little while because they snapped long losing streaks Sunday. Philadelphia, behind Mike McMahon, ended a four-game skid, while Miami and Tennessee won for the first time after five straight losses. On the flip side, the two-time defending champion Patriots saw their first winning streak of 2005 (a modest two games) end in Kansas City, which picked off Tom Brady four times.
A lot of teams are gathering momentum as we get into December. Look out for those clubs come January.
SERVING NOTICE
 Hands-on approach Led by right end Alex Brown, who claimed poaching rights in the Tampa Bay backfield for the afternoon, the Bears pummeled Chris Simms in a 13-10 victory, their seventh straight win and longest such streak since 1986. And in yet another statement game against a club from the supposedly potent NFC South -- the Bears have now defeated New Orleans, Carolina and Tampa Bay in the past month and host Atlanta on Dec. 18 -- Chicago served notice it might be a far better team than even its truest believers might have suspected.
PRIME TIME HQ
 Three and out ... • The only way Rex Grossman ever sees the field for the Bears is if Kyle Orton gets hurt. Grossman is the most overhyped/injured QB in the NFL. • This is a sad statement, but Anthony Wright actually gives the Ravens a better chance to win. That is how far Kyle Boller's stock has dropped. • The only Lions receiver anybody would have any interest in is Roy Williams. Charles Rogers is a bust. Mike Williams can't get open because he can't run. I would not trade Roy Williams. If anyone wanted to trade for the other two, I would do it in heartbeat.
GOOD FORTUNE
 'Hawks capitalize In perhaps the strangest game of the season, the Seahawks beat the Giants 24-21 in overtime Sunday even though they were outplayed, outhustled and outgained by a Giants team that is better than most folks on the West Coast imagined. From the look of these two teams, they will be meeting in the playoffs again, and from the Seahawks' perspective, the game better be played in Seattle.
PRIME TIME HQ
 Three and out ... • The Bengals are a very good team, but they need to get over the hump and win a big game. The Steelers game in Pittsburgh will tell us how much noise they may make in the playoffs. • When they are at full strength, and as long as they have Tom Brady, the Patriots will be a top team. • The Chargers have one of the top run defenses, but their pass defense has been suspect.
CRIPPLING BLOW? Leftwich injury bad news for Jags
The day's most significant development was Leftwich's ankle injury, suffered on the Jags' first offensive play against Arizona.
Leftwich's replacement, David Garrard, is a capable backup, and he's won some games for Jacksonville. But the Jags simply aren't the same team without their starting QB. (Come to think of it, how many teams are?) Fortunately, they don't have too tough a remaining schedule: At Cleveland and Houston and home against Indianapolis, San Francisco and Tennessee. But hey, the Browns are no pushovers, and the Niners and Titans can be a handful. Without Leftwich, I still see Jacksonville winning at least three of five and getting in, especially if Fred Taylor comes back healthy. In the AFC this year, you'll probably need to finish with 11 wins to make it.
About that Indy matchup: A lot of people have pointed to that Dec. 11 game in Jacksonville as the Colts' first loss, assuming (and that's dangerous) they beat Pittsburgh on Monday night and Tennessee next week. But without Leftwich, I don't see it. Thus it's a little easier to like the Colts' chances of running the table.
SUNDAY'S BEST AND WORST
When it rains ... 
What the heck happened in Houston? I was in Tampa for Bears-Bucs, and I caught the first-half highlights of Rams-Texans in the press box. When I saw that the Texans were up 24-3 and David Carr (left) had thrown three touchdown passes, I thought, "Finally, the Texans team we thought we'd see this year. Good for Houston. It's been a long year and they're finally having their day in the sun." (It helped that the roof at Reliant Stadium was open).
The next thing I know, I return from the postgame locker room to discover that the Rams had won 33-27 in overtime. Unbelievable. It's like I wrote back when the Texans were winless: "Any Given Sunday" just doesn't apply to Houston, now 1-10. If you're Dom Capers, how do you remain positive after that? Your heart just goes out to that franchise and those fans.
The Rams may have found themselves a nice little quarterback in the seventh round. I can't imagine the Texans not looking for a new head coach after the season, if not sooner. Coulda, woulda, shoulda
Two other teams blew it, big-time, Sunday: Buffalo and Washington.
Think about it. If the Bills had done anything on offense against Carolina, they'd be 5-6 right now and a game behind the Patriots in the AFC East. All is not yet lost. In two weeks, after traveling to Miami, Buffalo plays host to New England. But you just know the Patriots are going to emerge from this division. I had a feeling a week ago after I wrote that the Cowboys and Giants were creating some space between themselves and the Redskins in the NFC East that the situation would change. I would have been right about being wrong had the Redskins held on to a 10-point second-half lead against San Diego. Washington, like Buffalo, missed an opportunity to pull within a game of division co-leaders Dallas and New York, who both lost this week. The Redskins' defense, supposedly one of the best in football, seems to give up big plays at the worst times, and Washington has now suffered three devastating losses in a row. Not the kind of streak you want to put together this time of year. By the way, three NFC East teams lost in overtime in Week 12, the first time ever three teams from the same division lost in OT the same weekend. Mea culpa 
I, for one, owe Mike Tice (left) an apology. Back when the Vikings were 1-4 and getting embarrassed on an almost weekly basis, I said on several occasions that the team's performance, coupled with the "Love Boat" scandal, was grounds for Tice to be fired. And that's precisely why I'm not running a team right now. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf didn't fire his head coach, and now the Vikings are on fire, as in four wins in a row.
The offense has been efficiently effective with Brad Johnson guiding the ship (couldn't resist). The defense has been what we expected it to be before the season. The Vikings held the Browns' Reuben Droughns in check Sunday and forced five turnovers, giving Minnesota 15 takeaways during its winning streak. Tice has done a wonderful job keeping his crew together. For that, maybe, just maybe, he deserves to keep his job beyond this year. It'll be interesting to see what Wilf decides to do with Tice after the season.
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