Imagine the hype for a Super Bowl featuring Tom Brady facing Bill Belichick and the Pats.
That happening would seem like the longest of longshots, but they are currently leading their divisions so they can’t be ruled out in this topsy turvy season.
New England started Week 11 with a Thursday night victory over Atlanta and Tampa Bay ended it Monday night with a victory over the Giants to end a two-game losing streak.
New England is now 7-4 in the AFC East with a half-game lead over 6-4 Buffalo, a team it faces twice in the next month, while Tampa Bay has 7-3 record and a two-game edge in the NFC South over 4-5 New Orleans.
The reason the Pats and Bills can’t be ruled out is that no team has emerged as the odds on favorite to make the Super Bowl.
There is so much parity that since Week 9 there have been 11 wins by a team with a .500 or below winning percentage over division leaders.
One of those teams was Houston, which upended Tennessee last Sunday. Houston and Minnesota beat teams that entered Week 11 with at least four more wins than the team they beat. There have been eight such wins this year tied for 1974 when there were also eight.
And Minnesota’s game winning field goal as time expired was the 23rd decided on the final play, the most such games since 1970 through Week 11.
Kansas City, tied for the Chargers in loss column in AFC West with four, is starting to recover its form of the past two years as it beat Dallas, but it is too early to anoint them in the AFC.
Tennessee and the Ravens have three losses and six teams have four losses so the odds are that a five loss team could grab the last playoff spot.
Arizona has the best NFC record at 9-2 while four teams — Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Dallas and the Rams –have three losses. No team has four losses and just three have five, so the five-loss teams are in midst of playoff hunt.
The last seven weeks are shaping up as a wide open race for the two bye slots.