Five of New England's first seven games were decided by one or two points. Somewhere, Pete Rozelle is smiling. One New Jersey country club has been holding an NFL knock-off pool for years. Each contestant picks one team each week that he thinks will win. He can't pick a team more than once, and as soon as he picks a team that loses, he's out.
Last man standing wins the pot.
Before the '99 season no winner had ever been crowned before Thanksgiving. In the early 1990s we'd go to Buffalo, and the Bills were just a better team. We had to play much better than them, and they still had to turn the ball over for us to win. It's not that way this season, and the players who've been around sense it. You have to accept that no matter what your team did last year or how good anybody thinks you are, most games will go down to the last minute.