PHILADELPHIA (AP) â" The Philadelphia Eagles should embankment those pregame "Rocky" videos for another Sylvester Stallone film that sums adult their season.
Given adult for passed only a few weeks ago along with several other teams, a underachieving Eagles are somehow still in a NFL playoff race. So instead of display inspirational clips of Rocky Balboa fighting Apollo Creed, maybe it would be some-more wise to have a video montage from a "Saturday Night Fever" supplement destined by Stallone, "Staying Alive."
With dual weeks left in a unchanging season, 15 teams are in a hunt for a 5 remaining playoff spots. There are 7 teams battling for dual openings in a AFC and 8 teams in quarrel for 3 berths in a NFC.
Four multiplication titles are still adult for grabs. The wackiest races are in a AFC West and NFC East, where 8-8 competence be adequate to win possibly pision.
Green Bay, San Francisco, New Orleans, New England, Houston, Baltimore and Pittsburgh have clinched playoff spots. Dallas (8-6), Atlanta (9-5), Detroit (9-5), Denver (8-6) and a New York Jets (8-6) and Giants (7-7) control their possess destiny.
Philadelphia (6-8), Chicago (7-7), Arizona (7-7), Seattle (7-7), Tennessee (7-7), Cincinnati (7-7), Oakland (7-7), San Diego (7-7) and Kansas City (6-8) all need to win and get assistance to play over New Year's Day.
The fact that a Eagles haven't been mathematically separated nonetheless is maybe many surprising. A group that many picked to strech a Super Bowl started 1-4 and was 4-8 following uninterrupted unilateral waste to a Patriots and Seahawks.
But dual true wins over Miami and a Jets joined with waste by Dallas and a Giants kept Philadelphia alive. Now it wouldn't even take large upsets for the Eagles to win a NFC Least, er, East.
First, a Jets have to kick a Giants in a conflict of North Jersey on Saturday. Then, after that afternoon, a Eagles contingency kick Dallas. The Jets are 3-point favorites over a Giants. The Eagles are only 3-point underdogs, and they churned a Cowboys 34-7 on Oct. 30.
If that happens, a Eagles would win a multiplication for a second true year if they kick Washington during home on Jan. 1 and a Giants kick Dallas in a Meadowlands. The Giants already degraded a Cowboys on a highway final week.
"You can't control all that," Eagles manager Andy Reid said. "The thing we can control is going out there (Tuesday) and practicing, and Wednesday practicing, and Thursday practicing, and Friday, and personification a game. Those are a things that we can control. So take caring of that business. we tell myself a same thing, take caring of that business, don't worry about a other things. Take caring of what we can control."
Two other NFC teams that seemed to be going nowhere have regenerated their hopes in new weeks. Though a 49ers (11-3) wrapped adult a NFC West by midseason, a Cardinals and Seahawks never quit. Arizona has won 6 of 7 and Seattle has won 5 of 6 to overcome awful initial halves. Both teams are fighting for a dual wild-card spots, though need a Falcons and Lions to lose.
"The guys hang together and they support any other," Cardinals manager Ken Whisenhunt said. "That's a large step in apropos a good football team."
Out in a AFC West, all 4 teams have a possibility to explain initial place. The Fighting Tebows, (aka Denver Broncos) have a inside track. But Oakland and San Diego are only one persion behind, and Kansas City kept a gloomy hopes alive with a overwhelming dissapoint over formerly dominant Green Bay.
Led by Tim Tebow, a Broncos won 7 of 8 to overcome a 1-4 start before losing to New England. They are anticipating to equivocate another Dec nosepe and finish a five-year playoff drought.
"I really feel like we're all right," Tebow said. "We're vehement about where we're at, and we're going to continue to be certain and stay encouraged and only try to improve."
The Chiefs were looking to subsequent year when they dismissed manager Todd Haley a week ago. But halt manager Romeo Crennel put together a persion devise that finally stopped Aaron Rodgers and a Packers, who had won 19 in a row, including a Super Bowl.
Kansas City still needs to kick a Raiders on Saturday, have Denver remove to Buffalo and San Diego dump one of a final dual games. If all that happens, a Chiefs will play for a mark in a playoffs during Denver in their regular-season finale.
"We were means to win and we feel good about removing a victory, though we know a deteriorate lies in a subsequent game," Crennel said. "We have to win this subsequent one, and it's a brief week. We're looking brazen to that, perplexing to keep this thing moving. We're in a competition and we have a chance."
The Titans missed an event to squeeze control of a final wild-card mark in a AFC when they became a initial group to remove to a squalid Indianapolis Colts (1-13). But Tennessee isn't creation vacation skeleton nonetheless and continues to find a initial playoff berth given 2008.
"We don't have control anymore," rookie defensive tackle Jurrell Casey pronounced after a detriment to a Colts. "We'll have to see how some other teams do, and we'll see how it all plays out. We can't go out there and only give up."
As a aged Bee Gees' strain from a "Staying Alive" prequel "Saturday Night Fever" goes:
"Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive."
___
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Englewood, Colo., Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Bob Baum in Tempe, Ariz., and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn. contributed to this report.
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