Somehow the Bears are still alive in the NFC North despite Kyle Orton’s two interceptions, the Packers out-gaining them by 115 total yards, and controlling the ball for almost eight minutes more.

Green Bay outplayed Chicago for nearly 57 minutes on Monday night. And even when the Bears tied the game at 17-17 with a Matt Forte 3-yard touchdown run with less than three minutes remaining, Chicago still tried to give the game away when Adrian Peterson committed a stupid penalty on the kickoff to give the Packers prime field position.

But it didn’t matter. In the closing minute of the game the Bears blocked a field goal, won the overtime coin toss when the coin hit off Brian Urlacher’s head (seriously), and won the game on a 38-yard Robbie Gould field goal. Chicago has more magic on Monday Night Football than David Copperfield has on a stage in Vegas. (Just ask Denny Green if the Bears are who we thought they were.)

So now Bear fans get to ride this roller coaster for another week. If Chicago can beat the Texans next Sunday in Houston and the Vikings lose to the Giants at the Metrodome, Da Bears are NFC North Champions. And if the 2000 NFC Championship Game is any indication of how the Vikings will play on Sunday, the NFC North title is Chicago’s to lose.

With the way both teams played in Week 16, neither the Vikings nor the Bears look like division champs. And depending on which Wild Card teams make it, there’s a strong case to be made that whichever team wins the North will be bounced in the first round. That said, you have to apperciate that two divisions (the North and South) won’t be won until the final week of the season. That’s what parity does for the game of football and I for one, am glad to have it (parity) around.

The Panthers are currently 11-4 on the season, but all four of their losses have come on the road. Granted, they do have impressive road wins against San Diego and Green Bay, but they needed late rallies in each game to come away victorious. It was easy to fall in love with Panthers when they thumped Tampa Bay and Denver the past two weeks, but each of those victories came at home and against teams that are fading fast.

Carolina lost the chance to play at home throughout the playoffs when they choked away a victory in New York Sunday night. The Giants came from behind multiple times in the second have to edge the Panthers 34-28 in overtime. The win allowed the G-Men to clinch the No. 1 seed and while the Panthers control their own destiny for the No. 2 seed, they left the door open for the Falcons to sneak through the backdoor.

With their 24-17 win over Minnesota, the Falcons just need a win over the Rams at home next week and a Panther loss in New Orleans to win the NFC South. Amazingly, Atlanta could go from out of the playoffs entering Week 16, to clinching the No. 2 seed at the end of the regular season.

But back to the Panthers – they need to win next week against the Saints. With their running game and the threat of Steve Smith taking it to the house every time he touches the ball, they’re every bit of a Super Bowl contender. But not if they have to go on the road to do so. NFC South teams are 0-11 on the road this year against other NFC South opponents and with Drew Brees going for Dan Mario’s record for most passing yards in a season, the Saints aren’t going to just hand Carolina a victory.

So essentially, a trip to the NFC Championship Game might be on the line this week for the Panthers in New Orleans.

If Mangini doesn’t get to the playoffs, the Jets need to show him the door. No excuses. No explanations. He was on board with the Favre decision, and he must pay the price if the collapse is completed next week.

Yesterday, his coaching was abysmal:

Fourth down and less than a yard from the Seattle 2 on the Jets’ first drive, and Mangini goes conservative and has Jay Feely kick a field goal.

Early in the fourth quarter, Feely makes a field goal with room to spare from 45 yards. However, the Jets are penalized five yards, which wipes out the points. Mangini elects to punt. What?!

With 2:21 left in the fourth quarter, the Jets face a fourth-and-2 at their 20 with all three timeouts and the two-minute warning, and Mangini goes for it. Favre’s pass over the middle to Laveranues Coles is dropped. The Seahawks kick a field goal (with 1:47 to play, meaning the Jets still had plenty of time if they’d elected to punt) to ice it.

It all adds up to three losses in four games, with the only win a gift from the Bills last week after Buffalo coach Dick Jauron inexplicably put the ball in J.P. Losman’s hands instead of Marshawn Lynch’s in a must-run situation.

The Jets’ playoff fate now rests in the hands of a 39-year-old quarterback who is at the end of the road — and a head coach who should be, too.

It’s amazing how Mangini has looked so bad at times since his first year in New York when he led the Jets to the playoffs. A lot of purists compared him to Bill Belichick when he became the Jets head coach, but the difference between Belicheat and Mangenious is having the ability to make adjustments throughout the game. Belichick is one of the best in-game coaches in the league and while Mangini can game plan, he can’t deliver when opponents start to make adjustments.

Things don’t look good for the Jets, although I think they beat Miami next week at the Meadowlands. The Dolphins have struggled there over the years and the Jets have been a better team at home than they’ve been on the road. But New England will win the AFC East. The Pats look like a juggernaut right now and I doubt they lose to the Bills next Sunday, although a game in Buffalo is always a little tougher in December than it is in September.

Following their embarrassing 30-23 loss to the Buffalo Bills at home on Sunday, the Broncos are now one loss away from losing their grip on the AFC West and sending the San Diego Chargers to the playoffs.

All the Broncos had to do was beat a struggling Bills team at home and they would win the AFC West. All they had to do was beat a quarterback in Trent Edwards that hadn’t played in three weeks and score more points on a team that was ready to get the season over weeks ago. And yet the Broncos couldn’t do it.

I guess a win for the Chargers next week would be justice served. The Ed Hochuli game sent San Diego into a massive tailspin and gave Denver momentum for what should have been a season in which they won the AFC West. But a win for the Chargers would be sweet revenge and with the way things have gone this year in the NFL, would anyone be surprised if San Diego beat Denver and went to the playoffs with an 8-8 record? It would be pathetic but so what? Maybe if Hochuli gets the call right in the first meeting between these two teams, the Chargers wouldn’t have collapsed.

The Chargers have all the momentum now, will be playing at home and have a bad taste in their mouths from their loss to Denver in Week 2. Personally, I think San Diego is a lock to win next week.

Following a year in which they went 4-12, lost the face of their franchise to federal prison for dog fighting and their head coach to the University of Arkansas in the middle of the night, the Falcons are heading back to the playoffs for the first time since 2004 thanks to a 24-17 win over the Vikings on Sunday.

For everyone who said Arthur Blank was too involved as an owner for the Falcons to succeed, how do you feel now? Instead of throwing his hands up in the air and bailing like that gutless wonder Bobby Petrino did, Blank hung tough and got back to work this offseason. He hired general manager Thomas Dimitroff, who then hired Mike Smith, drafted Matt Ryan and signed free agent Michael Turner. Blank didn’t give up on his franchise and now he’s being rewarded for it.

The Falcons were very fortunate Sunday in Minnesota. The Vikings turned the ball over four times and when Atlanta tried to return the favor with a fumble of their own, they recovered it for a touchdown. Yes, Atlanta could have lost very easily. But so what? It’s about time the ball bounced the way of the Falcons and after a year of suffering one blow after another, they deserved what happened this season.

Who knows whether or not this great story will have a fairytale ending? And actually, it doesn’t matter because the Falcons have already won by showing up this season. They have a great young offensive core in Turner, Ryan and Roddy White, an improving defense, a general manager who gets how to build a winner and a solid football coach to keep everything running smoothly. More importantly, they have an owner that is willing to do anything to succeed.

Thanks in large part to Blank, the Falcons are the best story in the NFL this season and somehow, someway, are heading to the playoffs.

Thanks to their 31-14 beat down of the Steelers on Sunday, the Tennessee Titans earned home field advantage throughout the postseason as the No. 1 seed. They amassed 323 yards, 117 rushing yards and 31 points against a Pittsburgh defense that has only allowed 13 points per game this season. That’s absolutely amazing.

For the Steelers, everything that could potentially doom them in the future doomed them in the present. They couldn’t keep Ben Roethlisberger upright as he was sacked five times, Big Ben hung onto the ball too long and also turned the ball over a staggering six times.

But the most amazing thing was that their defense couldn’t stop an offense that had struggled mightily just one week prior. The Steelers were burned for big plays, they couldn’t stop the run and even allowed Kerry Collins to complete 20 of 29 passes.

Every team has off days and maybe that’s what this was for the Steelers. Or maybe the Titans just proved that they’re still the team to beat in their conference. Either way, the road to the Super Bowl must travel through Tennessee this season in the AFC.

After their 13-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks (another humiliating loss to a West Coast team), the New York Jets are currently 8-6 and no longer in control of their own playoff destiny. Even a win over the Dolphins next week wouldn’t be enough to clinch the AFC East if the Patriots beat the Bills in Buffalo.

So was this Brett Favre experiment a failure in New York? If they don’t make the playoffs, than hell yes it was. The Jets didn’t trade for Favre so they could go 9-7 or 8-8 and miss the playoffs. They traded for him to make a run at the postseason and possibly even the Super Bowl. And if they didn’t trade for Favre for those reasons, then why in God’s name would you trade for a 38-year old quarterback and only sign him to one year?

Think about it – Favre is probably done in New York after this season. He’ll do his retirement dance for another offseason and even if he does want to play again, there’s no guarantee he’ll go back to the Jets. So how did trading for him help New York? They didn’t make the playoffs and even worse, they didn’t develop anyone for the future. (They also allowed Chad Pennington to go to a division rival don’t forget.)

Everyone was so giddy when the Jets brought Favre in this offseason. Then when he helped them beat the previously unbeaten Titans in Tennessee a month ago, everyone was ready to hop on the Brett/Super Bowl bandwagon.

But the reality of the situation is that the Jets might have done more harm than good. Sure they were competitive this season, but what’s the point in being competitive if you’re not going to make the postseason? Furthermore, what’s the point in being competitive if you’re not going to make the postseason and not going to set yourself up for the future? You have to hand it to the Jets for trying to find the missing piece and taking a shot. But the bottom line is that this move could have cost them in the long run more than it helped.

So I am told, Sunday was a perfect “Brett Favre Day.” The weather was cold, snowy and for most of the game, Brett Favre’s team was behind. But when it came time for Brett to be Brett, he looked like a quarterback past his prime. Granted, his offensive line didn’t and receivers didn’t help him much, but were was all of that “Brett Magic” that Packer fans talk so much about?

And does Eric Mangini keep his job after this massive collapse over the past couple weeks? His decision to go for it on fourth down late in the game instead of punt and allow his defense to get the ball back was questionable at best. He and Brett might be looking for jobs outside of the Big Apple next year.