By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Dec. 2, 1998

SEATTLE -- The fourth quarter of the NFL season is here and the entire concept of the playoffs charging right at us continuously adds excitement to the equation.

The

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big stories are obvious, with the Denver Broncos joining the select group of teams in NFL history to start a season 12-0. With the Kansas City Chiefs coming in Sunday, it's a good bet Denver will raise that a notch, and then they'll travel to New York to meet the Giants on Dec. 13 for a chance to tie the all-time record of 14-0 set by the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Ironically, should they tie the record, their attempt at history will come on Monday night, Dec. 21, against the Dolphins in Miami.

But the Broncos are hardly the only story and maybe not even the best one. Not even the most optimistic fans in Minneapolis or Atlanta could have expected what the Vikings and Falcons have pulled off.

ENTERING THIS WEEKEND, THE VIKINGS are 11-1 and have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, while the Falcons have the next-best record in the NFC at 10-2. The Green Bay Packers are second in the Central Division and the San Francisco 49ers are behind the Falcons in the NFC West.

That

The Vikings are one of the surprise teams of the season thanks to Randy Moss. (AP)

means the odds for a highly unusual happenstance in the NFC are increasing rapidly. If the Vikings and Falcons hang on to their division titles, the Niners and Packers would meet in the wild-card game, automatically eliminating one from playing in the NFC championship game. Only once before in the last 10 years, in 1991 when Washington beat Detroit 41-10, has their been an NFC championship game without the Niners or Packers.

For everybody other than fans of those teams, that's a good thing. The more the merrier, particularly from the viewpoint of the fans and the NFL, which wants more diverse interest from coast to coast.

So in the NFC, we have the Niners and Packers playing with the Cowboys playing the Arizona Cardinals, for now. But the Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints are just a game behind the Cardinals - so the final wild-card spot in the NFC is definitely up for grabs. Meanwhile, the Vikings and Falcons have first-round byes and will play the winners of the other two games.

IT ISN'T AS IF THE AFC IS A CLOSED subject by any stretch of the imagination. Certainly the Super Bowl champion Broncos are way ahead when it comes to a first-round bye and playing at home, having already clinched another AFC West title. That's about the only thing that's assured so far in the AFC. At 7-5, the Oakland Raiders are in second place, and struggling to hang on in the wild-card race, and the Seattle Seahawks are 6-6 and gasping with hopes of running the table.

The Jacksonville Jaguars appear to have a pretty strong hold on the AFC Central at 9-3, two games ahead of the erratic Pittsburgh Steelers. The Tennessee Oilers are another game back and still vaguely in the wild-card race but in trouble after losing to the Seahawks last week.

That leaves the wild and woolly AFC East. The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets are tied at 8-4, with both Buffalo and New England a game back at 7-5. Anything and everything can happen from here on out, although the Jets and Dolphins are in charge for now.

As of today, the Broncos and Jaguars would sit out the first week, with the Jets and Dolphins as the only convincing AFC East teams. The tie-breakers are too confusing at the moment to decipher which two teams between the Bills, Patriots, Steelers and Raiders would qualify for the wild-card spots.

It isn't as confusing as it is interesting, though. There's no point in figuring it out because the schedules aren't complete. But three weeks from now, everybody will be pulling out their schedules and division records and conference records to figure out who indeed has the advantage.

This is what the fourth quarter is all about. There are as many as seven teams in the AFC who haven't locked up a playoff spot but are vying for three spots. In the NFC, four are battling for one spot.

It's the fourth quarter of the season and it's first and 10. Now we'll see who's got the goods.