By Kim J. Harmon

As the National Football League winds down to its final two weekends, it is left with four teams and only one which even took a sniff of the Super Bowl in the 33 years since Bart Starr and the Green Bay Packers beat Len Dawson and the Kansas City Chiefs.

That team was the Rams and they took their sniff back in 198x from 1,000 miles away, when they were based in Los Angeles. No St. Louis football team has ever gotten this far, so it pretty much makes it a novelty down there as well.

No Dallas.

No Denver.

No Green Bay.

No San Francisco.

No Buffalo.

All the ubiquitous teams are gone. All that is left are teams with their own great stories (Kurt Warner in St. Louis, a rookie MVP quarterback; the other rookie QB in Tampa Bay, Shaun King; the doomsday defense and explosive offense in Jacksonville; and the Titans, the only 13-3 team to have not won a division title.

They all clash this weekend.

TAMPA BAY (+13.5) at ST. LOUIS: There is no doubt, the Buccaneers have one of the best defenses in the National Football League but, even so, no matter how well Shaun King has done since Trent Dilfer went down with a broken clavicle, there is NO WAY the Bucs can win this game. They might be able to slow the Rams down, but they still won’t be able to score enough points to win. Can the Rams cover? That remains to be seen. (KH – Rams, SB – Buccaneers)

 

TENNESSEE (+7) at JACKSONVILLE: The old saying goes, its mighty tough to beat the same team three times in one season but that’s what they harped on back in 1986 when the New York Giants had to play the Washington Redskins in the NFC championship game. And guess what? The Giants won. Now, the Titans simply don’t have the explosiveness of the Jaguars on offense and the defense isn’t as strong, but there is a reason the Titans beat the Jags twice (the second time, blowing the Jags out). This is crunch time, though, and even though the Jags won’t score 62 points again they should cover. (KH – Jaguars, SB – Jaguars)

 

SCOREBOARD

Kim J. Harmon                0-4-0               119-114-9

Steve Bigham                           2-2-0                      135-98-9