TMQ: It’s money time in the NFL

Who’ll get top seeds, plus why is Northwestern U. wasting $250 million of taxpayers’ money on a football stadium?

They’ve rounded the clubhouse turn and are headed for home plate! Which teams will get pole position? Not to mix metaphors.

Often the NFL season boils down to who’s playing best at the end. Right now the Forty Niners and Ravens are playing best, on a combined 10-0 streak.

Three weeks remain in the regular season. Let’s review the top contenders, with their skeds:

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash

Forty Niners: Baltimore, at Washington, Rams. The 11-3 Ravens at 11-3 Niners could be a Super Bowl preview.

When the Ravens and Niners met in the Super Bowl a decade ago, the contest came down to San Francisco (then actually San Francisco) having second-and-goal on the Baltimore 5 and going incompletion, incompletion, incompletion. This version of the Niners has the league’s leading rusher in Christian McCaffrey, and won’t make that mistake. Of course they might make some other mistake.

Baltimore: at Santa Clara, Miami, Pittsburgh. What a shame the fantastic Ravens-Niners pairing is on Christmas Day, because millions of people – including your writer – won’t watch.

Facing Miami, which does not perform well on the road or in cold weather, at home in January feels like an auto-win for Baltimore.

The season-ending Pittsburgh at Baltimore pairing may find the Ravens already having locked their best seed, while the Steelers are desperate for victory. The Baltimore-Pittsburgh rivalry is so intense, John Harbaugh might play starters just out of spite.