Week 14 Rooting Guide

We are nearing the end of the season. While the most important thing is that the Jets win, fans should be watching the scoreboard to see whether this team's Playoff positioning can improve. This week fans should root for:

The Cowboys to beat the Steelers: The Jets trail the Steelers by a game for the critical second seed, which comes with a bye and a second round home game. New York will likely lose a tiebreaker of conference record with Pittsburgh, essentially making the deficit a game and a half. Gang Green has four winnable games to close the regular season. Pittsburgh still has trips to Tennessee and Baltimore after this game. A Dallas win would put the Jets in great position to take the AFC's second spot.

The Seahawks to beat the Patriots: This game pits an out of conference opponent against a team one game back of the Jets for the division lead. Although a New England domination might demoralize the hapless Seahawks to the point of packing it in by the time the Jets come to the Pacific Northwest in Week 16, an upset in this game would all but eliminate the biggest threat to the division title.

The Bills to beat the Dolphins: The Bills are two games out in the AFC East. The Dolphins are one game out. A win might restore some of Buffalo's shaken confidence before a visit to the Meadowlands next week, but math dictates the rooting interest of Jets fans in this one.

The Redskins to beat the Ravens: This would knock a division title contender down a peg in the race for homefield and get Baltimore angry for a Week 15 home date with Pittsburgh.

The Panthers to beat the Broncos: In the race for AFC seeding, Denver now holds the tiebreaker over the Jets and trails Gang Green by only a game.

The Eagles to beat the Giants: Maybe then the New York media can find a new whipping boy for a week over one bad performance.