The Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints were supposed to be the two best teams in the NFC. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins were supposed to be among the worst. But yesterday neither Chicago nor New Orleans looked like a Super Bowl contender, as the Bears needed overtime to beat the Buccaneers, and the Saints lost at home to the Redskins.

The two big questions in Chicago last week were whether Rex Grossman deserved to keep his job as starting quarterback, and whether kick returner Devin Hester deserved the league’s Rookie of the Year award. Grossman passed his test with career highs in attempts, completions, and yards yesterday, but Hester failed with three fumbles.

Grossman’s 29-of-44, 339-yard day was the first 300-yard passing game for the Bears in more than four years. Grossman got the Bears off to a 7–0 first quarter lead with a great touch pass to his favorite receiver, tight end Desmond Clark, for Chicago’s first touchdown. On that play Tampa Bay strong safety Jermaine Phillips had Clark covered, but Grossman dropped the ball over Clark’s shoulder and into his outstretched arms for a 23-yard score.

Grossman made throws like that all day, and when a third-quarter field goal gave the Bears a 24–3 lead, it looked like Chicago would cruise to another easy win. But Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden benched quarterback Bruce Gradkowski and replaced him with Tim Rattay, and Rattay had a big second half against the great Chicago defense. Gradkowski completed only five of 11 passes for 37 yards, but Rattay completed 20 of 35 for 268 yards and three fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead Tampa Bay to a 31–31 tie at the end of the fourth quarter.

After Rattay’s performance, Gruden will face questions about why he had Rattay sitting on the bench behind Gradkowski all year. Although Rattay wouldn’t have had the 3–11 Buccaneers in the playoff race, he could have at least made them a respectable team, which Gradkowski couldn’t do.

As well as Grossman played, Bears coach Lovie Smith’s decisions at the end of the fourth quarter and overtime call into question his persistent statements that he has complete faith in his quarterback. At the end of the fourth quarter, the Bears had the ball with the score tied. Instead of asking Grossman to lead the team down the field with a twominute drill, Smith played for overtime, allowing the clock to expire. On the Bears’ first overtime possession, they took over at Tampa Bay’s 22-yard line, and instead of asking Grossman to try to score a touchdown, Smith called two running plays and sent out his kicker, Robbie Gould, on third down. Gould missed his 37-yard attempt, but he later hit from 25 yards to secure the 34–31 win.

If Grossman’s performance yesterday wasn’t enough for Smith to put the game in Grossman’s hands, nothing will be. Although the road to the Super Bowl will go through Chicago now that the Bears have clinched home-field advantage, it’s hard to have full confidence in the Bears when the best game of the year by their quarterback is barely enough to beat Tampa Bay.

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Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a favorite for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, but Washington’s defense might have shown other teams how to attack him yesterday. The Redskins’ defensive backs played passively, allowing Brees to complete short passes but draping his receivers when they tried to go deep. It worked, and Brees completed a modest 21 of 38 passes for 207 yards, with an interception and no touchdowns. New Orleans lost 16–10.

The best quarterback on the field was not Brees but Washington’s Jason Campbell, who completed 13 of 28 passes for 204 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions. That touchdown, a perfect 31-yard pass to Santana Moss, came after Campbell sold a fake handoff to running back Ladell Betts to draw the Saints’ safeties in just enough for Moss to get past them by a step.

New Orleans head coach Sean Payton’s play calling was often criticized when he was an assistant for the Giants, but for most of this year Payton’s schemes have injected needed creativity into the New Orleans offense. Yesterday Payton showed why some of that criticism was warranted. He tried to force the ball to running back Reggie Bush even though the Redskins seemed ready for him — Bush lost yardage on third-and-long three separate times, and on one drive the Saints were moving effectively without trickery, only to have Payton call a double reverse to Bush that fooled no one and lost a yard. Bush finished the day with just 14 yards on seven carries and 19 yards on five catches.

With the Carolina Panthers’ 37–3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Saints clinched the NFC South title yesterday. That’s some comfort for Payton, but the offense he has effectively directed all season suddenly looks vulnerable.

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The most surprising result in the AFC playoff race was the Tennessee Titans’ 24–17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Just a week after they dominated the Indianapolis Colts, the Jaguars fell to 8–6 despite a defensive effort that held Tennessee rookie quarterback Vince Young to just 85 passing yards and four rushing yards. Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard was far worse than Young, though, as he turned the ball over four times — and Tennessee returned three of those turnovers for touchdowns.

Young and Garrard played badly, but in Baltimore Kyle Boller played very well. After Ravens quarterback Steve McNair left the game with a hand injury, Boller came off the bench and completed 13 of 21 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns in leading Baltimore to a 27–17 win over the Cleveland Browns. Boller’s performance was impressive, but the most impressive performance in football yesterday belonged to the entire roster of the New England Patriots, who dominated the Houston Texans 40-7 to bounce back after an ugly loss to the Miami Dolphins last week.

Baltimore, New England, San Diego, and Indianapolis will almost certainly be the four division winners in the AFC, but the wild card race will feature Jacksonville — which missed an opportunity to separate itself from the pack — as well as the Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals, who play Indianapolis tonight. Other contenders include the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs, and possibly even the 7–7 Titans, Steelers and Buffalo Bills. All of those wild card contenders seem unlikely to win in Baltimore, New England, San Diego or Indianapolis in January, but when Tampa Bay forces overtime in Chicago and Washington wins in New Orleans, anything is possible in the NFL.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.