NFL-Playoff puzzle nearly complete with one week to go

With one week remaining in the regular season, the National Football League's playoff picture has come into sharper focus with only a few more pieces of the post-season puzzle to be put into place.
Much of the remaining drama is focused on the NFC East, where the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants will stage a battle royale for the division crown with a ticket to the post-season going to the survivor.
The Redskins (9-6), riding a six-game winning streak and with rookie sensation quarterback Robert Griffin III healthy and calling plays, host the Cowboys (8-7) in the Sunday evening prime time finale to the NFL regular season that will see the winner claim the division.
While the Cowboys' (8-7) only path to the post-season requires a victory, the Redskins could still scrape into the playoffs with a loss if the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings also lose their finales.
The situation is much more dire for the slumping Giants (8-7), who will need plenty of help to advance.
The defending Super Bowl champions have lost five of their last seven and must defeat the Philadelphia Eagles at home on Sunday and hope Dallas, Chicago and Minnesota all lose.
TRIP TO MOTOR CITY
The Seattle Seahawks (10-5) and San Francisco 49ers (10-4-1) enter the final weekend having clinched playoff berths but with the NFC West title still up for grabs along with a possible first round bye.
San Francisco can take top spot in the West with a win at home over the Arizona Cardinals (5-10) while the surging Seahawks, who have outscored opponents 150-30 in their last three contests, must close out the regular season with a fifth straight victory when they visit the St. Louis Rams (7-7-1) and have the 49ers lose.
With the 49ers or Seahawks guaranteed playoff spots the other NFC wildcard will go to either the Bears (9-6) or Vikings (9-6).
The Vikings, who have staged a late season charge behind the running of Adrian Peterson, can lock up a playoff spot with visit to Lambeau Field and a win over NFC North rivals the Green Bay Packers (11-4).
The Bears close out the campaign with a trip to the Motor City where they must combine victory over the Lions (4-11), losers of seven straight with a Vikings loss to move on.
The Atlanta Falcons (13-2) clinched a first round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs with a 31-18 win over the Detroit Lions on Saturday and the Packers can also grab a first round bye with a win over Minnesota or a San Francisco loss combined with a Seattle loss or tie.
The post-season picture is much clearer in the AFC with the four division winners, New England Patriots (East), Baltimore Ravens (North), Houston Texans (South), Denver Broncos (West) and wildcards Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts already decided.
The Broncos (12-3), Texans (12-3) and Patriots (11-4), however, will all have something to play for on the final Sunday with two first round byes and home field advantage throughout the playoffs on offer.
Denver, who will host the Kansas City Chiefs (2-13) and Houston, who visit the Colts can get the first weekend off with wins while the Patriots must beat the Miami Dolphins (7-8) and have either the Broncos or Texans lose.

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Playoff puzzle nearly complete with one week to go

 With one week remaining in the regular season, the National Football League's playoff picture has come into sharper focus with only a few more pieces of the post-season puzzle to be put into place.
Much of the remaining drama is focused on the NFC East, where the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants will stage a battle royale for the division crown with a ticket to the post-season going to the survivor.
The Redskins (9-6), riding a six-game winning streak and with rookie sensation quarterback Robert Griffin III healthy and calling plays, host the Cowboys (8-7) in the Sunday evening prime time finale to the NFL regular season that will see the winner claim the division.
While the Cowboys' (8-7) only path to the post-season requires a victory, the Redskins could still scrape into the playoffs with a loss if the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings also lose their finales.
The situation is much more dire for the slumping Giants (8-7), who will need plenty of help to advance.
The defending Super Bowl champions have lost five of their last seven and must defeat the Philadelphia Eagles at home on Sunday and hope Dallas, Chicago and Minnesota all lose.
TRIP TO MOTOR CITY
The Seattle Seahawks (10-5) and San Francisco 49ers (10-4-1) enter the final weekend having clinched playoff berths but with the NFC West title still up for grabs along with a possible first round bye.
San Francisco can take top spot in the West with a win at home over the Arizona Cardinals (5-10) while the surging Seahawks, who have outscored opponents 150-30 in their last three contests, must close out the regular season with a fifth straight victory when they visit the St. Louis Rams (7-7-1) and have the 49ers lose.
With the 49ers or Seahawks guaranteed playoff spots the other NFC wildcard will go to either the Bears (9-6) or Vikings (9-6).
The Vikings, who have staged a late season charge behind the running of Adrian Peterson, can lock up a playoff spot with visit to Lambeau Field and a win over NFC North rivals the Green Bay Packers (11-4).
The Bears close out the campaign with a trip to the Motor City where they must combine victory over the Lions (4-11), losers of seven straight with a Vikings loss to move on.
The Atlanta Falcons (13-2) clinched a first round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs with a 31-18 win over the Detroit Lions on Saturday and the Packers can also grab a first round bye with a win over Minnesota or a San Francisco loss combined with a Seattle loss or tie.
The post-season picture is much clearer in the AFC with the four division winners, New England Patriots (East), Baltimore Ravens (North), Houston Texans (South), Denver Broncos (West) and wildcards Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts already decided.
The Broncos (12-3), Texans (12-3) and Patriots (11-4), however, will all have something to play for on the final Sunday with two first round byes and home field advantage throughout the playoffs on offer.
Denver, who will host the Kansas City Chiefs (2-13) and Houston, who visit the Colts can get the first weekend off with wins while the Patriots must beat the Miami Dolphins (7-8) and have either the Broncos or Texans lose.
A number of combinations of wins and losses could give the Texans, Broncos or Patriots home field advantage for the playoff run.

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AP source: Dolphins' Smith has knee bruise

A person familiar with the diagnosis says Miami Dolphins cornerback Sean Smith escaped serious injury when he hurt his left knee in the team's victory over Buffalo.
An MRI test Monday determined the injury was only a bruise, the person told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Dolphins are not releasing details about the injury.
Smith, a fourth-year pro and Miami's best cornerback, can become a free agent this offseason. The Dolphins, who are out of the playoff race, conclude the season Sunday at New England.

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NFL-Pagano joins playoff bound Colts after battle with cancer

The Indianapolis Colts and their fans got an early Christmas gift when head coach Chuck Pagano returned to work on Monday, three months after being forced to the sidelines to battle cancer.
Diagnosed with leukemia in late September, Pagano spent the last three months undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy, while his inspired team led by rookie quarterback Andrew Luck battled on the field earning an unlikely playoff spot.
"Circumstances don't make you, they reveal you," an emotional Pagano told reporters after reporting for work at the teams Indianapolis training facility. "The way I look at it is, my job has just begun.
"Besides my job here...my job now is to give back everything I can possibly give back to everyone out there who's fighting some type of illness, some type of disease, some type of cancer."
The Colts, who tied for the NFL's worst record last season at 2-14, improved to 10-5 with their win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday clinching an AFC wild card.
After three games into a rebuilding season, the Colts learned Pagano would take indefinite leave to fight his cancer and was replaced by assistant coach and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.
The goal of the Colts became to keep playing until Pagano could return to work.
Indianapolis went 9-3 under Arians, who will hand over the head coaching job back to Pagano for the regular season finale this Sunday against the Houston Texans.

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Explainer: Naming of Parts for an Instrument of Civilian Slaughter

The PTAB 2.5M anti-armor bomblet has a cylindrical body with a dome-shaped ballistic cap at its front and it terminates in a four-fin tail unit that is structured in a drum configuration. In its Aug. 2, 2012 online posting, Jane's Air-Launched Weapons noted that the tail unit comes in both short and long versions. The entire bomblet measures 0.87 meters in length, has a body diameter of 60 millimeters and weighs 2.5 kilograms. Just behind the nose is a shaped charge weighing 660 grams and consisting of a RDX/TNT mixture, which is detonated by an ADTS-583 impact fuze. Thirty or more bomblets, or sub-munitions, fit into the RBK-250-275 cluster bombs and the RBK 500 can carry 75. The PTAB 2.5M is able to penetrate up to 120 millimeters of armor. The Soviets originally designed the PTAB 2.5M to be dropped on lines of Allied tanks steadily advancing toward the Iron Curtain countries. On Dec 12, while many were fretting or making jokes about the Mayan Apocalypse, Syrian military aircraft released RBK 250s on the civilian population of Marea, near Aleppo. For a few civilians from Marea, the world did end.

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Former President George H.W. Bush remains hospitalized

Former President George H.W. Bush, who has been hospitalized for a month undergoing treatment for bronchitis, may not be released from a Houston hospital in time to celebrate Christmas at home as doctors had hoped. Bush, 88, remained in stable condition and doctors were optimistic he would make a full recovery, George Kovacik, a spokesman at Methodist Hospital, said in an emailed statement on Sunday. But doctors were being "extra cautious" with his care and no discharge date had been set, the statement said. Earlier this month, Kovacik said doctors expected Bush would be able to spend Christmas at home with his family. "His doctors feel he should build up his energy before going home," the statement said. Bush, the 41st president and a Republican, took office in 1989 and served one term in the White House. The father of former President George W. Bush, he also is a former congressman, U.N. ambassador, CIA director and vice president for two terms under Ronald Reagan.

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Few tests done at toxic sites after superstorm

For more than a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that the recent superstorm didn't cause significant problems at any of the 247 Superfund toxic waste sites it's monitoring in New York and New Jersey. But in many cases, no actual tests of soil or water are being conducted, just visual inspections. The EPA conducted a handful of tests right after the storm, but couldn't provide details or locations of any recent testing when asked last week. New Jersey officials point out that federally designated Superfund sites are EPA's responsibility. The 1980 Superfund law gave EPA the power to order cleanups of abandoned, spilled and illegally dumped hazardous wastes that threaten human health or the environment. The sites can involve long-term or short-term cleanups. Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, says officials haven't done enough to ensure there is no contamination from Superfund sites. He's worried toxins could leach into groundwater and the ocean. "It's really serious and I think the EPA and the state of New Jersey have not done due diligence to make sure these sites have not created problems," Tittel said. The EPA said last month that none of the Superfund sites it monitors in New York or New Jersey sustained significant damage, but that it has done follow-up sampling at the Gowanus Canal site in Brooklyn, the Newtown Creek site on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, and the Raritan Bay Slag site, all of which flooded during the storm. But last week, EPA spokeswoman Stacy Kika didn't respond to questions about whether any soil or water tests have been done at the other 243 Superfund sites. The agency hasn't said exactly how many of the sites flooded. "Currently, we do not believe that any sites were impacted in ways that would pose a threat to nearby communities," EPA said in a statement. Politicians have been asking similar questions, too. On Nov. 29, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., wrote to the EPA to ask for "an additional assessment" of Sandy's impact on Superfund sites in the state. Elevated levels of lead, antimony, arsenic and copper have been found at the Raritan Bay Slag site, a Superfund site since 2009. Blast furnaces dumped lead at the site in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and lead slag was also used there to construct a seawall and jetty. The EPA found lead levels as high as 142,000 parts per million were found at Raritan Bay in 2007. Natural soil levels for lead range from 50 to 400 parts per million. The EPA took four samples from the site after Superstorm Sandy: two from a fenced-off beach area and two from a nearby public playground. One of the beach samples tested above the recreational limit for lead. In early November, the EPA said it was taking additional samples "to get a more detailed picture of how the material might have shifted" and will "take appropriate steps to prevent public exposure" at the site, according to a bulletin posted on its website. But six weeks later, the agency couldn't provide more details of what has been found. The Newtown Creek site, with pesticides, metals, PCBs and volatile organic compounds, and the Gowanus Canal site, heavily contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, volatile organics and coal tar wastes, were added to the Superfund list in 2010. Some say the lead at the Raritan Bay site can disperse easily. Gabriel Fillippeli, director of the Center for Urban Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said lead tends to stay in the soil once it is deposited but can be moved around by stormwaters or winds. Arsenic, which has been found in the surface water at the site, can leach into the water table, Fillippeli said. "My concern is twofold. One is, a storm like that surely moved some of that material physically to other places, I would think," Fillippeli said. "If they don't cap that or seal it or clean it up, arsenic will continue to make its way slowly into groundwater and lead will be distributed around the neighborhood." The lack of testing has left some residents with lingering worries. The Raritan Bay Slag site sits on the beach overlooking a placid harbor with a view of Staten Island. On a recent foggy morning, workers were hauling out debris, and some nearby residents wondered whether the superstorm increased or spread the amount of pollution at the site. "I think it brought a lot of crud in from what's out there," said Elise Pelletier, whose small bungalow sits on a hill overlooking the Raritan Bay Slag site. "You don't know what came in from the water." Her street did not flood because it is up high, but she worries about a park below where people go fishing and walk their dogs. She would like to see more testing done. Thomas Burke, an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says both federal and state officials generally have a good handle on the major Superfund sites, which often use caps and walls to contain pollution. "They are designed to hold up," Burke said of such structures, but added that "you always have to be concerned that an unusual event can spread things around in the environment." Burke noted that the storm brought in a "tremendous amount" of water, raising the possibility that groundwater plumes could have changed. "There really have to be evaluations" of communities near the Superfund sites, he said. "It's important to take a look." Officials in both New York and New Jersey note they've also been monitoring less toxic sites known as brownfields and haven't found major problems. The New York DEC said in a statement that brownfields in that state "were not significantly impacted" and that they don't plan further tests for storm impacts. Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency has done visual inspections of major brownfield sites and also alerted towns and cities to be on the lookout for problems. Ragonese said they just aren't getting calls voicing such concerns. Back at the Raritan Bay slag site, some residents want more information. And they want the toxic soil, which has sat here for years, out. Pat Churchill, who was walking her dog in the park along the water, said she's still worried. "There are unanswered questions. You can't tell me this is all contained. It has to move around," Churchill said.

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