Counting on chaos an unpredictable strategy

Following Cleveland's improbable defeat of the defending Stupor Bore champs Thursday night, a big question loomed for the remainder of Week 14: Would this be the week for upsets? Ben certainly was casting his predictions that way, as the Chaos Kid hoped to mix things up in the Gehlke Bros. Football season standings, trailing his dad by nine games. He needed a few splits to have any hope of catching up. After Sunday, he needs a few more.

A slate of games that on the surface appeared unpredictable wound up being not that hard to figure out — at least for the Junior and Senior Bro, who compiled identical 12-4 records. That wasn't what Sean, who trails Glenn by eight games, had been hoping for. He needed to sweep the brothers' pair of splits. For a while it seemed that it might happen.

Miami bested Jacksonville 14-10, thanks to fourth-quarter ineptitude by the Jags offense, to give Sean the edge. But a few minutes later, despite doing its best to lose the game, Buffalo held off Kansas City 16-10, and Glenn salvaged the split. In other games of note, New Orleans and Indianapolis both remained perfect, the Eagles took control of the NFC East with a decisive win at the Giants, and Minnesota got back in the win column by dumping the Bengals. Just as it's supposed to be as the playoffs near.

For the week, Glenn and Sean tied at 12-4, but Ben lost more ground with an 8-8 mark. We all correctly predicted the wins of Indianapolis, the N.Y. Jets, Baltimore, New England, San Diego and Philadelphia. And like Ben Roethlisberger, who was sacked eight times in the Steelers' loss to the Browns, no one saw it coming... or the win by the 49ers on Monday night.