The Seahawks, Buccaneers, Giants and Lions are probably not good enough to win it all, but they’ve done enough to help the NFC close the gap on its rival conference.

Yes, the New England Patriots are a pretty good football team. At 11-0 coming into the season’s 13th week, it’s a realistic possibility that they can even go undefeated. So why, then, were the lowly Eagles just one smart decision by A.J. Feeley away from knocking them off last Monday night?

Maybe, it’s because the Patriots were simply overlooking a .500 opponent playing without its starting quarterback. Maybe, as a record 89-point favorite to beat Philly, the Pats got in their own heads. Maybe it was just a case of never knowing what will happen on Any Given Sunday (or Monday, Thursday or Saturday).

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the NFC is regaining the conference supremacy it once held over the AFC.

Now, that’s probably a terrible example to use to try and prove this particular point, considering the AFC’s Patriots still got the win over the NFC’s Eagles, but Monday’s game was the closest the Pats had come to a tally in the right-hand column.

That means eight AFC teams didn’t fare as well as the Eagles did against the mighty Pats, including the Super Bowl champion Colts (although they lost by just one more point than the Eagles, rendering this argument useless).

The Patriots also had a close contest with the Cowboys up until about the end of the third quarter, and they edged the Redskins in what was a close contest up until about the beginning of the first quarter.

If the Patriots are struggling more than usual against NFC opponents, a fact which may or may not have been proven in the above paragraphs, they certainly aren’t alone. Through 12 weeks of the 2007 season, the NFC holds a 25-23 advantage over the AFC in head-to-head battles.

On the surface, that hardly seems significant.

However, should the NFC hold onto that advantage against the AFC, it will be the first time since 1995 that they are crowned victors of the inter-conference series. To put that in perspective, that was back when Brett Favre’s hair was golden brown and his face was clean- shaven, save for a goatee in the winter.

So, yes, it’s been a while.

The AFC wasn’t always as dominant as ESPN likes to talk about them being. Once upon a time, the NFC reigned supreme. From the 1984 season when the 49ers topped the Dolphins all the way to the 1996 season when Packers beat the Patriots, an NFC team was victorious in 13 consecutive Super Bowls.

That streak ended, of course, when the Broncos beat the Packers the following year (insert most vulgar curse word that comes to mind here).

Since the Broncos’ fluke of a win in Super Bowl XXXII, the AFC has been handed the Lombardi Trophy in eight of the last 10 games, including a current four-game winning streak of their own.

This season, though, the Lombardi Trophy could be headed back to the NFC.

The Packers and Cowboys are atop the standings, and, well, the NFC is sort of just depending on one of them to get it done. The Seahawks, Buccaneers, Giants and Lions are probably not good enough to win it all, but they’ve done enough to help the NFC close the gap on its rival conference.

In the AFC, the Patriots are the clear favorites, but the rest of the teams the Pats have been spying on have their flaws.

The Colts and Steelers are next in line but have both faltered recently against less-than-respectable opponents. The Browns and Jaguars are patiently awaiting their first round exits from the playoffs, and nobody really wants to win the AFC West, a division that’s gone 2-10 against the NFC.

The Patriots are on track to go 16-0, but the team’s quest for perfection will be on the line in Week 17, when they travel to New York to face the Giants in their final game against an NFC opponent. If they get by the Giants, they’ll still have to face another tough NFC team in Super Bowl XLII assuming they rip through the AFC playoffs (ahem, Packers).

If and when they do play the Pack in the Super Bowl, it could be the beginning of another winning streak for the NFC, similar to the one that ended when the Packers lost to the Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII (insert louder, more vulgar curse here, then throw paper across the room in disgust).

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