One would assume that, with the detested Tampa Bay Buccaneers directly through the windshield in this bumpy drive through the 2003 season, Brian Dawkins might not want to peer too far down the road.

Truth be told, the Philadelphia Eagles standout free safety wasn't exactly practicing rubberneck driving tactics when he suggested early this week that the Bucs represent just another treacherous pothole, as he was detailing the long-range significance of one of this weekend's marquee matchups.

	Darren Howard (No. 93) had three sacks for the Saints against the Redskins.

"It's not too early," Dawkins reminded both the fans and his teammates, "to start thinking about things like the home-field advantage (in the playoffs). If we're going to get homefield, then they are one of the teams who we have to beat, right? You want every tiebreaker you can get. After last year, believe me, we know how important the homefield advantage can be."

Despite outplaying the St. Louis Rams for the first half of last season's NFC championship game, Philadelphia fell six points shy of a Super Bowl berth, and coach Andy Reid and his club made securing the homefield advantage in 2002 one of their priorities this year.

The Eagles might not be a team filled with history buffs, but it is with good reason that they are fixated on not leaving their raggedy Veterans Stadium nest for the postseason, at least given recent playoff results.

Over the past 12 years, including each of the last three seasons, the team which held homefield advantage through the NFC bracket advanced as the conference's Super Bowl representative eight times. Only in 1990, 1992, 1997 and 1998 did the NFC franchise with homefield rights fail to make it to the Super Bowl. Almost more remarkable is that the team with homefield advantage has advanced to the NFC title game every season since 1988.

But why, at this relatively early juncture of the '02 campaign, is this such a pertinent topic?

Because in a league where realignment has made tiebreakers more essential, and any edge is critical, this is definitely a week where the NFC's premier teams begin the process of elbowing their way to the top of the conference. There are seven intraconference matchups this week and even the undercard features some compelling contests.

Fresh off an upset win at the New York Giants, for instance, Atlanta feels it can scratch back into the playoff chase if it can dispatch slumping Carolina on Sunday afternoon. Former division rivals Dallas and Arizona, the latter a pleasant surprise at 3-2 and playing hard for coach Dave McGinnis, square off in the Valley of the Sun. "To go to 4-2 would be huge for us," allowed Cardinals linebacker Ronald McKinnon.

With as many losses already in 2002 as it had all last season, Chicago needs a win over a Detroit team that is actually showing a bit of a pulse now that rookie Joey Harrington is at the controls. Third-stringer Marc Bulger tries for a second straight victory as the Rams host the Seahawks. And even the Washington-Green Bay pairing at Lambeau Field holds interesting subplots.

Not until Week 15 of the schedule, at which point many franchises will have been eliminated from the playoff derby, does the NFC feature more than six intraconference matchups. That fact alone magnifies the significance of this weekend's contests.

Said quarterback Quincy Carter, whose last-minute touchdown pass to wide receiver Antonio Bryant lifted the Cowboys over the Panthers last Sunday: "This could be a week when (the conference) starts to shake out a little bit."

	“	If we're going to get homefield, then they (Buccaneers) are one of the teams who we have to beat, right? You want every tiebreaker you can get. After last year, believe me, we know how important the homefield advantage can be. ”
		— Brian Dawkins, Eagles safety

Indeed, it figures to be a weekend in which the NFC becomes much more defined in terms of contenders and pretenders, and a pair of heavyweight matches -- Philadelphia-Tampa Bay at Veterans Stadium and a Superdome tussle between the Saints and 49ers -- could have major ramifications both immediate and long-range.

All four teams either lead their respective NFC divisions or are tied for first place. The quartet represents nearly 40 percent of the total victories this year by NFC teams. Not since 1997 has the NFC had two intraconference games at such an early juncture in the season, and on the same weekend, where the combatants have totaled eight or more victories.

In the mid-60s, NBC briefly broadcast the program That Was The Week That Was, a satirical spoof of politics and key world events that featured performers such as David Frost and Alan Alda. Well, in the NFC, This Is The Week That Is, and there is nothing funny about it for most of the players involved.

Particularly in the two spotlight games, the matchups provide opportunity not only to secure some bragging rights, but to take a quantum leap toward overall conference superiority. The Saints, for instance, have already beaten Tampa Bay and Green Bay, and a win over San Francisco would give the Saints victories over every conference club that enters this weekend with just one loss.

There has never been much love lost between the Saints and Niners and, when the teams were both in the old NFC West, they fought some legendary battles. Their last meeting was especially embarrassing to the Saints, with the 49ers winning 38-0 in the final game of the 2001 season, a defeat that concluded New Orleans' grotesque four-game skid in which the club gave up 40 points per game and lost by an average of 27.

It was after that defeat, and amid talk the Saints had quit on head coach Jim Haslett, that New Orleans officials began plotting the roster facelift that has now made the club a viable Super Bowl contender.

"The game," said Saints defensive end Darren Howard, "was a bad memory. But that's all it is, a memory, because it has nothing to do with what's going to come down on Sunday afternoon."

Tampa Bay, which has been the league's most habitual underachiever over the last three seasons, likewise has some bad memories to attempt to purge when it visits the Eagles. Each of the Bucs' last two seasons ended with a thud at Veterans Stadium, both in first-round playoff defeats, contests in which Tampa Bay totaled a paltry 12 points and didn't score a touchdown.

Bucs head coach Jon Gruden served three seasons (1992-94) as offensive coordinator of the Eagles, recalls the jeers from the rabid Veterans Stadium denizens, remembers crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge on the way to work some days and having drivers recognize him and shoot him the bird.

"Really, it was fun, honest," Gruden said.

But not nearly as much fun as this weekend should be in the NFC, as the powerhouse franchises in the conference begin the unofficial sprint to the playoffs, and start the race for the coveted homefield advantage.

"We should learn a lot from this weekend," acknowledged Saints wide receiver Joe Horn. "This week starts separating the men from the boys."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.