The 1999 NFL season is so wacky that it has become fun -- as long as a team is satisfied with making the playoffs and isn't worried about winning a Super Bowl that probably will be won by Jacksonville, St. Louis or Indianapolis.

	Tony Dungy's Bucs want to put the 45-0 loss in Oakland behind them in a hurry.

For as the season enters its final two weeks, only four teams have clinched playoff berths and 16 more are in contention for the remaining eight.

"We're still in it," Giants coach Jim Fassel said Sunday after his team was run over 31-10 by the Rams. "Whether we won or lost, it's still going to come down to the next couple of games."

That's true, and it's why things are fun.

The Giants didn't belong on the same field with the Rams -- certainly not in St. Louis' dome. And barring catastrophic injury, nobody but St. Louis will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl -- the Rams have outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points at home, and home is where they'll be until they head to Atlanta for the Super Bowl.

The AFC is a little more competitive.

Jacksonville and Indianapolis will be the first two seeds, probably in that order. Tennessee (11-3) probably will be the first wild-card, seeded fourth even though it will have a better record than the third seed, the West winner.

Beneath them?

In the AFC, it makes sense. In the NFC it's a mess.

The races by conference:

Sizing up the AFC
Tennessee, Buffalo (9-5) and Miami (9-5) would be the wild-cards if the season ended today, and Kansas City (9-5) would win the West after being three games out four weeks ago.

The Chiefs got there courtesy of Seattle, which has lost four straight to fall to 8-6.

The fourth was a heartbreaking 36-30 overtime loss in Denver on Sunday in which the Seahawks scored 10 points to tie it in the final 1:47. Then they lost it when Glenn Cadrez returned Jon Kitna's fumble for a touchdown one play after Kitna overthrew a wide-open Joe Galloway for what would have been the winner.

The one bright spot for Seattle is next week's home game against the Chiefs.

If the Seahawks win, they move into a tie and would hold the tiebreaker because they won the first meeting in Kansas City.

But the usually stoic Mike Holmgren wasn't very stoic after Sunday's loss.

"The season is not over, but bouncing back from a loss like this is a challenge," said the Seattle coach, who in eight seasons as an NFL head coach had never had a four-game losing streak before.

"It's sudden death now in our game next week with Kansas City, but it would have been regardless of which way this one ended. Next week's game, I would say, is for the division."

As for the rest, Buffalo did a lot of people a favor when it beat Arizona on Sunday night, eliminating the Chargers, Jets and Patriots, the latter a loser of five of their last six after going down 24-9 in Philadelphia.

Baltimore (7-7) is alive and could finish 9-7, finishing with Cincinnati at home and on the road at New England.

But the likely lineup is Jaguars, Colts, Titans, the West winner, the Bills and either the Dolphins or the second-place team in the West. Remember that Miami, which has lost four of six, has the feisty Jets at home and finishes in Washington.

Sizing up the NFC
It's a mess.

The Bucs (9-5) would still be the second seed despite suffering the worst loss in their mostly dismal history, a 45-0 shellacking in Oakland that ended a six-game winning streak.

The Redskins (8-6) lead the East, but lose any tiebreaker with Dallas (7-7) because the Cowboys beat them twice. Conversely, the Redskins beat the Giants twice and win any tiebreaker with them.

That leaves, in order, Detroit (8-6), Minnesota and Green Bay (7-6) going into tonight's game at the Metrodome; the Cowboys and Giants (7-7); Carolina (7-7) and the Bears and Cardinals (each 6-8).

Drop the last two, and there are still too many permutations to even guess at the wild-cards.

The Bucs? Despite their horrendous performance Sunday, they still need just one win to clinch a playoff spot.

"We won six in a row, and we didn't disintegrate overnight. We're going to bounce back," coach Tony Dungy said. "We haven't been in a game like this in a while. We just couldn't get anything going. But I don't think it will have a long-term effect if we win next week."

This year, you could say that for almost anyone.