NFL Powers Lose Momentum : Pro football: The teams that had secured playoff berths were less than impressive in the final week.

The unwritten rule on Super Bowl champions is that they enter the playoffs on a roll.

In that case, the rule is likely to change this season. Most of the NFL’s so-called powers are stumbling in, even San Francisco, which needed a last-minute rally under Steve Young to beat Minnesota 20-17 Sunday.

To put it another way, maybe the teams that started so well--particularly the NFC teams--were so bored that they fell into a funk at season’s end.

To wit:

--The 49ers started 10-0 and finished 4-2.

--The Giants started 10-0 and finished 3-3.

--The Bears started 9-1 and finsihed 2-4.

--The Bills took Sunday off after clinching home field in the AFC and lost to Washington 29-14.

--Philadelphia, supposedly possessing momentum, barely hung on to beat Phoenix 23-21 Saturday and save the home-field advantage for its wild-card game with Washington. Can the talented but overblown Eagles egos concentrate enough to win three games, two on the road, to get to the Super Bowl?

Moreover, on the final weekend all the teams with playoff positions wrapped up either lost, like Buffalo and Chicago, or barely won--like the 49ers and the Giants, who crawled by 1-15 New England 13-10.

So what does that mean?

“Thirteen wins,” the Giants’ Ottis Anderson said. “We won. That’s all that counts.”

The playoffs start next weekend with the wild-card round.

Perhaps the two best matchups are on Saturday with Washington (10-6) at Philadelphia (10-6) followed by Kansas City (11-5) at Miami (12-4).

On Sunday, Houston (9-7) will be at Cincinnati (9-7), an encore to a game won 40-20 by the Bengals two weeks ago. Then comes the game at Chicago, where the Bears (11-5) face either New Orleans or Dallas.

The Saints would be 8-8 if they beat the Rams on Monday night. At 7-9, the Cowboys would be the first losing team--save the expanded tournament following the 1982 strike--ever in the playoffs.

In the NFC, the lowest-seeded team to win will play at San Francisco (14-2) while the other winner will be at the Giants (13-3). In the AFC, one winner will travel to Los Angeles to play the Raiders (12-4) while the other will be at Buffalo (13-3).

That means if the seedings hold up, the 49ers will host the Eagles-Redskins winner while the Giants will host the Bears. If Chicago is upset, the 49ers get that winner and the Giants face the Eagles-Redskins winner.

In the AFC, it would be Cincinnati (as a division champion) at the Raiders with the Miami-Kansas City winner at Buffalo. If the Oilers win, they face the Bills and the Chiefs-Dolphins winner goes to Los Angeles.

All of that probably makes the 49ers a solid favorite to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls and five overall. That’s due in part because four teams enter the playoffs with backup quarterbacks--Jeff Hostetler for Phil Simms with the Giants; Frank Reich for Jim Kelly with the Bills; Mike Tomczak (or even rookie Peter Tom Willis) for Jim Harbaugh with the Bears and Cody Carlson for Warren Moon with the Oilers.

Tampa Bay can’t get anything right.

The Bucs were one of four teams to finish in a tie at 6-10 bechind the Bears in the NFC Central, the eighth straight year they’ve had 10 or more losses in compiling a 26-78 record since 1983.

But because they had a 5-3 division record, better than the Lions, Packers and Vikings, they get a second-place schedule next season. That means that in addition to their division opponents and the top four teams in the AFC East (Buffalo, Miami, the New York Jets and Indianapolis) they get the Giants, Eagles, Saints and either the Rams or Falcons).

Minnesota, meanwhile, gets a last-place schedule, although the Vikings still may have the division’s best personnel. That gives them the Patriots (1-15) and Broncos (a deceptive 5-11) plus the Cardinals twice and the entire NFC West.

A week ago, Reich filled in for Kelly and led Buffalo to a 24-14 victory over Miami that clinched the AFC East and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

On Sunday night, Carlson filled in for Moon and led the Oilers to a 34-14 victory over the Steelers that was remarkable for a number of reasons.

Most remarkable: Carlson, 22 of 29 for 247 yards, threw three touchdown passes. That’s half as many TD passes in one game as the Steelers allowed in their first 15.

Moreover, Carlson’s 53-yarder in the third period was the first touchdown pass completed this season over Rod Woodson, Pittsburgh’s Pro Bowl cornerback.

Coach Jerry Glanville of Atlanta, which opened by beating Houston and closed by beating Dallas, but went 3-11 in between:

“We’re the state champion of Texas. The only thing that kept us from the playoffs is that Texas has only two teams.”

Did anyone notice that Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas were 1-2 in the NFL rushing race? Sanders was Thomas’ backup at Oklahoma State until Thomas left. Then Sanders won the Heisman Trophy in 1988.

But neither did much Sunday.

Thomas carried five times for no yards for Buffalo against Washington, then sat down. Sanders, who averaging 140 yards the last four games, was held to 23 yards in nine carries by Seattle. But he became Detroit’s first rushing champion since Byron “Whizzer” White, now a Supreme Court justice, did it in 1940.

Sanders finished with 1,304 yards to 1,297 for Thomas.