North Is NFC’s Sub-Division

Who was saying there’s no depth at quarterback in the NFL?

Sunday, teams quarterbacked by Kelly Holcomb, Kyle Orton, Chris Simms, Joey Harrington and Jake Plummer found themselves in first place or tied for first place, with teams quarterbacked by Chris Weinke and Anthony Wright emerging from Week 6 assignments victorious.

The depth of talent in the NFC North (bidding to become the worst NFL division of all time), the AFC East (repeat: Kelly Holcomb has his team tied for first place) and the NFC West (Seattle and a slew of sub-mediocre teams) is the real trouble area, as a quick grimacing glance at the numbers shows:

* NFC North: Detroit and Harrington lost to Carolina, 21-20, to fall to 2-3, yet remained tied for first with Chicago, which rode 23 Orton-to-Thomas Jones handoffs to a 28-3 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, who are 1-4 and mired in scandal and ought to be hours away from firing Coach Mike Tice -- except for one thing: They’re only a game out of first place.

* AFC East: New England hadn’t lost three games in a regular season since 2002, but here it is, mid-October 2005, and the injury-deluged Patriots are 3-3 following their 28-20 loss to Plummer’s Denver Broncos. More surprising than the Patriots at 3-3 are the Buffalo Bills at 3-3, Holcomb getting them there with a two-touchdown, two-interception performance in a 27-17 victory over the New York Jets.

* NFC West: First-place Seattle routed Houston, 42-10, to move to 4-2, but big deal, Houston loses to everybody. St. Louis, Arizona and San Francisco can’t wait for their chances to play the Texans -- that would be Nov. 27 for the Rams, Dec. 18 for the Cardinals and Jan. 1 for the 49ers. But in the interim, the Rams brace for a Monday night embarrassment in Indianapolis -- St. Louis playing the 5-0 Colts without a head coach or a defense -- with the Cardinals and 49ers going unbeaten Sunday, running roughshod over their open dates on the schedule.

Through Week 6, with every team having insulted their ancestry five times, the NFC North’s four headless horsemen are a combined 6-14. Since the NFL adopted the 16-game schedule in 1978, the lowest victory total for a four-team division is 25, a mark shared by the 1979 NFC West, the 1984 AFC Central and the 2004 NFC West.

Do the Bears, Lions, Vikings and Green Bay Packers (1-4, one game out) have a combined 20 more victories in them?

On the hopeful side: The Bears, Lions, Vikings and Packers still must play nine head-to-head games, so that’s nine more victories there. Then again, this being the NFC North, the likelihood of those games producing nine ties cannot at this point be discounted.

Back to reality: The Bears, Lions, Vikings and Packers still must play 19 games against teams from the AFC North and NFC South, relative NFL power divisions, so as cumulative victories go, 24 is something to shoot for.

Typical of the NFC North, Detroit lost on a late touchdown pass delivered by Carolina backup quarterback Weinke, who hadn’t quarterbacked a single regular-season play since 2002 but was forced into the game after the Lions knocked out Panther starter Jake Delhomme with three minutes to play.

And isn’t that just like the Lions? Delhomme had been Detroit’s best point producer all day -- Lion defenders caught two of his passes and ran them back for touchdowns -- but down the stretch, with the outcome on the line, they take Delhomme out of the game.

Similarly, Miami knocked Tampa Bay starting quarterback Brian Griese out the game in the second quarter, bringing Simms in off the bench to oversee the completion of a 27-13 Buccaneer victory that was supposed to have been highlighted by the Return of Ricky Williams.

This being the NFL, where absolutely nothing has a chance of living up to the weekly over-the-top advance billing, this is how Williams fared in his comeback game: five carries, eight yards. Or, to break it down for the casual fan, Williams on Sunday averaged 1.6 more yards a carry than he did in 2004, when he did not play at all.

The Buccaneers’ victory left the NFC South standings looking like this: Tampa Bay (quarterback finishing game: Simms), 5-1.

Carolina (quarterback finishing game: Weinke), 4-2.

Atlanta (given two chances to kick the game-winning field goal against New Orleans): 4-2.

New Orleans (inventing new ways to lose every week): 2-4.

The Saints lost to the Falcons, 34-31, after Atlanta’s Todd Peterson missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt in the final 10 seconds of regulation, only to be given a do-over from 36 yards after New Orleans defensive end Tony Bryant was cited for a defensive holding infraction that was totally irrelevant to whatever Peterson wound up doing with the football.

Move up five yards, try it again. And you know what they always say: You can’t give a good kicker two chances to beat New Orleans in a Saint home game played in San Antonio. And long before that, late in the first half, the Saints had turned a 10-3 lead into a 17-10 deficit on a fumble (returned 62 yards by DeAngelo Hall for a Falcon touchdown) and a half-ending blocked field-goal try (returned 59 yards by Demorrio Williams for a Falcon touchdown).

A game that should have gone overtime went to Atlanta, meaning only two games on Sunday required overtime.

One was Jacksonville’s 23-17 win over Pittsburgh, not quite the same methodical machine with Tommy Maddox subbing for injured Ben Roethlisberger. Most painful of all for the Steelers: Maddox’s overtime pass that was intercepted by Rashean Mathis and returned 41 yards for the winning score.

The other was Dallas’ odd 16-13 decision over the New York Giants, marred by a total of eight turnovers, including a Giant fumble at the Cowboy one-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Dallas won the game by winning the coin toss and moving into position for a 45-yard field goal by Jose Cortez.

All four teams in the NFC East have winning records. And come January, at least two of them will be grinding their teeth as they sit and watch teams from the North and West degrade the NFC playoffs.