For the heartless Cold, Hard Football Facts crew, the number 12 holds a special place in our hollow chest cavity.

 

First and foremost, it is a common quantity for two items that we consume voraciously: donuts and beer.

 

Secondly, it has graced the jersey of a record six different Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks: Joe Namath, Bob Griese, Ken Stabler, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw and Tom Brady (the last two of whom are pictured here).

 

Thirdly, it represents how many playoff berths there are – and all of them are still up for grabs.

 

As 2006 enters its 12th month, the NFL has played 12 weeks of games. The contenders are gradually separating from the pretenders, but the teams at the bottom of our Dominant Dozen continue to change. There are still many potential pieces to the postseason puzzle.

Helping to sort things out, three division crowns could be claimed here in Week 13, beginning with tonight's game between the Ravens and Bengals:

For a number of the playoff hopefuls, we are seeing familiar storylines. In fact, several recent developments on the gridiron are reminiscent of postseasons past. Here are a dozen of these "pigskin parallels":

 

In 2006: By beating Pittsburgh 27-0 on Sunday, Baltimore recorded its second shutout of the season and prevented an opponent from exceeding 10 points for the fourth time. The Ravens are surrendering just 13.4 points per game on the year, third-best in the league.

In the 2000 postseason: While pursuing the franchise's first championship, Baltimore held its postseason opponents to 3, 10, 3 and 7 points. The playoff run culminated with a 34-7 victory over the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.

 

In 2006: With injuries to wideout Brandon Stokley and tight end Dallas Clark, the Colts have signed the veteran Proehl, who will be playing his 17th season. Indy's passing attack averages 262 yards per game, tops in the AFC and second only to New Orleans in the NFL.

 

In the 2001 postseason: Proehl was part of "The Greatest Show on Turf," when St. Louis easily led the league with 4,663 passing yards. He helped the Rams advance to their second Super Bowl in three years and brazenly declared before the title game: "Tonight, a dynasty is born!" Somehow, New England claiming three of the next four championships probably wasn't what he had in mind.

 

(It's interesting to note that Proehl twice caught a tying touchdown pass with under two minutes remaining – for the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI and for the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII – only to have New England's Adam Vinatieri cut his heart out each time with a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. Now, in an ironic twist, Proehl and Vinatieri are teammates on the Colts.)

 

In 2006: When Sunday's game reached the fourth quarter with New York comfortably ahead 21-0, Tennessee's eighth loss seemed inevitable. But Vince Young (who was the best player in college football last year) rallied the Titans to a tie with three touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) in the last 10 minutes. Eli Manning then made an ill-advised throw that was intercepted by Pacman Jones, and Tennessee pulled out an improbable 24-21 victory on a 49-yard Rob Bironas field goal.

 

In the 2002 postseason: The Giants held a 38-14 lead on the 49ers with four minutes left in the third quarter of a wild-card game. San Francisco subsequently reeled off 25 straight points, with Jeff Garcia accounting for three touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) and a pair of two-point conversions. The 49ers also made a field goal, and the Giants weren't able to convert their chance at a game-winning kick because of a bad snap. 

 

In 2006: The 9-1 Bears entered Gillette Stadium on Sunday averaging 28 points scored per game. They left on the losing end of a hard-fought 17-13 decision. New England's Asante Samuel picked off Rex Grossman three times, including a final one with less than two minutes remaining.

 

In the 2003 postseason: The 14-4 Colts had scored a total of 79 points in their playoff wins over the Broncos and Chiefs. But in snowy Foxboro, the AFC championship game was a different story. Ty Law intercepted Peyton Manning three times, and the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl with a 24-14 victory.

 

In 2006: The Saints own a surprising 7-4 record, and much of the credit goes to Brees, who has flourished in his first year with New Orleans. In the month of November alone, he passed for 1,571 yards (an average of 393 per game), and his completion percentage was 70.2.

In the 2004 postseason: Brees was even slightly more accurate during the stretch drive that concluded with the Chargers' 20-17 overtime loss to the Jets in the wild-card round. Over the final month of the season, he completed 71.6 percent of his passes, including 31 of 42 (73.8) in the playoff game. 

In 2006: Dallas signed Mike Vanderjagt, the self-proclaimed "best kicker in the history of the game," to a three-year contract last March. After he struggled in the preseason and then made only 13 of 18 field goals through Week 12, the Cowboys cut him on Monday. The Cold, Hard Football Facts trolls laughed at his demise and, in their joy, coined a new football phrase, "schadenfraud."

 

In the 2005 postseason: Having erased most of an 18-point deficit to Pittsburgh in the divisional playoffs, Indy just needed a field goal to tie the game at 21 and force overtime. Vanderjagt's 46-yard attempt missed so badly to the right that it was caught by a hotdog vendor in the corner section. Shortly thereafter, the Colts passed on re-signing him, opting instead for Vinatieri.

 

It appears that no player or team is safe at this time of the year. With the calendar turning to December, there are just two certainties: All 12 playoff teams will be determined in the last five weeks of the regular season. And the Cold, Hard Football Facts crew will remain determined to watch every last game while devouring donuts and beer.