One month remains in the NFL regular season before the playoffs begin and there are four division races that look like they’ll go down to the final weekend — the AFC South, AFC West, NFC South and NFC West, while, fights for home-field advantage in both conferences heat up.
With that, here’s a look at The Post’s NFL High Five for Week 14:
Game of the week to watch
Sunday’s delicious late-afternoon matchup between the 10-2 Eagles and 9-3 Rams in Los Angeles is unquestionably the game of Week 14.
“These are the games that you better be ready to go for because they are a great football team,” first-year Rams coach Sean McVay said. “It’s an exciting matchup.”
The Eagles rank first in the NFL in scoring differential (plus-146), and the Rams second (plus-139). The Eagles’ offense is averaging the third-most yards per game (385.1), and Rams’ the fourth-most (372.7). The Eagles’ defense is allowing the sixth-fewest points per game (17.92), and the Rams’ the seventh-fewest (18.50).
The Eagles appeared to be on cruise control en route to home-field advantage throughout the playoffs until they were tripped up by the Seahawks last week. They are now tied with the Vikings with the best record in the NFC, though Minnesota has the tiebreaker edge at the moment based on strength of schedule.
The Rams lost to the Vikings in Week 11, but they beat the Saints (9-4), so a Rams win Sunday would give them head-to-head tiebreakers over two of the three teams battling fighting for first-round playoff byes.
“You get excited for these games because it’s going to be future games,” Rams running back Todd Gurley told reporters, referring to potential rematches with these teams.
Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth referred to the Eagles game as “a measuring stick game,” according to ESPN.com.
Lost in the enormity of the matchup, the subplot to the game is at the quarterback position, where Jared Goff, the Rams’ No. 1-overall draft pick in 2016, and the Eagles’ Carson Wentz, the No. 2-overall pick that year, go at it.
“It’ll be fun to play against him, but I’m more excited to play their team,” Goff said.
“This is what you love about the NFL,” McVay said. “These games are fun.’’
Franchise quarterback era to watch
Jimmy GaroppoloAPThe Jimmy Garoppolo era in San Francisco is under way.
Garoppolo, who was acquired by the 49ers from the Patriots at the trade deadline, will make his second consecutive start Sunday, against the Texans, after leading his team to a win at Chicago last week.
49ers fans, who’ve been starved for a few years for a winner, are buzzing about Garoppolo, some dreaming of him becoming another Joe Montana. Garoppolo quickly tried to tamp down those kinds of expectations.
“We are both Italian, so we have that in common,” Garoppolo joked with reporters this week, referring to comparisons between him and Mondays. “I think it might be a little early. We’ve got a good thing going right now. We’ve just got to keep working hard and keep improving every week and keep this thing going in the right direction.”
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Garoppolo’s job will become “easier each week’’ he plays.
“I get a feel for him, how he reacts throughout a game, what he’s comfortable with [and] he gets an idea for how I call plays, how we communicate on the sidelines about things, how we adjust to things once we see them,’’ ’’ Shanahan told reporters.
Garoppolo will have a possible slight benefit Sunday: He and the Patriots practiced against Houston during training camp.
End of playoff drought to watch
Football fans are having fun in Jacksonville again.
The 8-4 Jaguars, energized by the hiring of head coach Doug Marrone and president Tom Coughlin, are on the verge of their first playoff berth since 2007. The Jags, who are tied for the AFC South lead with the Titans, haven’t even had a winning season since 2007, when they finished 11-5.
The Jaguars can clinch that elusive playoff berth this week, but they have to take care of business Sunday by beating the 8-4 Seahawks at home, and then they’ll need help.
The Jags would clinch with a win coupled with a Bills loss to the Colts, a Chargers loss to the Redskins, a Jets loss or tie against the Broncos and a Dolphins loss or tie against the Patriots on Monday.
Even if it doesn’t happen this week for the Jags, they’ve strongly positioned themselves for a postseason berth. And the vibe in Jacksonville is much different than it’s been in recent years, with the stern Marrone even having unwittingly started a bologna craze when he recently told reporters his favorite meal is a bologna and cheese sandwich.
Since those comments, which were published first on ESPN.com, the thing has gone viral, with a meat company sending a few hundred logs of bologna to Marrone, who kept six of the 3 ½-pound logs and donated the rest to Feeding Northeast Florida, which supplies local food banks.
And now, the Jaguars are selling a “Marroney Bologna’’ sandwich for $6 at their stadium during home games with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Jaguars Foundation.
December run to watch
Russell WilsonGetty ImagesIt’s December so the Seahawks must be starting to get hot.
The Seahawks, who defeated the favored Eagles at home last week, believe they’re just hitting their stride based on their recent history playing games at this time of year, during which they’re 20-5 since 2012 in regular-season games during the months of December and January.
Their .800 winning percentage ranks first in the NFL in that span, according to ESPN. It’s way up from their winning percentage in September, October and November since 2012 (.664), but that ranks third-best in the league.
“It’s our time of the year,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said in his pregame radio interview with 710 ESPN Seattle last week.
“I do think it has a lot to do with how you prepare your guys to finish and getting them ready to do it, and with a real discipline and mentality,” coach Pete Carroll told reporters last week.
Despite the losses of star cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Cam Chancellor, the Seahawks’ defense has not faltered, holding its first two opponents under 200 passing yards then allowing just 10 points to the Eagles, who were NFL’s highest-scoring offense.
The Seahawks hold the NFC’s No. 5 seed with four games remaining. But among their remaining games are Sunday against 8-4 Jacksonville and a home game against the NFC West-leading 9-3 Rams.
Those games figure to challenge the Seahawks’ December supremacy.
Coping without a star to watch
The Patriots will play the Dolphins on Sunday without their suspended star tight end Rob Gronkowski. What does it mean for the offense? Based on history, perhaps not much.
Sunday will mark the 26th game in which the Patriots have played without Gronkowski, who was hit with a one-game suspension for a violent late hit on Buffalo cornerback Tre’Davious White — and they’re 20-5 without him. They’re 9-0 without Gronk since the start of the 2016 season.
Gronkowski is coming off a huge game against the Bills, against whom he had nine catches and 147 yards (both season highs). New England’s No. 2 tight end is Dwayne Allen, who’s a strong blocker but hasn’t been used a lot in the passing game (five catches for 40 yards this season). This is good news for the Dolphins’ defense, which has been terrible covering opposing tight ends.
“Dwayne’s had a very solid role for us all year long,’’ Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He does what we ask him to do. Some things are different than the way he was taught to do them in the past, but he’s been very open and receptive to trying to do what the team needs him to do on any particular play or situation or technique or whatever it happens to be.’’



