Sam Farmer's Nfl Picks: Week 10

Let's take a look at the last three Super Bowl winners: the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2006 Indianapolis Colts and 2007 New York Giants.

Boy, did they stink.

They did around this point of the season, at least. All of them had their struggles in November and December.

So will the NFL have another lug nuts-to-Lombardi Trophy story this season, or will one of the current powerhouse teams -- The Giants? The Tennessee Titans? -- just run away with it all?

There should be plenty of twists and turns to come.

For now, let's hop in the fast lane of History Highway:

* Pittsburgh: The Steelers lost three in a row from late November through early December 2005, dropping to 7-5 with losses to Baltimore, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The loss to the Bengals was especially painful because it was for control of the AFC North.

Receiver Chad Johnson -- now Chad Ocho Cinco -- wore a Terrible Towel afterward and said: "It used to be Pittsburgh's time. Now it's Cincinnati's time."

And it was. For about a minute.

* Indianapolis: After winning 10 in a row to start the 2006 season, the Colts lost four of six, including road games to each of their division foes. The last came on Christmas Eve at Houston, when the Texans denied them the chance to clinch a first-round bye.

"This is a critical time for us," Peyton Manning said afterward. "This is the time when people on the outside will start pointing fingers."

Six weeks later, on a rainy night in Miami, the Colts were the ones pointing -- single index fingers raised to the sky.

* New York Giants: It was bad enough that the Giants lost their first two games of the season, but things really looked grim in late November when they were embarrassed at home by Minnesota, 41-17. The Vikings picked off four Eli Manning passes, running back two for touchdowns.

With five games to play, the Giants dropped three behind Dallas in the NFC East. They also provided Minnesota with even more highlight footage; in their previous game at Giants Stadium, the Vikings set an NFL record by becoming the first team to score on an interception, kickoff and punt return in the same game.

"I did not, in my worst moment, ever think I would be standing up here talking about history repeating itself," Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. "But it did."

Things would get much better for Coughlin and the Giants, of course.

Are this season's Super Bowl hopefuls paying attention? If so, they'd better start stinking.