FOR USE AS DESIRED
NFL-150          12/15/04

IT’S WALL-TO-WALL BALL ON SATURDAY!

Here’s the NFL fan game plan for Saturday: get the holiday shopping done early, then settle back for an NFL tripleheader on national television.

The NFL’s annual Saturday late-season TV schedule will feature at least 10 hours of football this Saturday with five teams either in the playoffs or in contention, and each game loaded with interesting scenarios.

This Saturday’s NFL TV Tripleheader:

• 1:30 PM ET (CBS):  PITTSBURGH STEELERS at NEW YORK GIANTS – Just like the old NFL days. 

Steelers against the Giants outdoors in who-knows-what-kind-of-weather?  Featured will be two proven running backs -- Pittsburgh’s JEROME BETTIS and New York’s TIKI BARBER -- and the first meeting of two 2004 rookie quarterbacks taken in the first round, the Steelers’ BEN ROETHLISBERGER (No. 11) and Giants’ ELI MANNING (No. 1). 

The Giants are one of the NFL’s most successful teams in playing on Saturday, compiling a .625 (15-9) winning percentage on that day, third-best since 1970 (minimum five games) behind St. Louis (.750, 6-2) and San Diego (.700, 7-3).

The game has playoff implications, with the AFC North Division-champion Steelers able to earn a first-round bye with a win and other scenarios.

• 5:00 PM ET (FOX):  WASHINGTON REDSKINS at SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS – Fans will be looking ahead to the futures of these teams, including players such as 49ers running back MAURICE HICKS.

A free agent last year who spent the past two springs with Scotland in the NFL Europe League, Hicks carried 34 times for 139 yards and a TD last week (and caught five passes for 29 yards) in San Francisco’s overtime win over Arizona. 

“It’s just the love of the game,” said Hicks about playing football for almost 10 months straight.  “The love of the game.” 

Hicks will go up against the NFL’s third-ranked rush defense (85.2 yards per game).

Interesting stat:  JOE GIBBS, concluding the first year of his second stint with the Redskins, won the final three games of his first season with the team (1981), and then won Super Bowl XVII the next year.  

• 8:30 PM ET (ESPN):  CAROLINA PANTHERS at ATLANTA FALCONS – A big one for Saturday night! 

The division-champ Falcons can clinch a first-round bye with a win (and other scenarios).  The 2003 NFC Champion Panthers have turned their season around dramatically by winning their last five games after starting 1-7. 

The Panthers can become only the fourth team in history to win six consecutive games after losing six in a row (1970 Cincinnati: lost 6, won 7; 1974 NY Jets: lost 6, won 6; 1994 NY Giants: lost 7, won 6).  

The Falcons have defeated their division rivals in eight of their past nine meetings. 

“There’s a lot of football left,” says Panthers head coach JOHN FOX. 

And it starts this Saturday!