American football: Warner gives Rams play-off push

December can be both cruel and kind to American football teams. The approach of Christmas generally heralds the time when those teams struggling to remain in play-off contention finally fall adrift, while for others, the prospect of a place in the Super Bowl becomes a tangible reality.

Thus the St Louis Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers confirmed their status as genuine championship contenders with victories on Sunday. For others, like Arizona, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Atlanta, Tennessee, Seattle, San Diego and the New York Giants, all of whom lost this weekend, it is time to begin planning for next season.

The most convincing victors were the Rams, who overwhelmed the San Francisco 49ers 27-14. The teams went into the game with identical records, nine wins from 11 contests, but the 49ers were never in the hunt. Their normally productive quarterback, Jeff Garcia, was restricted to 146 passing yards, while also giving up a pair of interceptions to Aeneas Williams.

A pair of touchdowns from Kurt Warner and another prolific outing for the running back Marshall Faulk confirmed the Rams as the league's form team.

A similarly one-sided showing in Green Bay, where the Chicago Bears were cut down to size, 17-7. Brett Favre, the Packers' talismanic quarterback, celebrated his 100th career victory with a touchdown pass to Antonio Freeman.

Milestones in Oakland, too, where the Raiders were fortunate to hold on to a 28-26 verdict over struggling Kansas City. Tim Brown scored his 100th career touchdown with an 85-yard punt return, while the veteran receiver Jerry Rice became the first player in history to amass 20,000 career receiving yards. Rice, the former 49er legend, already holds all the league's receiving records, but at 39 years old, shows no signs of age. He also scored his 195th career touchdown, another all-time record.

The Pittsburgh Steelers remain on course for the Super Bowl with a gritty 18-7 triumph over the New York Jets. The Jets simply cannot play at this time of year: in the last 15 years they have played 61 games in December, and lost 43 of them.

Elsewhere, the Washington Redskins stayed alive with a 20-10 win in Arizona, despite conceding 13 penalties. After losing to Dallas last week, the Redskins' revival seems back on track. "We were madder than a rhino with a hernia," explained their vocal linebacker, LaVar Arrington. "We had a lot we needed to get off our chests." New England's surge continued with a 27-16 verdict over Cleveland, a pair of touchdowns for their running back Antowain Smith confirming the gulf in class. New Orleans kept their dreams intact at the expense of Atlanta's with a 28-10 result in Georgia, while Tampa Bay fight on despite looking dreadful in their last-gasp, 15-12 nailbiter over winless Detroit.

Last year's beaten Super Bowl finalists, the New York Giants, will not be returning to the championship game, the 20-13 reverse in Dallas effectively ending their hopes, while other pre-season favourites, Tennessee, were destroyed 42-24 in Minnesota.

No team has lost as many games since 1990 as the Cincinnati Bengals. This year, hopes were raised when they won their first two games, but it proved to be a false dawn, their 14-10 loss at home to Jacksonville was their eighth reverse in the last 10 games.

"I don't know what the deal is," said their impressive linebacker, Takeo Spikes. "It's disappointing, it just doesn't make any sense. We started out hot this year. I just don't see any reason for what brought us to where we're at right now. It's sickening."

Even more depressing for Spikes is that his team still has four games left to play before the season finishes next month.