SOME CONTENDERS FAIL TO FINISH WHAT THEY START.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

This was a weekend of opportunity around the NFL, one in which teams that had showed some promise had a chance to erase some doubts. In the end, however - and in most cases we really do mean the very end - Step Up Sunday turned into Step Back Sunday.

In Cincinnati, the Bengals had a chance to earn their stripes against Pittsburgh and, never mind the orange and black uniforms, managed to turn into pumpkins all by themselves.

The Chargers, Cowboys, and Broncos also had chances to establish themselves as Super Bowl material with impressive road wins in Philadelphia, Seattle and New York, only to fall to pieces at the finish.

The same goes for the Packers, who with one win can still pass for contenders in the NFC North. They somehow lost a 17-point lead and the game to the Vikings on Paul Edinger's 56-yard field goal on the final play.

Nobody had more to gain Sunday than the Bengals, who could have put 2 1/2 games between themselves and the Steelers in the AFC North and turned their focus to a Nov. 20 game with the Colts.

Instead, the Bengals were left looking in the mirror after their 27-13 loss to the Steelers.

Cincinnati's somewhat suspect run defense was exposed to the tune of 221 yards on 47 carries by Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis. Quarterback Carson Palmer had his streak of 169 passes without an interception snapped and he didn't throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 12 games, although rookie Chris Henry dropped one in the end zone. Tailback Rudi Johnson was grumbling about getting the ball only three times in the last three quarters.

``The game meant a lot to us,'' Palmer said afterward. ``It meant a lot to the city. We let ourselves and everybody around us down.''

They weren't the only ones.

There was a long list of teams who gave away games at the end, and nobody has perfected the practice like the Chargers.

They blew it twice against the Eagles, the first time when former UCLA cornerback Matt Ware picked up a blocked field goal and returned it for the go-ahead touchdown with 2:25 left. Moments later with the Chargers cruising down the field again, Reche Caldwell fumbled the ball away to seal a 20-17 loss.

Even if LaDainian Tomlinson was improbably held to seven yards on 17 carries - the worst game of his career - the Chargers looked like the better team.

Just as they did against Dallas, Denver and Pittsburgh, when they blew fourth-quarter leads and lost in the final seconds.

``We've had this conversation before,'' linebacker Donnie Edwards told the San Diego Union-Tribune. ``People can say, 'Oh, yeah, they're 3-4, they're a great frigging team.' We have to find a way to finish.''

The same could be said in Dallas.

The Cowboys could very well be unbeaten if they were better finishers. They coughed up a 13-point lead in a loss to Washington, couldn't punch it in from the inside the 5-yard line late in a loss to Oakland, and then there was Sunday.

Aaron Glenn's pass-interference penalty bailed the Seahawks out of a first-and-20 hole on the way to a game-tying touchdown drive with 40 seconds left, setting the stage for Drew Bledsoe - who began the day as the NFC's most efficient passer - to have one of those moments that make you understand why years ago Bill Belichick liked Tom Brady so much.

Bledsoe threw a pass with 14 seconds left that nobody else in the stadium thought should be thrown - except Seahawks cornerback Jonathan Babineaux, who stepped in front of Terry Glenn and returned it 27 yards.

That set up Josh Brown's 50-yard field as the gun sounded, sending the Cowboys to a 13-10 loss.

Instead of being in first place in the NFC East, the Cowboys are in last.

The Broncos didn't fall out of first place when they watched - that's not a subjective phrase here - the Giants score two touchdowns in the last 10 minutes, including Eli Manning's 2-yard touchdown pass to Amani Toomer with five seconds to play, as the Giants pulled out a 24-23 victory.

But the Broncos not only kept the Chargers alive in the AFC West, they've done the same with ghosts of the past three seasons, in which 5-1 or 6-1 starts have disintegrated into late-season pratfalls.

``We have to have that seek-and-destroy mentality,'' Broncos linebacker Al Wilson told the Denver Post. ``We've got to have some dog about us. When we've got a team down, instead of kicking them, we've got to put them through the dirt.''

It was a lesson learned Sunday when the playoff picture became a lot more soiled.

Elsewhere around the league in Week 7:

--How important is LaMont Jordan to the Raiders? In the Raiders' two wins, he has carried 26 and 28 times for 126 and 122 yards, respectively, and he scored three touchdowns in Sunday's 38-17 win over Buffalo. In Oakland's four losses, he has averaged 15.3 carries.

--Three-time Pro Bowl linebacker LaVar Arrington, who hadn't played a down of defense in three games, was released from Joe Gibbs' doghouse and responded with seven solo tackles and two assists in about 25 snaps against the 49ers.

--Former President George H.W. Bush, once again not bothering to lean on Dan Quayle for assistance, talked his way into the Colts' locker room after Indy beat Houston. ``The prez,'' Edgerrin James told the Indianapolis Star. ``That means we're big time.''