WAKE ME UP IN JANUARY; NFL PLAYOFFS CAN ONLY IMPROVE ON DULL SEASON.

Byline: BOB KEISSER

The NFL's 1998 regular season was as memorable as a nap.

Name two highlights. Name one. It might have been memorable if Denver had gone unbeaten. It might have been noteworthy if Terrell Davis had eclipsed Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record. But it didn't happen.

Nineteen-ninety-eight produced four intriguing rookies (Randy Moss, Peyton Manning, Robert Edwards and Fred Taylor), five if you add Ryan Leaf, because it will certainly be intriguing to see if he can ruin his career any more than he already has. Otherwise, the NFL hung its '98 hat on a refugee from Canada and two recycled quarterbacks.

Not exactly material for Canton.

But hey, the second season awaits, and there's a half-dozen intriguing storylines which could produce a great Super Bowl, or at least an interesting week of speculation and talk.

If Minnesota meets the New York Jets, Miami will host the Reclamation Bowl featuring Randall Cunningham, who was out of football two seasons ago, and Vinny Testaverde, who began the season with a 48-83-1 record as a starting quarterback.

A Denver-Atlanta matchup would pit John Elway against his former coach, Dan Reeves. A Dallas-Miami Super Bowl would give Jimmy Johnson a chance to kick Jerry Jones in the shin.

A showdown between San Francisco and Buffalo would be a flashback to the early '80s, when Steve Young and Doug Flutie were starting quarterbacks - in the USFL.

An Atlanta-Jacksonville Super Bowl would be a matchup of former University of Washington quarterbacks, Chris Chandler and Mark Brunell.

Any number of matchups would showcase former Pacific-10 stars at quarterback, since there are seven at work in the playoffs. Besides Chandler and Brunell, there is Troy Aikman (UCLA), Jake Plummer (Arizona State), John Elway (Stanford), Drew Bledsoe (Washington State), and Rob Johnson (USC), the Bills' backup to Flutie.

Scouting the field of 12 produces several hot trends as well as several suspects. Putting the field into perspective, by conference and the bottom up:

THE NFC 

6, Arizona (9-7): Jake Plummer has rallied the Cardinals to wins in nine of his 26 pro starts. We knew that, of course, because he had stats like that at ASU. But he also threw more interceptions than anyone except Peyton Manning. The Cardinals faced only four teams all season that finished 7-9 or better, and they were 0-5 in those games.

5, Dallas (10-6): This is an old team that outlasted a sad division. The Cowboys were 8-0 in the NFC East, 2-6 outside it. It's a shame one of the NFC East teams must advance.

4, Green Bay (11-5): Somehow, the Packers met only three playoffs teams coming off a Super Bowl, and they were 1-2 in those games. The win was against the 49ers, a team they own (five straight wins and playoff KO's the last three years). Stat that screams: The Packers running game ranks 12th in the NFC.

3, San Francisco (12-4): Despite playing in the anemic NFC West, the 49ers faced a tough schedule. They met six playoff teams, more than anyone else in the NFC. They were 2-4 in those games, and both wins came in September.

2, Atlanta (14-2): The last time Atlanta won a division title (1980), Jimmy Carter was president, Mt. St. Helen's was erupting, and the scandal of choice in Washington was Abscam. This is also only the fourth winning season the Falcons have had since 1980 and one of those was a 5-4 mark in strike-shortened 1982. And the Falcons' only playoff win in 20 years came against New Orleans.

Chandler has been a big part of Atlanta's success, and you couldn't have predicted it. His career record as a starter coming in was 35-49, he had lost parts of five seasons to injury, the Falcons were his sixth team in 11 years, and he had played on only one winning team - the 9-7 Colts in his rookie season (1988). His claim to fame is being a member of the Rams in their final year here (1994).

1, Minnesota (15-1): Here's another weird stat which points out the slide of the NFC: The Vikes won all four of their games against playoff teams, but two were against declining Green Bay, one against Dallas and the other versus a Brunell-less Jacksonville. So who knows how the Vikings would play against a real opponent?

Cunningham has more angles than his old carpentry tools. The last time he was a No. 1 quarterback was 1994. The last time he started on a winning team was 1992. Yet his career record before 1998 was 64-45-1, and this will be his seventh postseason. Who knows what Cunningham might have achieved if he had worked with a coach with a clue, which Buddy Ryan and Rich Kotite did not have, or hadn't been stuck playing in the most unforgiving city in the NFL, Philadelphia?

THE AFC 

6, New England (9-7): The AFC East probably produced the best football of 1998 outside of Minnesota and Denver. All of those games were mini-wars. The Pats went 3-6 against playoff teams, Bledsoe's got a bad finger, and there's something about Pete Carroll and the Pats that leaves one cold, and it's not New England weather.

5, Miami (10-6): Fraud alert. The Dolphins have no running game (99 yards per game). Dan Marino ranks 11th in efficiency among 12 playoff quarterbacks. The Fish caught Denver the week after the unbeaten season died, and Buffalo before the Flutie era began.

4, Buffalo (10-6): The Bills opened 0-3, then won 10 of 13. Those first three losses were by a combined nine points, and two late losses were zebra-related. Flutie may be shorter than a fire hydrant, but he does one thing better than most quarterbacks a foot taller: win.

The second-round AFC playoffs are going to be hot, and I'm guessing NBC is none too pleased to see the NFL pendulum swing to the AFC after losing the conference to CBS.

3, Jacksonville (10-5): Without Brunell, the Jags are Carolina with better uniforms. With him, they should be taken seriously as Super Bowl contenders. The Jags have a good habit of winning close games.

2, New York Jets (12-4): The truth is, I won't believe Testaverde can win a Super Bowl even if I see it happen. It's just one of those impressions you can't shake. In 12 years in the league, Vinny has played on two winning teams, this one and the 1994 Browns (11-5). He has been the starting quarterback for eight teams that lost 10 games or more.

But since Bill Parcells won a Super Bowl with Jeff Hostetler, it's altogether possible the quarterback doesn't matter. And in a year when good teams rarely met, this stat screams loudest: The Jets were 7-1 against playoff teams in 1998.

1, Denver (14-2): The Broncos have the best run defense among the 12 playoff teams and the best running game in the league. In the long haul, those might be the only two stats that matter. After four pretty tedious months, here's to the promise of January.

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BOX: 1998 NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

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