Victory cements perfect afternoon

SEATTLE - The Broncos pretend they don't watch the scoreboard, and don't pay much attention to the standings. But if they did, they'd see that Sunday went about as well as they could have imagined, not even including their 38-31 win over Seattle.

The Broncos are 8-4, secured - for a week, anyway - into the second of three wild-card positions.

Outside the three AFC division leaders - Oakland (10-2), Tennessee (9-3) and Miami (9-3) - five teams are realistically vying for three wild-card playoff spots.

Baltimore has the best record, at 9-4. The New York Jets, like Denver, are 8-4, but the Broncos would win any tiebreaker with the Jets by virtue of a win over New York four weeks ago.

Buffalo and Indianapolis, like the Jets and Dolphins, are part of a strong AFC East division bent on knocking each other out of the playoffs, both lost Sunday, dropping their records to 7-5.

TURF TALK

While the rains fell, and fell, and fell on Sunday, one thing never changed: The condition of the field.

The Seahawks are playing in the University of Washington's Husky Stadium for two seasons until their new outdoor stadium is completed in 2002.

The latest in artificial turf, something called Field Turf, was installed at Husky Stadium before this season. The turf, actually the color of real grass, uses longer synthetic blades of grass and silica sand and ground rubber as a base to give it a more natural feel.

Not a single play seemed affected by the condition of the field.

"The Field Turf was great," said Denver receiver Rod Smith. "That stuff should be in every stadium - indoor or outdoor."

HUARD GONE AGAIN

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren wants to see more of quarterback Brock Huard to determine if he's the future quarterback of the Seahawks.

But playing his first game in a month because of a concussion, Huard took a blindside shot in the first quarter from Denver linebacker John Mobley, causing a fumble that the Seahawks recovered. Huard finished the drive, but soon headed to the locker room for X- rays on his ribs.

The tests came back negative, but Huard did not return.

ON STRIKE

Workers from Seattle's two major daily papers, the Seattle Post- Intelligencer and the Seattle Times, went on strike last week, leaving coverage of the Seahawks and other sports - and all other news - to the newspapers' management, putting out a skeleton of a paper during the strike. Some workers created their own Web site, www.unionrecord.com, and are continuing to work, providing content for the site.

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