Which NFC team is the favorite now?

The New Orleans Saints are back in the No. 1 spot in the NFC after a Sunday Night Football loss for the Los Angeles Rams.

Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, and the rest of one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history of the Rams looked hopeless in a 15-6 loss to the Bears. It’s not a devastating defeat for the Rams, who already have the NFC West title and still have a two-game lead in the race for a first-round bye. But it did show that the NFC isn’t as top heavy as it once looked.

The top seeds in the NFC will still likely belong to the Saints and the Rams, who have 11 wins each — two more than any other team. But after looking like the clear-cut best teams in the conference for most of the season, the gap is closing.

With three weeks left to play, the NFC playoff seeds look like this:

The Dallas Cowboys are one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Chicago showed that its defense makes it a threat to any team in the league. And a Monday Night Football game between the Vikings and Seahawks tossed another contender into the mix.

Suddenly, the NFC is a much messier and tangled conference than it once appeared.

New Orleans got back atop the NFC in Week 14, but not before getting a scare from the Buccaneers. The Saints had to climb out of a 14-3 hole at halftime to win 28-14.

A week ago, the Saints’ offense was shut down by the Cowboys, held to just 10 points and 176 total yards. That’s understandable against a strong Cowboys defense. But Tampa Bay is one of the worst defenses in the NFL, and the Saints only managed 298 yards on the day. It’s the first time in over a decade that the Saints have been held under 300 yards in consecutive games.

Drew Brees has been an MVP candidate for most of the year, but he has now thrown interceptions in three straight games after throwing just one in the first 10 games.

The Rams aren’t jelling much on offense either. In the loss to the Bears, Jared Goff finished with four interceptions and a 19.1 passer rating — both career worsts. The week before, Goff threw for 207 yards, one touchdown, and one interception against the Lions for a 68.6 passer rating. Struggling against the Bears is one thing, but the Lions have been average, at best, on defense.

That’s quite the dropoff for a quarterback who hit the Rams’ Week 12 bye with a 113.5 rating on the year after a dazzling 54-51 win in a shootout against the Chiefs. That rating is now at 101.2.

While Todd Gurley had a big day against the Lions last week, his disappearance against the Bears was part of the reason for Goff’s rough showing Sunday. On 11 carries, Gurley had just 28 rushing yards. It put pressure on Goff to carry the offense and he couldn’t do much.

Are the Saints and Rams sunk? That’s doubtful. They’re still two of the three teams in the NFL averaging at least 30 points per game along with the Chiefs. They have three more weeks to shake off their respective slumps in time for the playoffs.

It helps too that both teams are on the verge of locking up home-field advantage in the postseason. The Saints’ loss to the Cowboys last week was in Dallas, and the Rams’ loss Sunday was on a cold night in Chicago. Being able to play at home in the Divisional Round could be a huge advantage in January.

So while the Rams and Saints aren’t running roughshod on the rest of the NFC like they were in the first half of the year, neither should be counted out.

It may not be time to throw in the towel on the Rams and Saints, but it is clear that they can both be beat. Chicago and Dallas made that very apparent with bruising victories led by dominating defenses in a year when offenses have soared to new heights.

The Cowboys won a fifth consecutive game by beating the Eagles in overtime and have looked like a brand new team since trading for Amari Cooper. The former Raiders receiver had 217 receiving yards and three touchdowns Sunday against the Eagles, and the Cowboys suddenly look like a team that can win in all facets of the game.

Chicago is a little more difficult to figure out. No team in the NFL has forced more turnovers and the Bears added four more interceptions against the Rams. However, the offense has been inconsistent with Mitchell Trubisky slaloming between brilliant and sloppy games. The win against the Rams should’ve had a more lopsided score, but Trubisky passed for just 110 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions to keep the game closer than it needed to be.

The arrival of Matt Nagy as head coach has helped Trubisky and the Bears offense grow. He’s as creative as any in the NFL, even dialing up goal line touchdowns for defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and offensive lineman Bradley Sowell in the last two weeks.

Wins over the Seahawks, Vikings, and Rams have shown that Chicago can hang with any team in the NFL. But the Bears also just lost to the Giants in Week 13 — albeit with Chase Daniel at quarterback for an injured Trubisky.

When the Bears and the Cowboys are on their game, they can beat any team in the NFL, including the Rams and Saints.

With a 21-7 win at home against the Vikings, the Seahawks extended their winning streak to four.

Even after a rough showing against Minnesota, Russell Wilson has 29 touchdowns and six interceptions on the year, and his 111.0 passer rating is among the NFL’s elite.

But the winning streak for Seattle came via wins against the Packers, Panthers, 49ers and Vikings — none of whom have a winning record. Still, what’s most impressive about the Seahawks is the performance of the team’s defense.

The Vikings entered the year as a Super Bowl favorite after dishing out $84 million guaranteed to Kirk Cousins, but he looked lost against Seattle. That’s despite the fact that the Seahawks no longer have Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, or Kam Chancellor in the secondary, nor do they have Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, or Sheldon Richardson rushing the passer.

It looked like 2018 would be a rebuilding year for the Seahawks, but the team is now top 10 in both points scored and allowed.

The final Wild Card spot look significantly less scary than the other five seeds, but it’s time to start considering the Seahawks a tough team to beat too.

Early December stumbles don’t mean the Rams and Saints aren’t still the favorites in the NFC. But they no longer look like juggernauts, either.

The Cowboys and Bears are nipping at their heels and the Seahawks have quietly establish themselves as another threat to win the NFC. With three weeks to go there’s a tier of very good teams in the conference, but no longer a clear-cut favorite to win it all.