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"  For most of the season, teams are only concerned with the opponent they will be facing that weekend. In Week 14, that&amp;#039;s certainly not the case. As the dominant few lock up their divisions, those remaining are either looking forward to an early draft pick or looking over their shoulder while fending off competitors for a Wild Card spot. And just when you think a team is a guaranteed victory, Carolina quarterback Cam Newton runs 72 yards for a touchdown to hand the Falcons their second loss of the season to prove that no such thing exists. As the Redskins leaned on not only RG3, but Kirk Cousins to keep their playoff hopes alive with an overtime win over the Ravens, the Chargers pulled out a typical late-season upset over a Steelers team with Big Ben back. Meanwhile, the Colts and Jets heated up the competition with another W, making it even tougher for Bengals cheerleader Tina and her team to make an appearance in the postseason. But don&amp;#039;t count them out just yet. Even after falling 20-19 to an emotional Cowboys team on a last-second field goal, Cincinnati is still optimistic as they remain two games behind the Ravens with three difficult weeks ahead of them. After all, there is no guaranteed win for any team.  LINDSAY MCCORMICK: Let&amp;#039;s start with the bigger picture. It&amp;#039;s pretty much between the Bengals, Steelers, Colts and even the Jets for the two AFC Wild Card spots. You guys essentially have to win every game. Can the team do that? TINA: I do think they can, but it would have been nice to win today. And the Steelers lost today. We play the Eagles next week, so we should have a good chance to beat them. But our last two games are tough. We play the Steelers away and then the Ravens at home. It&amp;#039;ll be tough, but I think we can do it. LM: So, how does the team prepare for this tough schedule? TINA: Today, our defense may have dropped the ball a little bit on a few plays. So, just working on the defense before next week. Our offense had a few big drives today and big throws by Andy Dalton. Hopefully, they&amp;#039;ll play well as a unit for the remainder of the season.  LM: Dalton also had three games in a row where he didn&amp;#039;t throw a single interception. Is he the most underrated quarterback in the league? TINA: I certainly think he&amp;#039;s underrated. He&amp;#039;s talented and has great receivers. And you can really see that talent come out, when the o-line protects him and gives him time, and he can make those passes and get the ball out there. LM: Did being at Paul Brown Stadium with the home crowd help Dalton at all today? TINA: It was sold out today. And the crowd is always loud, but surprisingly, we did have a lot of Dallas fans at the game. I know they are all over the country, so we actually saw a mixed audience.  LM: Are the Cowboys still America&amp;#039;s team, or has RG3 and the Redskins taken over that role? TINA: The Cowboys definitely have a very loyal fan base. That was evident today by the stands, but we have a lot of hometown pride in our team, too. LM: The players certainly put on a physical show for those fans today. After cornerback Morris Claiborne was helped off the field, he was holding a towel to his face to stop the bleeding. Has the league done enough to try and prevent serious head injuries? TINA: The NFL is always changing their rules to try and make things safer, and I do think they are doing a good job of monitoring that. They now have teams of people to watch for concussions and people down on the field to check the players, but it&amp;#039;s a learning process. Overall, they do a lot for the teams to keep them safe. LM: I&amp;#039;m sure you guys get to see that stuff up close, as well as special incidents like unsportsmanlike conduct coming from the Cowboys bench today. TINA: Oh, yeah. I was at the other end of the field for that, but I did see the penalty called. There were actually a lot of penalties today. It&amp;#039;s the end of the year, and a lot is on the line. I think it&amp;#039;s inevitable that when you have that type of situation, people will get hotheaded. Hopefully, it just stays as trash-talking and doesn&amp;#039;t get physical. LM: I would love to see Rob Ryan get into a fistfight. Somehow the mouths running and rain pouring at the end didn&amp;#039;t affect running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis or Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant. TINA: It rained just long enough for everyone in the crowd to get their ponchos out. We were actually in our Christmas outfits today, since it&amp;#039;s our last home game before the holidays. We were wearing our white fur coats and were warm anyways, so the rain actually cooled us off \u2014 it just didn&amp;#039;t rain during those last four seconds. LM: I can&amp;#039;t even imagine being a kicker in the NFL. TINA: It&amp;#039;s a tough job! The crowd was actually quiet during that last kick. Everyone was just holding their breath. And unfortunately, it went the other way for us tonight. LM: As tough as balancing being a senior financial auditor and Bengals cheerleader? TINA: I do work at a very conservative bank that I&amp;#039;ve been with for 10 years. I&amp;#039;m suited up at work and then I go to Bengals practice at night and am dancing around in two-piece outfits. Everyone at work is really supportive, but my boss is actually a Steelers fan so he doesn&amp;#039;t think it&amp;#039;s that cool. LM: Is it tense at work with both teams vying for an AFC Wild Card spot? TINA: He just always brings up their Super Bowl rings and that the Bengals don&amp;#039;t have one yet. So, I&amp;#039;m hoping we can change that soon and get a ring of our own. LM: Maybe even this season... TINA: A few years ago, the Steelers won a Wild Card spot and ended up winning the Super Bowl. So, I&amp;#039;ll go out on a limb and say that will be us this year.    -- Lindsay McCormick (pictured at left) has covered the NFL for ESPN The Magazine and CBS. She is the former host of &amp;quot;The Fan&amp;quot; on Comcast SportsNet, where she was the sideline reporter for the Portland Trail Blazers. And she&amp;#039;ll be back right here on The Culture Blog every week with Monday Morning Cheerleader. Plus, stay tuned for Tom Chiarella on Monday Night Football. Also: beer. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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