Don't be surprised to see UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell back in the NFL at some point. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Both teams now head into Week 14 games against AFC West foes, but while the Bengals stay home to face the 2-9 Raiders, the Ravens must hit the road and face the 7-5 Chiefs, who have long since proven they can beat anybody at home. That means just one game could separate Baltimore and Cincy as Week 15 dawns.

With their new-found defensive toughness, the Bengals are a very dangerous team. You could make the case that they're a lot like the Steelers were at this point in 2005, a potential AFC North wild card that could end up beating the division champ in the playoffs. In that scenario, Baltimore would be cast in the role of Cincinnati last year, with the Bengals following the Steelers' script. Don't forget that twice in the past five years a wild-card team from this division upset the division champ in the playoffs and then went on to win the Super Bowl (Baltimore over Tennessee in 2000 and Pittsburgh over Cincy last year).

• NFL fans should know this about UCLA's monstrous 13-9 upset of USC, which threw a curveball in the BCS title-game selection process: A ton of the credit for the Bruins' feat should go to their first-year defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, whose schemes confused the heck out of Trojans quarterback John David Booty. This won't be the last time you hear of Walker, the former Giants, Redskins and Patriots secondary coach who's considered one of the brightest young prospects in the headset crowd.

I interviewed Walker a couple summers ago at training camp in Albany, N.Y., when he was a member of Jim Fassel's final staff in New York, and though quiet by nature, he's very impressive and has a first-rate intellect. Walker also was hired by Joe Gibbs in Washington, where he spent the past two years. Anybody have any doubts that the Redskins' underachieving secondary has missed him this season?

And while we're at it, UCLA's win puts Bruins head coach Karl Dorrell back on the NFL's radar screen as a head coaching candidate. Dorrell, a former Broncos assistant, will interview for and be offered a top job in the NFL before long.

• This week's Theater of the Absurd item came courtesy, of course, of the Raiders. It seems ex-Raiders head coach Tom Flores is upset that a panel assembled by NFL Films ranked the 1983 Raiders as only the 20th best Super Bowl winning team of all time, as part of new documentary series about the Super Bowl called America's Game.'

"This team should be in the top three all-time,'' thundered Flores, in a Raiders press release that became an instant classic. "The 1983 Raiders could beat any Super Bowl team from any decade, any league, and under any circumstances. The 20th ranking by the NFL Films panel is a disgrace to the history of the Raiders.''

The Raiders release went to note that "the ranking was voted on by a so-called 'blue ribbon' committee consisting of writers, broadcasters and NFL personnel including head coaches and general managers....However, the members of this committee have had very little direct contact with any Super Bowls.''

Whatever that means. Only in Oakland.

• Whose call was it to put the Tom Coughlin poster directly behind Bill Parcells and the Dallas bench on Sunday at Giants Stadium? Loved it.