NFL teams have no fear of playing in the wild-card round.

Recent history shows the playoff bye isn’t such a big deal anymore. In six of the last seven years, one of the Super Bowl participants didn’t get a bye to begin the postseason. And five of those teams wound up winning the NFL title.

So Green Bay’s blowing the bye by losing to Minnesota last Sunday might not be such a setback. Same for Houston, which had an even bigger fall, fumbling away home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs as well as the week off, by losing three of its last four.

Some teams surge toward the playoffs. Look at Denver, Seattle, Washington and Green Bay.

Others struggle to stay in the mix: try the Steelers, Bengals, Giants and Bears.

This penultimate weekend of the schedule could propel a few of them and eliminate others.

Chief among the clubs that could go either way: the defending champion New York Giants, who have lost their last three road games by a combined 82-29 to fall to 8-6. Not even coach Tom Coughlin is sure what he has as they head to Baltimore.

NEW YORK — NFC Worst? Not anymore.

That was so 2010. Here in 2012, the NFC West is the best division in all of pro football.

And the two best teams in the division, the San Francisco 49ers (No. 5 in the AP Pro32) and Seattle Seahawks (No. 9) face off in the city by the bay on Thursday night.

Even though they come off their worst performance of the season in a 23-3 home loss to the Giants, the Niners are 7-point favorites — despite the Seahawks coming off a stirring comeback victory against New England.