Built in December: Title Runs That Started in the Cold

September tells you who has the best roster. December tells you who is still standing. Every few years, a team that looked ordinary for three months gets healthy, gets mean and gets hot at exactly the right time, and the teams that spent the fall looking like champions find out how little that counts.

Pittsburgh, 2005: The Sixth Seed Nobody Wanted

In early December the Steelers were 7-5 and coming off three straight losses. They won their last four just to sneak in as the sixth seed, which meant every playoff game would be on the road. Fine by them.

They won in Cincinnati. Then they went to Indianapolis to face a Colts team that had started 13-0, and nearly blew it in the strangest way possible. Jerome Bettis, who rarely put the ball on the ground, fumbled at the goal line late in the game. Nick Harper scooped it up with open field ahead until Ben Roethlisberger, lunging, got just enough of him to make the tackle. Mike Vanderjagt then missed the tying field goal. Pittsburgh won in Denver the next week and beat Seattle in Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Bettis' hometown, in what turned out to be his last game. First sixth seed to win it all.

Green Bay, 2010: Win or Go Home, Two Weeks Early

Aaron Rodgers took a concussion in Detroit in December, and the Packers lost that game and the next one, in New England, with Matt Flynn starting. At 8-6, they needed to beat the Giants and the Bears in the last two weeks just to get in. They did both.

Then they went on the road and kept going. They won at Philadelphia, ran the top-seeded Falcons out of their own building, and beat the Bears at Soldier Field for the NFC title. Super Bowl XLV against Pittsburgh ended 31-25, and Rodgers was the MVP. The roster had been held together with tape and injured-reserve paperwork all season. It didn't matter. The team that showed up in January was not the one that lost in December.

Ohio State, 2014: Third String, First Title

College football's version came with a quarterback crisis. Braxton Miller went down before the season started. J.T. Barrett broke his ankle against Michigan in late November. That left Cardale Jones, the third-stringer, to make his first career start in the Big Ten title game against Wisconsin.

Ohio State won 59-0. That score pushed the Buckeyes into the first College Football Playoff as the fourth seed. They were underdogs against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and won 42-35. They were underdogs against Oregon in the title game and won 42-20, with Ezekiel Elliott running for 246 yards and four touchdowns. A team on its third quarterback in December was the national champion in January.

Tampa Bay, 2020: The Bye Week Reset

Tom Brady's first season in Tampa was uneven for three months. The Bucs went into their late bye at 7-5 after a loss to Kansas City. They did not lose again. Four straight wins to close the regular season, three road playoff wins at Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay, then a Super Bowl in their own stadium, the first team ever to play one at home. They beat the Chiefs 31-9, the same team that had beaten them in November.

The Teams That Broke the Rule

The hot-in-December theory has holes, and the 2012 Ravens drove a truck through one. Baltimore lost four of its last five regular-season games and fired its offensive coordinator in December. Then Ray Lewis came back from a torn triceps, announced he would retire after the season, and the whole team caught fire. Joe Flacco hit Jacoby Jones for a 70-yard touchdown in the final minute in Denver to force overtime. The Ravens won that one in double overtime, won again in New England and beat San Francisco in the Super Bowl. Flacco threw 11 touchdowns and no interceptions that postseason.

The 2008 Cardinals did the same thing and fell one play short. They got buried 47-7 in the New England snow in December and limped in at 9-7. Then they ran through January and led the Super Bowl late, until Santonio Holmes got both feet down in the corner of the end zone.

So maybe December itself isn't the point. The point is that a team can turn into a different animal by the time the games count: healthier, settled at quarterback, done arguing in the locker room. Whatever it is, it shows up late, and the teams that peaked in October rarely see it coming.

The standings in December are a rough draft. Somebody always rewrites them in January.