1*/1*

Patriots

  17-0†  

  New England had a hard time stopping Jacksonville’s offense mostly due to the tremendous play of David Garrard. However, Jacksonville had an even harder time stopping Tom Brady and crew, as Brady set an NFL postseason record for completion percentage, breaking a record held by Phil Simms who just happened to be announcing the game.

New England will host San Diego in the AFC championship game. It’s not a rematch of last season’s AFC title game with Indianapolis as many expected to see. But it is a playoff rematch from last season. As you probably remember the Patriots won at San Diego in the divisional playoffs as underdogs of 4.5 points thereby spoiling the Chargers’ tremendous (14-2) regular season… This season the Chargers will attempt to spoil New England’s incredible (16-0) season. The Patriots are favored by 14 points which represents an 18.5 point swing in the betting spread over the time frame of one season- or a more realistic 12.5 point swing if you subscribe to the betting line theory of factoring out 3 points for home field advantage (in both games).

*For our new readers, the asterisk denotes that the Patriots will remain #1 in the power rankings for the rest of the season for going (16-0), even if they don’t win the Super Bowl, because as we pointed out after week 17 going undefeated in the regular season at (16-0) actually carries much longer odds than winning the Super Bowl.

2/4

Packers

14-3†

  Green Bay spotted Seattle 14 quick points and then proceeded to go on a 42-6 run, blasting the Seahawks and Mike Holmgren right out of Lambeau in a heavy snow fall as Grant rushed for over 200 yards and Favre threw 3 TD’s. The Packers will face the Giants in the NFC title game; a team they beat soundly on the road way back in week 2…

If Green Bay should win, then looking ahead to a possible Super Bowl matchup conjures up memories of Super Bowl XXXI when Brett Favre’s Packers emerged victorious against Drew Bledsoe’s Patriots… What would the result be should they meet Tom Brady’s Patriots?

Cowboys

  13-4†  

Once, twice, three times a charm? The Cowboys were unable to make it 3 wins over the Giants this season… Though he wouldn’t admit it, Owens probably wasn’t fully recovered from a high ankle sprain. On the other hand, the Giants were without Sam Madison, not to mention Aaron Ross left the game with an injury- conjuring up memories of last season’s playoff loss in Seattle when the Seahawks’ starting corners were out, yet the Cowboys’ passing game was shut down.

Overall the Cowboys finished the season (4-3) against playoff qualifying teams, with three wins in total over the two teams playing for the NFC championship, hence the #3 ranking.

4/6

Chargers

13-5†

The Chargers took advantage of 4 deep turnovers by the Colts to win at Indianapolis in the divisional playoffs; their second “turnover filled win” over the defending champs this season.

Jackson, Chambers, Turner, and Sproles picked up the slack as LT spent much of the game on the sidelines with an injury, and Gates was hobbled… Volek also performed well in place of the injured Rivers (in the midst of a solid game).

The Chargers will head to New England for the AFC championship game, looking for revenge for last season’s divisional playoff home loss at the hands of the Patriots.

5/2

Colts

  13-4†  

  Usually when the Colts put up 400+ yards of offense they win in a cake-walk. However, Indianapolis turned the ball over deep in San Diego territory 4 times, including on downs late with the game on the line. It was the Colts’ second loss this season to the Chargers, who have become their new nemesis; remember it was San Diego that broke up the Colts’ run for a perfect season in 2005.

Jaguars

  12-6†

  David Garrard made incredible play after incredible play against the Patriots, but it wasn’t enough as Jacksonville’s defense was unable to contain Tom Brady and the rest of the Patriots’ offense despite putting the clamps down on Randy Moss… Overall the Jaguars finished (5-4) against playoff qualifying teams this season.

7/7

Giants

  12-6†  

The Giants used solid defense to keep the Dallas scoring machine in check grabbing a 21-17 victory in the divisional playoffs, despite only managing 230 yards on offense.

Turnover-free football wins and that’s exactly what the Giants are playing. Overall the Giants improved to (3-5) versus playoff qualifying teams. And will get a chance to avenge an earlier season loss to Green Bay when they travel to Lambeau for the NFC championship game.

8/9

Seahawks

  11-7†  

  Seattle jumped out to a 14-0 lead at Green Bay in the divisional playoffs before allowing the Packers to go on a 42-6 run in the midst of a heavy snow fall. The loss wasn’t too surprising considering the Seahawks dropped 5 games to teams that didn’t make the playoffs this season.