New Stops Mark Nfl Playoff Map
The road to the Super Bowl no longer leads through Dallas or San Francisco. It now leads through Green Bay and Charlotte, Denver and Foxboro, Mass.
The NFL playoff grid locked into place Sunday with the Green Bay Packers securing home-field advantage in the NFC and the surprising Carolina Panthers the other first-round bye. The Panthers won the NFC West with an 18-14 victory over Pittsburgh.
The Denver Broncos and New England Patriots clinched the AFC openinground byes before Sunday’s action. The Patriots earned the second seed on the AFC side with a 23-22 victory over the New York Giants Saturday.
So the first-round playoff matchups this weekend pit Minnesota at NFC East champion Dallas and Philadelphia at San Francisco in the NFC, and Indianapolis at AFC Central champion Pittsburgh and Jacksonville at Buffalo in the AFC.
Here’s the fallout from the final weekend of the 1996 regular season:
January football in Green Bay.
December football in Dallas and San Francisco.
Football in Massachusetts.
No football in Kansas City.
A Florida playoff team … and it’s not Miami.
The Packers guaranteed themselves a January game at Lambeau Field for the first time since 1982, when they smoked the St. Louis Cardinals, 41-16. In the only other January date ever at Lambeau, the Packers defeated the Cleveland Browns, 23-12, in the 1965 NFL championship game.
The Packers already have beaten three of the teams in the NFC bracket at home this season - Philadelphia (39-13), San Francisco (23-20) and, finally, Minnesota (38-10) on Sunday. Green Bay has won 15 games in a row at Lambeau, the longest current streak in the NFL.
“I think this team now believes that no one can beat them here,” Packers coach Mike Holmgren said. “It’s an attitude thing.”
It also marks the first time since 1991 that someone other than Dallas or San Francisco has held the home-field advantage in the NFC. Washington captured the home field that season and used it as a springboard to a Super Bowl championship.
Carolina’s victory forces the 49ers to travel the wild-card route for the first time in 11 years. So the Cowboys and the 49ers will both play opening-round games this weekend. It’ll be the first December playoff game for the Cowboys since 1991 and the first for the 49ers since 1985.
New England won its first division title since 1986 and will host an AFC semifinal game.
Kansas City saw its NFL-best streak of six consecutive playoff seasons come to an end with a 20-9 loss to Buffalo on Sunday. That dropped the Chiefs to 9-7, which tied Indianapolis and Jacksonville for the final two AFC playoff spots.
But both Indianapolis and Jacksonville advanced into the post-season based on better conference records than the Chiefs.