For starters, the San Diego Chargers went into the weekend with the chance to steal the division away from the Denver Broncos in a winner-advances/loser-goes-home head-to-head contest. And steal it away they did, meaning they "earned" an unlikely playoff berth despite posting a very modest 8-8 record.
But perhaps the biggest long shot of all remaining contenders, the Philadelphia Eagles, saw everything fall their way in the early set of games, setting up another playoff-style match-up in the day's second round of games. For the Eagles to still have a chance to make the playoffs by the time their contest rolled around, they needed the Chicago Bears to lose at the Houston Texans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get beat at home by the lowly Oakland Raiders, who were making the cross-country trip with really nothing to play for. But, as fate might have it, that's exactly what happened, setting up a showdown with the Dallas Cowboys for the final wild-card berth in the NFC; a game the Eagles dominated from start to finish.
So, along with the Eagles in the NFC, we ended up with the Atlanta Falcons -- who had the most striking one-year turnaround this side of Miami -- holding onto the other wild-card position. Division champions include the defending champion New York Giants, the Carolina Panthers, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Minnesota Vikings.
In the AFC, we have the most unlikely of division winners in the Miami Dolphins, who completed a stunning 10-game improvement over their miserable 2007 season. Also winning division titles were the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, and the aforementioned Chargers. Holding down the wild cards, though, are two of the hottest teams in the league in the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens, and neither will be looked at as an easy draw regardless of who they play in the postseason.
Comments