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Road teams favored in 1st round
The Colts ended the regular season on a nine-game winning streak.
The Indianapolis Colts ended the regular season on a nine-game winning streak, earning the designation as a team no one would want to meet in the playoffs.
But they got the worst possible break when Denver folded and San Diego came on late to win the AFC West. That’s because over the years, the Chargers have troubled the Colts more than any other rival, including New England.
Nonetheless, the Colts remain the favorites by one point when they go to San Diego, a reflection of their 12-4 record to the Chargers’ 8-8. San Diego had to win its last four to get there and have Denver lose its last three in the AFC West.
In fact, in an oddity reflecting the imbalance in the divisional alignment this year, all four road teams, the wild cards, are favored in the first round of the playoffs.
It may also reflect what has happened in two of the last four seasons, when wild-card teams won the Super Bowl: The New York Giants, the top seed in the NFC this season, won it last year, and Pittsburgh won as a sixth seed after the 2005 season.
“We can do it. New York did it last season, so we know it can be done,” Donovan McNabb said after Philadelphia had everything break right Sunday to make it in the hardest possible way. Tampa Bay and Chicago lost, then the Eagles crushed Dallas 44-6.
The Colts broke a three-game losing streak to the Chargers by winning 23-20 in San Diego on Nov. 23 on Adam Vinatieri’s 51-yard field goal as time expired. That was the second of three losses in a row by the Chargers. The kick made up for a 29-yard miss by Vinatieri a year ago that cost the Colts a game in San Diego.
Indianapolis also should be healthier after resting folks the last week. The Chargers pulled out two key players who were hurt during the win over Denver, but running back LaDainian Tomlinson and tight end Antonio Gates say they will play against the Colts.
The Baltimore-Miami matchup features two rookie coaches who got their jobs without being coordinators or members of the “hot list:” Tony Sparano of the Dolphins and John Harbaugh of the Ravens. And some history:
The Ravens won in Miami 27-13 on Oct. 19, starting a run of nine wins in their final 11 games. They also were the only team to lose to last season’s 1-15 Dolphins, who started 0-13, then beat the Ravens 22-16 in Miami.
In the NFC, the Falcons belong in the playoffs, the Cardinals don’t. They are there only by virtue of a weak division and possibly because the 49ers started the season with Mike Nolan as their coach and J.T. O’Sullivan as their quarterback instead of Mike Singletary and Shaun Hill. The latter combination went 5-4 and might have won the division if they’d been there all season.
The Eagles are certainly the most enigmatic team in the playoffs. Their rout of Dallas came a week after a 10-3 loss in Washington in which they played terribly and seemingly knocked themselves out of the playoffs. They beat the Giants on the road (dominated them, actually), but tied the Bengals in the game in which McNabb acknowledged he didn’t know there could be ties.
At their best, the Eagles are certainly better than the Vikings, who needed a last-play 50-yard field goal to beat the Giants’ JV — New York, already assured of the No. 1 seed, played much of the game with guys it had picked up off the street.