Both Tennessee and Baltimore have made the Super Bowl as a wild-card team, the Titans in 2000 before losing to St. Louis, and the Ravens the next year, when they won the title.
They also know the odds are against them in an era when teams are so thin that a week off to heal wounds is a huge advantage.
“I don’t think we would have won the Super Bowl without the week off,” Rich McKay, then general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said last year. “At this time of year, everyone is hurt and you need the rest.”
So while New England, Kansas City, Philadelphia and St. Louis rest this week, eight teams go at each other on Saturday and Sunday for the chance to move on in the playoffs, including the Titans and Ravens, who renew an intense rivalry in Baltimore.
Wild-card teams actually made the Super Bowl in three of four seasons – Denver got there after the 1997 season and won, then Tennessee and Baltimore did it.
These days, “wild card” is a misnomer for the first round.
This is the second year of eight divisions, and four of the eight teams playing this weekend are the lower-ranked division winners: Indianapolis and Baltimore in the AFC, Carolina and Green Bay in the NFC. Like the wild-card teams, they will have to win three times to make it to Houston for the Feb. 1 Super Bowl.
A game-by-game guide:
A heated rivalry and a one-sided one. The Ravens have won five straight and six of seven, including a playoff game in Nashville in 2001 that was a key to Baltimore’s run to the Super Bowl.
The Ravens could have taken it easy against archrival Pittsburgh last Sunday night after clinching the AFC North when Cincinnati lost earlier in the day. Instead, they fought to get Jamal Lewis his 2,000-yard season, then went to overtime before winning.
“My biggest concern right now is the emotional fatigue this team has gone through. We’ll have to rebound that way,” coach Brian Billick says. “Physically, we’ll be fine. But getting them back emotionally is important.”
Two recent strangers to the playoffs, although their coaches aren’t.
Bill Parcells of the Cowboys has been to three Super Bowls and a conference title game with the Giants, Patriots and Jets. John Fox was the Giants’ defensive coordinator when they lost to the Ravens in the Super Bowl three years ago.
Television has deemed this the highlight of the weekend, it’s only prime-time game, because it’s the Cowboys and it’s Parcells. But both Dallas and Carolina seem more like teams on the way up than true contenders this season.
The Cowboys have been held to 10 points or less in four of their eight road games, and only two of their wins are over teams that finished over .500. Of Carolina’s 11 wins, seven are by three points or less.
Parcells says Dallas’ offensive problems mean the Cowboys only can win playing at their best.
“Certainly, any team in the league would have a really good chance to beat us if we don’t play well,” Parcells says. “Even though our record says a little differently, I know that for a fact. That’s where we are.”
The Panthers, on the other hand, think they are being overlooked because of the buzz that always surrounds the Cowboys.
“I wasn’t even born when they got that title, so I don’t know why they are America’s Team,” defensive tackle Brentson Buckner says. “I read a couple books, but I never got the answer for it. Does it irk you? Yeah, because you are out here doing the same thing.”
Despite the disparity in records, look out for Denver. Four of its losses came in a five-game midseason span in which the Broncos were ravaged by injuries, including one to QB Jake Plummer.
But they beat the Colts in Indianapolis 31-17 two weeks ago, controlling the ball for three-quarters of the game despite the absence of Pro Bowl running back Clinton Portis.
“We have to have a good week of practice, change some things, correct some things,” says Peyton Manning, 0-3 in playoff games. Most of the corrections, though, have to be on defense – Quentin Griffin and Mike Anderson ran for 192 yards in Portis’ place.
Until the Arizona Cardinals’ last-second 28-yard pass play knocked out Minnesota, the Packers were out of the playoffs and the Seahawks in because of a complicated BCS-style tiebreaker also involving the Cowboys.
Yet Green Bay had easily won the head-to-head matchup 35-13 with Seattle on Oct. 5 at Lambeau Field.
Mike Holmgren, who has a street named after him in Green Bay, is 1-1 there since leaving the Packers after the 1998 season.
“That’s a great place – always will be for me,” said Holmgren, who’s in the playoffs for only the second time in his five seasons in Seattle. “I certainly trust we’ll play better this time.”
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