FOR USE AS DESIRED
NFL-POST–1   12/30/03  

THIS IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!
WILD CARD WEEKEND KICKS OFF PLAYOFFS

The NFL regular season ended with a flourish and now the excitement level goes even higher for the playoffs that start this week with NFL Wild Card Weekend.

Last Sunday it was MIKE VANDERJAGT winning a division title for the Indianapolis Colts with a 43-yard field goal (a record-setting 41st in a row) as time expired…JAMAL LEWIS going for the all-time season rushing record, and coming up only 40 yards short…and -- most incredible of all – Arizona’s JOSH MC COWN flinging a desperation, no-time-left, fourth-and-25 28-yard touchdown pass to NATE POOLE that knocked the Minnesota Vikings out of the playoffs and put the Green Bay Packers in them.

If that was the end of the “regular” season, what does the NFL postseason have in store?

“Now everything gets speeded up,” says quarterback JAKE DELHOMME of the Carolina Panthers, who play this weekend.  “It’s time to go.  It’s what you play for.” 

The lineup of teams ready to go to the NFL’s 2003 Wild Card Weekend:

NFL WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 3
 

Sunday, January 4
 

The 12 playoff teams of 2003 are a formidable lot, for many reasons:

·         They’re hot I:  Since Thanksgiving weekend, the unofficial kickoff to the playoff race, the 12 clubs are a combined 42-18.  That’s a .700 winning clip.

·         They’re hot II:  Almost every one of the 12 is on some sort of winning streak, led by New England at 12-0,   Philadelphia 10-1, Tennessee 9-2, St. Louis 7-1, Green Bay 6-1 and Baltimore 5-1. 

·         They’re good:  Combined, the 12 compiled a 136-56 season record – a .708 winning percentage.

·         They’ve been consistently good:  Of the 12 teams in the playoffs, seven are winners of the past eight Super Bowls – every Super Bowl since 1995 except for Tampa Bay last year.  Those teams are: New England, Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver (twice), Green Bay and Dallas.

Three of these teams – Green Bay, New England and St. Louis – also played in a second Super Bowl.  And

            Tennessee played in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Put differently, seven of this year’s 12 playoff teams have had 11 of the 16 Super Bowl appearances of the past

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NFL PLAYOFF FACTOID

MOST 10-WIN TEAMS:  Thirteen teams this season won 10 or more games, the most 10-win teams in a season in NFL history.

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eight seasons.  Most of this season’s playoff teams have had consistently strong cumulative won-loss records in recent seasons, headed up by St. Louis and Tennessee with a 56-24 (.700) record over the past five years.

The lineup for Wild Card Weekend, with all but one game (Tennessee-Baltimore) being rematches from this season:

• TENNESSEE TITANS (12-4) at BALTIMORE RAVENS (10-6), Saturday, 4:30 PM ET, ABC:  Two former division rivals, one of which – Baltimore – has beaten the other five times in a row, and in six of the last seven.
  
  “They’ve been a thorn in our sides, and sometimes to move on in the future, you have to be presented with the past,” says Titans running back EDDIE GEORGE.  “Maybe this is one of those times.”
  
  It is a matchup of the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack against its No. 1 rushing defense, meaning 2,000-yarder JAMAL LEWIS of Baltimore against the likes of JEVON KEARSE and KEITH BULLUCK of Tennessee.
  
  Plus, the Titans get back a freshened quarterback STEVE MC NAIR, rested in Week 17 with leg woes.  He is the only NFL QB this year to finish with a 100.0 passer rating (100.4).
   
• DALLAS COWBOYS (10-6) at CAROLINA PANTHERS (11-5), Saturday, 8:00 PM ET, ABC:  One team – Dallas – with the NFL’s No. 1 defense against another that always seems to get the job done.
  
  The “Cardiac Cats” this year took seven of their 11 victories by three points or less, with eight coming in the final two minutes or overtime.  The Cowboys – who defeated the Panthers 24-20 November 23 at Texas Stadium – are just as resourceful under the demanding ways of new head coach BILL PARCELLS.  Dallas reversed three consecutive 5-11 seasons to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. 
  
  Both quarterbacks – Dallas’ QUINCY CARTER and Carolina’s JAKE DELHOMME, who each wear No. 17 – will make their playoff debuts.  They each will hand the ball to power backs -- Carolina’s STEPHEN DAVIS (1,444 yards) and Dallas’ TROY HAMBRICK (972).
  
  It will be a big night in Charlotte!  “Prime time,” says Panthers safety MIKE MINTER.  “Everybody is going to be watching.  When those cameras come on, everybody is going to see what the Carolina Panthers are all about.” 
   
• SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (10-6) at GREEN BAY PACKERS (10-6), Sunday, 1:00 PM ET, FOX:  Pick your storyline:  Seahawks head coach MIKE HOLMGREN returning to Titletown where he won a Super Bowl…Seattle quarterback MATT HASSELBECK vs. the guy he once backed up, BRETT FAVRE…two great running backs – Seattle’s SHAUN ALEXANDER vs. Green Bay’s AHMAN GREEN, a former Seahawk who was traded by Holmgren.
  
  On top of that, the game is a repeat of this past October 5 in Green Bay when the Packers dominated the Hawks 35-13, which started Seattle’s six-game road losing streak broken in Week 17 in San Francisco.
  
  “We owe the Packers,” says Seattle cornerback WILLIE WILLIAMS.  “But this is the time of year where everyone is starting over.  Everybody is 0-0 once you get to the playoffs.”
   
• DENVER BRONCOS (10-6) at INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (12-4), Sunday, 4:30 PM ET, CBS:  Only two weeks ago in Indianapolis, the Broncos outgained the Colts 465-183 (a season-low for Indianapolis), built a time of possession of 44:58 compared to Indy’s 15:02, and shut them out in the second half.  Final score: Denver 31, Indianapolis 17.
  
  Expectations?  Says Broncos linebacker AL WILSON, a former Tennessee Volunteers teammate of Colts quarterback PEYTON MANNING, “I know Peyton is going to come out fired up.  That’s the kind of person he is.  He’s a competitor.  He’s definitely going to come back with a vengeance.”
  
  Also coming back is Broncos running back CLINTON PORTIS, who tied for the second-most rushing TDs in a game (five) in history on December 7.  Last year’s Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year rested his high ankle sprain last week and is once again healthy.
  
  Denver will have to be ready for perhaps the NFL’s most lethal QB-WR tandem, Manning to MARVIN HARRISON.  The two connected for 10 TDs this year to make themselves the third most productive tandem (68 TDs) in NFL history behind STEVE YOUNG-JERRY RICE (85) and DAN MARINO-MARK CLAYTON (79). 
  
  Indy will be ready.  “There are not a lot of times in the NFL when you get a second chance,” says Colts linebacker MARCUS WASHINGTON.  “We’re going to get one, and we’re excited about it.”

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE 2003 PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
(All times Eastern)

WILD CARD WEEKEND

2003 FINAL NFL STANDINGS

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
 (Home teams in capitals) 

2003 PLAYOFF DATES