“We’re just like every other team at this point. Nobody knows what’s going to happen.” – Peyton Manning
It’s funny how prophetic NFL players can be. When the Indianapolis Colts quarterback uttered those words, it wasn’t after Sunday’s game against Arizona, but rather at the conclusion of his team’s exhibition game against the Broncos about four months earlier. Back then, Manning was talking about the regular season. However, the sentiment is just as true today as it was in August.
Over the next three weekends, two teams will earn berths in Super Bowl XL, but exactly who those teams will be, and exactly how they’ll get there, is indeed, to paraphrase Manning, anybody’s guess.
If the seedings were to hold in the AFC through this weekend’s wild-card round, Denver’s opponent for its first postseason game at Invesco Field at Mile High would be the Cincinnati Bengals – but that may be the biggest “if” of the playoffs. While the Pittsburgh Steelers enter as the No. 6 seed, they have now perhaps supplanted the New England Patriots as “The Team No One Wants To Play.”
In winning its past four games, Pittsburgh has averaged more than 28 points and 185 yards rushing. Granted, Chicago was the only playoff team the Steelers have topped during their run, but they dominated a Bears team that was riding an eight-game winning streak, and arguably boasts the NFL’s best defense. Similarly, the Steelers’ 18-3 victory over Minnesota the next week ended the Vikings’ six- game winning streak.
Compare that to the Bengals, who will host Pittsburgh on Sunday in an opening-round game. Since clinching the AFC North, the Bengals have lost to non-playoff starters Buffalo and Kansas City, yielding 74 points and 892 yards in the two games.
For the season, Cincinnati has given up more than 115 rushing yards a game; in five games against playoff teams, the average is 139. In two games against Pittsburgh this season, the average is 158. This does not constitute trending well.
“Obviously we didn’t play very well today,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said after his team’s 37-3 loss to the Chiefs. “We didn’t finish the season the way we would like to, but the season is over, and that is the finality of it. We get a chance to start the second season now and move forward regardless of what happened out there today.”
The meeting between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati will be their third of the season. By the time the conference championships roll around, that may be the theme of the postseason – familiarity breeding contempt. Should the Steelers win, that would send them to Indianapolis for the divisional round; in Week 12 of the regular season, the Colts routed Pittsburgh 26-7.
In that scenario, the Broncos would face New England or Jacksonville, both of whom Denver beat during the regular season, in their divisional playoff game.
In the Pittsburgh-Indianapolis game, the Steelers had but 197 yards total offense and were seemingly cowed by the noise at the RCA Dome – they were flagged for five false-start penalties.
“It was loud, and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot with the false starts,” Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward said after the game. “You can’t simulate the noise; it was the first time playing here for a lot of our guys – we’ll play better here the next time.”
Similarly, NFC opening-round opponents Carolina and New York met during the preseason, while Tampa Bay and Washington faced off in Week 13. In one of the most entertaining games of the season, Buccaneers running back Mike Alstott scored a phantom two-point conversion to give his team a 36-35 win.
That was the first of a three- game losing streak for Washington, the team subsequently falling to Oakland and San Diego. However, the Redskins haven’t lost since. Their five-game winning streak is the best among playoff teams. Although the franchise hasn’t been to the postseason since 1999, Washington’s current run makes it, like Pittsburgh, an incredibly dangerous No. 6 seed.
“We don’t have many players who have been to the playoffs, and we know it will be a tough road, but we played in a tough division and I think we’ll be battle-tested,” coach Joe Gibbs told reporters after beating Philadelphia in the Redskins’ regular-season finale.
Should the Redskins win their rematch against Tampa Bay, they would travel to Seattle to face the top-seeded Seahawks. While much of the attention throughout the season went toward Indianapolis and its quest to go undefeated, and then the Patriots and their resurrection from a 4-4 start, the Seahawks have toiled in relative anonymity.
While their relatively remote location has perhaps been a disadvantage in terms of garnering publicity, the Seahawks, who were 8-0 at Qwest Field this season, say being tucked away in the Pacific Northwest will provide them with the greatest of home-field advantages.
“For years we’ve thought it’s been a problem for us, having to travel so far for every game – now every team has to make that trip out here,” running back Shaun Alexander said recently. “And it’s tough; your body doesn’t feel the same after you make that trip. Now, you’re making that trip and you have to play against a really talented team – that’s a huge advantage for us.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
