Shanks for the memories: decade's best playoff games
Cold, Hard Football Facts for January 12, 2010

By Bryn Swartz

The Giants brought an incredible nine-game road winning streak into their NFC championship matchup with a powerful 13-3 Packers team on one of the most frigid nights in Green Bay history.

• With the game tied 20-20, Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes missed a potential 43-yard go-ahead field goal with six minutes to play.
• Four minutes later, return man R.W. McQuarters fumbled a punt for the Giants, and after a classic football folly-type scramble, the Giants recovered near midfield.
• Ahmad Bradshaw scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 48-yard run, but a holding penalty nullified the score.
• Then Tynes again, this time to convert a 36-yarder on the last play of regulation. He hooked it wide left.

• Nedney's first OT attempt was good, but did not count because the Steelers had called time out. (A-ha, and you thought Mike Shanahan invented that move.)
• His second attempt missed, but Pittsburgh cornerback Dewayne Washington was flagged for running into the kicker.
• The third effort, a short 26-yarder, went through the uprights.

The Jaguars shocked most observers when they beat the Steelers 29-22 in Week 15. Few believed they could do it again three weeks later in the playoffs, behind inexperienced quarterback David Garrard.

The Steelers began the season with a 7-5 record and needed to win their final four games just to qualify for the postseason. The Colts, meanwhile, cruised to a 13-0 start, a final 14-2 record and a No. 1 seed, and seemed destined to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, following disastrous results in the 2003 and 2004 postseasons.

Loudmouth kicker Mike Vanderjagt trotted for a 46-yard attempt to tie the game. Vanderjagt, you might remember, was the most accurate kicker in NFL history and had not missed a kick at home all year.

 

Naturally, he missed. In fact, he missed by a mile to the right. Not even close. The Steelers earned the right to play the Broncos for the AFC title and eventually beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowls.

 

For Indy, the goats were many.

 

Harper was the subject of considerable controversy: he had been stabbed in the knee by his wife the night before the game – we can't make this stuff up, folks – and to this day Colts fans wonder if this domestic dispute cost their team what should have been a Super Bowl-winning season in 2005.

 

Vanderjagt, meanwhile, was quickly cut by the team. Despite his record-setting accuracy, he was wildly unpopular and never seemed to come through with a big kick. None were shanked more badly or proved more costly to his team or to his own reputation than his miss against the Steelers.

 

4. San Francisco 39, N.Y. Giants 38 (2002 wildcard round)

Claim to game: San Fran's amazing comeback and last playoff win marred by officiating gaffes.

The greatest comeback in 49ers postseason history was not led by Joe Montana or Steve Young. It came at the hands of undrafted quarterback Jeff Garcia, who had lost his only postseason start a year earlier.

 

The Giants held a 38-14 lead late in the third quarter, thanks to a sensational passing day by Kerry Collins. Collins threw for 342 yards and four touchdown passes, three to Amani Toomer, who finished with 136 receiving yards.

 

Enter Garcia, who led the 49ers to 25 unanswered points to end the game: he threw for 331 yards, including the winning 13-yard touchdown pass to Tai Streets with just a minute left to play. San Francisco receiver Terrell Owens was at his best, with 177 yards and two touchdowns, as well as two huge two-point conversions.

 

Despite the enormous collapse, the Giants still had a shot to win when Kerry Collins hooked up with Ron Dixon for two huge receptions to put the ball on San Francisco's 23-yard line with six seconds left in the game.

 

Then came another in the controversial officiating decisions that marred many of the decade's most memorable games.

 

Giants long-snapper, Trey Junkin, a 41-year-old who was literally signed off the street when Dan O'Leary suffered an injury a week earlier, botched the snap. Holder Matt Allen should have spiked the ball to stop the clock and give the Giants another chance on fourth down. Instead, he threw an incomplete pass, and the game ended with the Giants being penalized for an ineligible receiver downfield.

 

However, it was revealed the next day that penalized guard Rich Seubert had in fact checked in as an eligible receiver before the play. The penalty should have been called on a different Giants lineman. NFL head of officials Mike Pereira also admitted that pass interference should have been called on 49ers defensive end Chike Okeafor for pulling down Seubert.

 

In other words, the Giants should have been given another shot at a game-winning field goal.

 

When the dust had settled, the 49ers had completed the second-largest comeback in postseason history. They lost the next week to eventual Super Bowl-champ Bucs and have never been back to the playoffs.

 

3. New England 16, Oakland 13 (2001 divisional round)

Claim to fame: Launched the Patriots dynasty and snow-angel celebrations; made "tuck rule" a part of the football lexicon.

The final game at Foxboro Stadium turned into, arguably, the signature game in the New England dynasty of the early 2000s. The game's rep got a little help from a cinematic nighttime snow fall and from what was, before this game, a little known regulation called the "The Tuck Rule."

 

Both teams struggled to move the ball in the heavy snowstorm, which resulted in double-digit punts in the first half. The Raiders dominated the first three quarters of the game, holding onto a 13-3 lead.

 

By the fourth quarter, the Patriots had completely abandoned their running game, relying on the inexperienced Tom Brady to engineer a 10-point comeback in his first postseason start. Brady completed nine consecutive passes, capping off a 67-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 13-10.

 

You know the rest of the story: With two minutes to play, Brady appeared to fumble while attempting to pass, and the Raiders recovered. However, referee Walt Coleman ruled that Brady's arm had been moving forward on the play, resulting in an incomplete pass.

 

Given new life, Brady drove the Patriots to the 27-yard line, where a phenomenal 45-yard line drive kick by Adam Vinatieri tied the game with 27 seconds remaining. Given the conditions and the pressure, some have called it the greatest kick in NFL history.

 

The Patriots drove for the winning score in overtime, thanks to a risky 4th-and-4 conversion from Brady to David Patten at Oakland's 22 yard line. Seven plays later, Vinatieri converted a 23-yard field goal to put the Patriots in the AFC championship game.

 

This should rank as maybe the greatest postseason game of Tom Brady's storied career, as he completed 26 of 39 passes for 238 yards – just in the second half. It was the first glimpse fans got at what would become a period of unprecedented postseason dominance – including a record 10-straight victories – by Brady and the Patriots.

 

2. Arizona 51, Green Bay 45 (2009 wildcard round)

Claim to fame: Old-man Warner out gunslings young Rodgers in highest scoring playoff game in NFL history.

The reigning NFC champions bumbled into the playoffs. The Packers smashed into the playoffs, winning seven of their last eight games.

 

Most observers, including the Cold, Hard Football Facts, figured Green Bay was poised for a big victory.

 

But that was a big mistake.

 

After becoming the second quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 30 touchdowns and seven or fewer interceptions in a single season, Aaron Rodgers tossed an interception on his first postseason pass, and after a Tim Hightower touchdown run, another turnover, and a Kurt Warner to Early Doucet touchdown pass, the Cardinals led 14-0. The Cardinals held a commanding 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and then built it into a 31-10 second-half lead.

 

But Rodgers rallied the Packers, tossing touchdown passes to Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, and James Jones. John Kuhn added a 1-yard TD run to tie the game at 38-38, and the Packers had completed a 21-point comeback in 15 minutes, 18 seconds.

 

Plenty more fireworks followed.

 

Kurt Warner tossed his fifth touchdown pass to Steve Breaston, making him just the second quarterback in postseason history to throw for five touchdowns in a game twice.

 

But Rodgers showed tremendous poise of his own. He threw an 11-yard touchdown to Spencer Havner to tie the game at 45 with under two minutes remaining. And when Neil Rackers missed a 34-yard field goal with just seconds remaining in regulation, one of the most electric offensive shows in history headed to overtime.

 

The Packers won the toss – which seemed like a fortuitous event in a game in which each offense appeared unstoppable. But appearances are often deceiving.

 

On just the third play of overtime, Michael Adams stripped Rodgers, and linebacker Karlos Dansby grabbed the fumble and sprinted 17 yards untouched for the game-winning score.

 

The 51-45 shootout marked the highest scoring game in postseason history, and the 13 touchdowns were also a record in a postseason game. Rodgers was nearly flawless for 60 minutes, completing 28 of 42 passes for 422 yards and four touchdowns – but he turned the ball over on both his first and last snaps of the game.

 

The MVP of the game was 38-year-old Kurt Warner, who completed 29 of 33 passes for 379 yards and five touchdowns. Warner's 154.1 passer rating is the highest in NFL history for a quarterback with as many pass attempts and it ranks among the greatest single-game efforts in postseason history.

 

1. Indianapolis 38, New England 34 (2006 AFC title game)

Claim to fame: greatest comeback in conference title-game history; marked the end of the Patriots dynasty.

The most entertaining, nail-biting, exciting, and yes, best playoff game of the past decade came on January 21, 2007 when they greatest rivals of the decade, the Colts and Patriots, met in Indianapolis for the right to go the Super Bowl.

 

The Patriots jumped out to a 21-3 lead midway through the second quarter, thanks to what appeared to be yet another typical Manning meltdown in the postseason. His effort was low-lighted by Asante Samuel 39-yard interception return for a touchdown.

 

But then Manning and the Colts rallied. In just 11 minutes, the AFC championship went from a slaughter to a slugfest.

 

Manning threw for 349 yards and one touchdown, while rookie Joseph Addai rushed for the game-winning TD with a minute to play – probably the most famous touchdown by a Colts ball carrier since Alan Ameche in the 1958 championship game.

 

The game had more than its share of curiosities, too. Long forgotten is the record three touchdowns scored by interior linemen: New England guard Logan Mankins and Indy center Jeff Saturday each fell on fumbles in the end zone, while Manning's only touchdown pass of the game went to defensive tackle Dan Klecko.

 

The Patriots had one last chance to score, but Marlin Jackson picked off Tom Brady at midfield, marking the end of one era in the NFL and the start of another.

 

In fact, the game was not only exciting, it was one of the watershed events of the decade.

 

When the dust had settled, the Colts had finally toppled their nemesis, earned a trip to Super Bowl XLI and erased painful memories of their offensive meltdowns against the Patriots in the 2003 conference championship game and the 2004 divisional round and agains the Steelers in the 2005 divisonal round.

 

Bill Belichick's so-called clutch defense had failed and the New England organization has never really recovered. Late-season and late-game defensive collapses still haunt the team.

 

Manning completed his wild ride in the 2006 postseason by earning Super Bowl XLI MVP honors against the Bears. But you could argue that the real Super Bowl of the 2000s was the 2006 AFC title game.

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In a week of blowouts, the Cardinals and Packers gave us an instant classic: Arizona's thrilling 51-45 overtime victory in the highest-scoring game in postseason history. We ask our resident cheesesteak taste-tester to rank it among the best playoff games of the decade.