Football action heats up as NFL Divisional playoffs take centerstage

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After shocking routs and controversial NFL wildcard matchups, football action heats up as the divisional playoffs take centerstage this weekend with four interesting matchups. These are repeats from games played during the regular season, even though none of the teams playing again are in the same division.

When the dust settled, the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots were moving on in their quest for history in winning three rings in a row and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina Panthers and Washington Redskins all won road games, which is tough to do in the playoffs.

That sets up some interesting games next week with Denver playing host to New England and Pittsburgh going to Indianapolis in the AFC, while Washington heads to Seattle and Carolina visits Chicago in the NFC.

The Indianapolis Colts can beat Pittsburgh if they play their best game Sunday. In a rare matchup of top-caliber NFL teams that can both run and pass, much depends on who scores first. If Colt quarterback Peyton Manning jumps away to a lead of 10-0 or 14-0, he can control the game with his stretch-play offense featuring running back Edgerrin James.

The second game Sunday, granting a few assumptions, will be won by the Chicago Bears over Carolina. The Bears win it assuming their quarterback, Rex Grossman, plays a full game injury-free; assuming their coach, Lovie Smith, plays modern aggressive football the way he played it last summer before Grossman was lost to another of his many injuries, and assuming the Bear running game and defense are as sound as ever.

Meanwhile, the New England Patriots are reduced to playing a powerful 13-3 opponent on a Saturday night in Denver because CBS thinks the ratings will be higher for Pittsburgh at Indianapolis. If that's dubious, one explanation is that Denver looks like the most difficult 2005-06 test for the Patriots, regular season or postseason. Though Tom Brady of New England is the NFL's great quarterback, the Broncos have designed an offense for their quarterback, Jake Plummer, that threatens sideline to sideline as well as short and deep on nearly every play. The weather, however, won't be much colder than New England's.

In the other game Saturday, in Seattle, the Seahawks should squash Washington if they are as good as they think they are with their two-way run-pass threat as provided by Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck. Unless Seattle is a paper tiger - best team in second best conference - its defense should control running back Clinton Portis and quarterback Mark Brunell. But nobody is really sure what the Seahawks can do.

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