Green Bay and Carolina needed to win, and win big, to have a chance to get into the NFL playoffs. They did just that but still didn't reach the postseason.
Kansas City and Seattle needed to win by any score, and neither was able to pull it off Sunday, giving a playoff spot to Miami, another team that lost on the final weekend of the regular season.Dallas and the New York Giants needed to win, too, and since they were playing each other, it would have been fitting in this wacky season if they had tied. But the Cowboys held on in the final quarter to claim the last of the 12 postseason spots Sunday.
Dallas and Detroit are the fourth and fifth 8-8 teams to reach the playoffs, and while none of the previous three has won a game, the Cowboys see no reason why they can't change that trend Sunday at Minnesota.
"I thought today was the first sign of a team actually trying to come together," said the Cowboys' Emmitt Smith, who ran for 122 yards in the 26-18 victory over the Giants. "I think we have something to build on and be confident about."
Only Dallas controlled its own playoff fate in the NFC, and because the Cowboys and Giants played a late-afternoon game, Green Bay and Carolina had to proceed as if Dallas would lose.
So they engaged in a shootout reminiscent of what colleges try to do when they want to impress pollsters. Under a possible tiebreaker with the Giants, Carolina needed to win by 18 more points than Green Bay, and with the coaches getting updates on the sideline, the points came in bunches as the teams kept throwing the ball to the end.
In the AFC, wins by Kansas City (9-7) and Seattle (9-7) would have eliminated Miami (9-7), but neither the Seahawks nor the Chiefs could do it. Seattle lost 19-9 to the New York Jets, and the Chiefs blew a 17-0 lead before losing 41-18 in overtime to Oakland.
Miami lost 21-10 to NFC East champion Washington (10-6) but earned the last spot in the AFC. Seattle won the AFC West in a tiebreaker with Kansas City after winning both of their meetings.
That set up next weekend's first round of playoffs, with Buffalo at Tennessee and Detroit at Washington on Saturday, and Dallas at Minnesota and Miami at Seattle on Sunday. St. Louis and Tampa Bay in the NFC and Indianapolis and Jacksonville in the AFC have byes.
JETS 19, SEAHAWKS 9: Seattle's coaches and players gathered around a television set in a trainer's room to root for Oakland after the Seahawks lost, and they looked like winners when Kansas City lost to the Raiders.
Curtis Martin gained 158 of his 203 total yards on the ground and scored the only touchdown of the game. He also set the Jets' single-season rushing record.
RAIDERS 41, CHIEFS 38 (OT): Former Kansas City quarterback Rich Gannon brought the Raiders (8-8) back from a 17-0 deficit to knock the Chiefs out of the playoff. Gannon was 25-for-47 for 324 yards and three touchdowns as the Raiders won in Kansas City for the first time in 11 tries.
Joe Nedney kicked a 33-yarder to win the game in overtime after kicking a 38-yarder to tie it with 45 seconds left.
PACKERS 49, CARDINALS 24: Dorsey Levens ran for four touchdowns and rookie Basil Mitchell returned a kickoff 88 yards for a score against Arizona (6-10), which got 396 yards passing from Jake Plummer. But he also had three interceptions.
PANTHERS 45, SAINTS 13: Carolina (8-8) won six of nine to finish its first season under coach George Seifert, but the Panthers still came up short of qualifying for a wild-card spot.
Carolina, trying to overtake Green Bay in point-differential, threw on nearly every play in the fourth quarter, and New Orleans (3-13) did the same, well aware of the Panthers' desperate need to win big.
JAGUARS 24, BENGALS 7: Jacksonville wrapped up the top seed in the AFC as Jay Fiedler, filling in for Mark Brunell, was 28-of-39 for 317 yards and a touchdown.
But with Brunell already injured, the Jaguars (14-2) saw Pro Bowl offensive linemen Tony Boselli and Leon Searcy leave the game with injuries.
TITANS 47, STEELERS 36: Tennessee, whose 13-3 record is the best for a wild-card team, scored 17 points in barely a minute of the second quarter.
BILLS 31, COLTS 6: Rob Johnson, Doug Flutie's backup for 15 games, wa 24-of-32 for 287 yards and threw two TD passes for Buffalo (11-5).
The Bills had a season-high 419 offensive yards as the Colts (13-3) had their 11-game winning streak snapped.
BUCCANEERS 20, BEARS 6: Mike Alstott ran for a touchdown and Jacquez Green caught 10 passes for 113 yards as Tampa Bay (11-5) won its first NFC Central title since 1981.
VIKINGS 24, LIONS 17: Randy Moss caught five passes for 151 yards and a touchdown for Minnesota (10-6), which knocked Detroit into the sixth seeding position.
Lions quarterback Charlie Batch reinjured his broken right thumb and was replaced by Gus Frerotte just before halftime.
EAGLES 38, RAMS 31: Kurt Warner joined Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks with 40 TD passes in a season and Marshall Faulk broke Barry Sanders' total yardage record, but St. Louis (13-3) turned the ball over seven times to open the door for Philadelphia (5-11).
Donovan McNabb threw the decisive 5-yard TD pass to former BYU tight end Chad Lewis with 10:55 left, ending the Rams' seven-game winning streak.
PATRIOTS 20, RAVENS 3: Troy Brown had three long kick returns to lead New England (8-8).
The Patriots won just two of their last eight games after starting the season 6-2. The Ravens also finished 8-8 with wins in four of their last five games.
REDSKINS 21, DOLPHINS 10: The losses by Seattle and Kansas City put Miami in the playoffs, ending any suspense over whether this would be Dan Marino's last game as a player and-or Jimmy Johnson's last game as coach.
CHARGERS 12, BRONCOS 6: The Broncos ended their first season since 1982 without John Elway at 6-10, last in the AFC West. Rookie running back Jermaine Fazande ran for 183 yards and a touchdown for the Chargers (8-8).