Mowing Through Playoff Field

Pats Have More Work Than Usual

The reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots will have to win four games this time in the postseason to make it four Super Bowl titles in five years, a quest that begins with a home game against the wild-card Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots, the AFC East champion at 10-6, had a four-game winning streak ended yesterday in a 28-26 loss to Miami.

The Dolphins' sixth straight victory pushed their record to 9-7 under first-year head coach Nick Saban, who worked as an assistant for Patriots Coach Bill Belichick in Cleveland. The Dolphins also may have done the Patriots a huge favor by prevailing yesterday in New England on a day when Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played a quarter and running back Corey Dillon sat out the game with a sore ankle.

The loss pushed the Patriots down to the No. 4 seed in the AFC playoffs but also allowed them to avoid a wild-card round rematch of last year's bruising AFC title game with the Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5). The surging Steelers, who clinched the sixth and final seed yesterday with a 35-21 victory over Detroit, instead will play their first-round game in Cincinnati (11-5) on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Pittsburgh, which has won four in a row, and Cincinnati split their season series, each winning on the road.

Only one of the six teams in the NFC playoffs -- the West division champion Seattle Seahawks -- was in the postseason a year ago. The greatest reversal of fortune belonged to Tampa Bay (11-5), the NFC South champions who were 5-11 last season. Four of the six AFC playoff teams made the postseason in 2004, joined this year by AFC North champion Cincinnati, making its first playoff appearance in 15 years, and Jacksonville, 12-4 after going 9-7 a year ago.

The first round will begin Saturday at 4:30 p.m. when the Washington Redskins (10-6), winners of their last five games, head south to face the Buccaneers, winners of four of their last five, in a rematch of their controversial Nov. 13 game. The Bucs prevailed, 36-35, that afternoon on a late two-point conversion run by fullback Mike Alstott. The Redskins insisted the score should not have been allowed because they did not believe the ball crossed the plane of the goal line.

Next Sunday's first wild-card game will match No. 5 seed Carolina (11-5) against the NFC East champion New York Giants (11-5). The Giants clinched the division title Saturday night with a 30-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders, likely to be Norv Turner's final game as the Raiders' coach after his team finished the season with six straight losses.

The Giants looked to be in outstanding form on New Year's Eve, with running back Tiki Barber gaining 203 yards rushing and adding another 60 with six pass receptions. Barber finished the regular season with a career-best 1,860 yards rushing and admitted afterward, "I'm just playing good right now, and I know it."

The two teams with the best record in their respective conferences -- Indianapolis (14-2) in the AFC and Seattle (13-3) in the NFC -- will have a bye during the first weekend as the No. 1 seeds. Chicago (11-5), the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and Denver (13-3), No. 2 in the AFC, also will have the first weekend off.

The Seahawks finished with a franchise-best record, even if they did lose their season finale to the Green Bay Packers in what may have been quarterback Brett Favre's final game. Seattle rested starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and NFL rushing leader Shaun Alexander in the second half of the Green Bay game after Alexander gained 73 rushing yards in the first half to secure the league rushing title and scored an NFL record 28th rushing touchdown on a one-yard run.

The Colts also rested most of their starters in a season-ending victory at home against the Arizona Cardinals, ending a two-game losing streak after Indianapolis won its first 13 regular season games of the year. The victory came three days after Colts Coach Tony Dungy returned to his team following the death the previous week of his 18-year-old son, James.

Dungy was given a game ball in the emotional Colts locker room afterward on a day the team set a franchise record for regular season victories.

The end of the regular season also meant the start of the annual NFL head coaching shuffle. Kansas City coach Dick Vermeil, who has said he plans to go back into retirement, at least went out with a victory, a 37-3 decision over the Bengals. Kansas City running back Larry Johnson gained 201 yards rushing, his ninth straight 100-yard game, the third longest streak in NFL history.

The Chiefs finished 10-6 and became the fourth team to win 10 games and not make the playoffs since the league went to a 12-team playoff format in 1990.

The Vikings' Mike Tice was the first coach to be fired this season after Minnesota won its final game, 34-10, over the Bears yesterday. Other head coaches whose jobs appear in jeopardy include New Orleans's Jim Haslett, Houston's Dom Capers and the Rams' Mike Martz.

The Lions have had an interim head coach, Dick Jauron, since team president Matt Millen fired Steve Mariucci in November and also may be shopping for a new head coach before the week is out.