NFL: Wild Card Preview

COWBOYS/EAGLES

ARLINGTON, Texas -- If you were hoping for another tight NFC East battle with a lot on the line, Cowboys Stadium wasn't the place to be Sunday afternoon. The Cowboys not only locked up a home playoff game next Saturday night, but they thoroughly embarrassed an Eagles team that had won its previous six games.

I had my doubts that the Cowboys could beat the Eagles three times in the same season, but that was before I observed their first possession Sunday. Quite simply, Dallas has become the most complete team in the NFC -- and it couldn't have happened at a better time.

This was a team that's spent the past 13 seasons fading down the stretch, but after Sunday's 24-0 beatdown of the Eagles, the Cowboys should be the most confident team in the playoffs. They've already won on the road in New Orleans and let's not act like the Vikings are rolling again simply because they disposed of a dying Giants team.

I realize that a different Eagles team could show up next weekend, but for now this appears to be an excellent matchup for the Cowboys. From the opening snap Sunday, Dallas was by far the more physical team. Running back Marion Barber, a man who hasn't embraced daylight this season, had three carries for 58 yards on the first possession. It set the tone for one of the most punishing performances of the season on both sides of the ball.

I realize that Andy Reid has a better playoff pedigree than Wade Phillips, but it became painfully obvious Sunday that he's outmanned against this Cowboys team. Eagles apologists might point to a botched snap in the second quarter as the turning point in the game, but they already trailed 14-0 and a score would've only delayed the inevitable.

For all I know, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones may still be conducting interviews in the home locker room. He gleefully admitted that he'd already "drawn up the paperwork" for Phillips' new contract, although he stopped short of offering his coach a pen. Even Phillips gave himself a pat on the back after the game, joking that the Cowboys' defensive coordinator "did a good job." And with all the grief this man has taken for his late-season failures, who could blame him for taking a swipe at his critics?

The Cowboys simply got sick of being everyone's favorite December punching bag and came out swinging the past three weeks. And when things started to go south last month with losses to the Giants and Chargers, Phillips continued to believe in his players.

"We're a real strong-minded team," he said after the game. "We're real confident right now. We said it going into New Orleans ... They act like champs. They play like champs. I think that's a big part of it."

I fully expect that Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott will come up with a different game plan on Saturday, but I'm not sure it will matter. The Cowboys were so successful in the running game early that McDermott asked his safeties to play closer to the line of scrimmage. That opened up the middle of the field for quick slants to Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton, who combined for 189 yards and a touchdown.

The other issue is that the Eagles don't have anyone who can cover Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten. He finished with six catches for 76 yards and a touchdown. Linebacker Will Witherspoon had no hope against him and safety Quintin Mikell didn't fare much better. There's also the factor of cornerback Asante Samuel constantly gambling for interceptions. He caused one interception but his risky ways led to Witten's 10-yard touchdown and a 40-yard catch by Austin.

On defense, the Cowboys shut down one of the most prolific offenses in the league. It's the first time in club history the Cowboys have recorded back-to-back shutouts. The Eagles hadn't been shut out since Dec. 5, 2005, against Seattle. The immortal Mike McMahon was under center for that game.

Cowboys linebacker Bradie James sacked Donovan McNabb on the Eagles' first possession and the quarterback never found a rhythm. Even when DeSean Jackson beat Terence Newman on a deep route, McNabb overthrew him by 5 yards.

Reid had so much respect for the Cowboys' defense that he used a lot of maximum-protection schemes. That meant that McNabb had fewer targets, making it easier on the Cowboys' secondary. Jackson may be one of the most feared receivers in the league, but he has come up empty in two games against the Cowboys this season. McNabb attempted eight throws in his direction, but Jackson had only had three catches for 47 yards. The Cowboys doubled him at times, but they didn't do anything drastic.

"I think teams think too much about stopping Jackson," said Cowboys cornerback Mike Jenkins, who's very familiar with the Eagles wide receiver because the two have trained together in the past. "You have to focus on staying over the top with him. If you start obsessing about him, you can get in trouble."

Crayton said he expects to see a completely different Eagles team this weekend. He estimated that McDermott only blitzed about 40 percent of the time and he expected that number to be closer to 60 percent on Saturday night.

"We have to almost treat them like a different team," Crayton said. "It will be the same personnel, but I think we'll see a much different approach."

And while I realize the Cowboys are perfectly capable of losing this game, I don't see it happening.

PACKERS/CARDINALS

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Sly grins bordering on smirks flashed across Ken Whisenhunt's face more than once during his postgame news conference Sunday.

The Arizona Cardinals' coach seemed to know something the scoreboard failed to reveal at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Whisenhunt dismissed suggestions a 33-7 defeat to Green Bay would mean anything when the teams meet again in the wild-card round.

"I think our team is ready to play in the playoffs," Whisenhunt said.

The Cardinals were not ready to play Sunday even before Whisenhunt removed key starters. Green Bay led 14-0 when Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner played his final snap late in the first quarter. Back in August, the Packers led the Cardinals 38-10 at halftime when both teams played their starters in the third exhibition game.

"We're not worried about that," receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. "When we come to play and are playing on all cylinders, we can play with anybody. I'm confident of that and I know everybody else in this locker room feels the same way."

As in August, Arizona didn't do much game planning. The Packers presumably didn't do much, either, but they left QB Aaron Rodgers in the game through their final possession of the third quarter. The Cardinals played vanilla defense and failed to get much pressure. They never sacked Rodgers.

"That was difficult," Whisenhunt said, "but our hope is that will pay off for us next week."

It should.

The Cardinals rely heavily on scheming to succeed with a 38-year-old quarterback and a defense without a dominant outside pass-rusher. Warner sets up opponents and beats them by anticipating throws. Few quarterbacks look better when everything is working. Few look as bad on a rough day.

Warner didn't play long enough Sunday for anyone to say anything meaningful about how he might perform in a week. He completed 4 of 6 passes for 31 yards.

On defense, 13 players contributed to the Cardinals' 42-sack total during the regular season. Those are the marks of a team that must prepare well to win.

Unlike last season, when the unproven Cardinals limped into the playoffs after a rough December, this team entered Week 17 with three victories in its past four games and a Super Bowl experience on its résumé. The Packers were the upstart team looking to keep their momentum.

"I'm not going to say we didn't try to win," nose tackle Bryan Robinson said, "but we are looking at the big picture. If this happens next week, then bring that same question to me and I will try to dissect it for you."

Watching Pro Bowl CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie leave the field on a cart less than 2 minutes into the game surely didn't help the Cardinals' mindset. By then, Arizona already knew the Vikings had beaten the Giants, ending Arizona's outside shot at securing the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs.

"We didn't give our best effort today and that probably had something to do with it," Warner said.

Injuries worried the Cardinals more than their performance.

Rodgers-Cromartie suffered a bruised kneecap. Receiver Anquan Boldin suffered knee and ankle injuries after surpassing 1,000 yards for the fifth time in his career. Defensive end Calais Campbell suffered a thumb injury.

The Cardinals did not yet know the status of any of the players for the playoffs. They need all three.

Rodgers-Cromartie gives them a chance against Donald Driver, Greg Jennings and the Packers' explosive passing attack. Boldin gives Arizona the best chance to target Packers nickelback Jarrett Bush, who has struggled. Campbell, tied for the team lead with 7.0 sacks, gives Arizona its best chance at pressuring Rodgers.

Take away any one of those players and the Cardinals could have problems. They could have problems anyway.

Green Bay has won seven of its final eight games. Rodgers has played at a higher level than Warner, throwing four more touchdown passes and seven fewer interceptions. Driver and Jennings have combined for 11 receptions covering at least 40 yards, 10 more than Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

Unlike Fitzgerald, who stayed in the game to pad his stats, Boldin said he wanted out of the game one series earlier. Such was the conflicted nature of this performance all the way around.

"We were impressed with their team," Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "Hopefully, we can keep up with them this weekend and hopefully we do a lot of studying and a lot of things so we can try to keep the game close."

Those final eight words told us Dockett was facetious. Like Whisenhunt, he wasn't reading anything into what happened Sunday.

Were the Cardinals disappointed?

"I guess, a tad bit," Dockett said. "But the game didn't really mean anything. I think they played their starters a little more than intended. At the end of the day, if they want to celebrate it, they can go ahead. We know we have some work to do and our main focus is [wild-card] weekend."

Drawing hard conclusions from any single Cardinals performance has proven futile in the recent past.

The Cardinals made it through the 2009 season without suffering back-to-back defeats, a first for the organization since 1975.

Expect this Arizona team to bounce back.

JETS/BENGALS

That's right. They backed in.

But had the Jets not qualified for the postseason, ridicule would've been louder. The team with the NFL's best defense and top rushing offense should be a lock for the playoffs, and anything less would warrant gobs of negative criticism.

So it can't be both.

Either the Jets deserved to get into the playoffs, or they didn't.

The Jets need to make no apologies for what they've accomplished.

Happenstance, destiny, whatever you want to label it, they pulled it off Sunday night with a resounding 37-0 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at the Meadowlands.

The Jets (9-7), with a bombastic rookie head coach and a capricious rookie quarterback, made the bracket. They'll face the host Bengals again, this time at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Paul Brown Stadium.

"When you look at the body of work, you see that we can do some special things," Jets fullback Tony Richardson said. "Most teams that do have the No. 1 defense and the No. 1 rushing attack and play great on special teams generally do make the playoffs.

"No matter how we got in, and people might always want to put an asterisk by it, we just have to get ready to work next week."

And that's the real punch line. The Jets will convene this week not to clean out their lockers like 20 other NFL teams will, but to get ready for another game.

It took an outrageous sequence of fortuitous events for the Jets to get in. AccuScore pegged the Jets' chances of breaking into the playoffs at 11.6 percent entering their Week 16 game against the undefeated Indianapolis Colts. But the Jets took a third-quarter lead in Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Colts pulled Peyton Manning.

Voila, a Jets victory.

But that wasn't nearly enough to swing the door so wide open that all the Jets needed to do in their regular-season finale was beat an opponent that already had clinched the AFC North and could rest its players.

Also in Week 16, the Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars all lost. Everything that could have gone right for the Jets most improbably did.

"We definitely got some good breaks," Jets kicker Jay Feely said. "Unfortunately, we had some breaks go against us earlier in the season, or else we could've been in a much better situation.

"But this is a team that has a lot of character. We never lost faith in ourselves. This locker room was never -- in any way -- fractured at all. That's one of the reasons we were able to stay together when we lost critical games."

Feely would know. The Jets seemed to have bottomed out with a heartbreaking Week 15 home defeat to the Atlanta Falcons. The field-goal unit butchered three field goal attempts and the defense gave up a last-second fourth-and-goal touchdown to lose 10-7.

After the game, Jets coach Rex Ryan suffered a bout of premature elimination, declaring his team mathematically out from the playoff race.

"So when you get a couple breaks, you've got to be thankful for them," Feely said. "Now that we're in the playoffs, I think we’ve got as good of a chance as anybody to go all the way."

Teams don't have to be elite to get into the playoffs. The Arizona Cardinals were dismissed as undeserving a year ago, when they won the NFC West at 9-7. Then they went to the Super Bowl and came darn close to winning the whole thing.

"To get to the Super Bowl, it's all about hitting your stride at the right time," said outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who signed with the Jets last year after five seasons with the Cardinals. "Now, whether or not we're doing that, I don't know. We're playing well. But it's about finishing the season well in December.

"If you can get some momentum, man, anything can happen. ... If we can continue to stick to our formula, the sky's the limit."

Without star nose tackle Kris Jenkins, the Jets' defense finished atop the league in several categories. They allowed only 252.3 yards a game, 32.1 yards fewer than the next stingiest team. They gave up an average of 15.5 first downs a game and a league-low 163.9 passing yards a game. The Bengals had zero net passing yards Sunday night.

The Dallas Cowboys edged out the Jets in average scoring defense by one-tenth of a point.

The Jets' run game has been relentless behind Thomas Jones. The Jets amassed 257 rushing yards on the Bengals, giving them an average of 172.3 for the season.

The lone variable to the Jets' yo-yoing success has been greenhorn quarterback Mark Sanchez.

The Jets have figured out a way to marginalize him within their run-dominated offense. Sanchez completed 8 of 16 attempts for 63 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions Sunday night. In the second half, he had one pass for 9 yards.

Still, the Jets rolled up 37 points. The Bengals (10-6) scratched running back Cedric Benson and pulled several key players for the second half, but that final score will give the Bengals something to think about for the rematch.

"I think it's very tough to regroup after you got physically manhandled like that," Feely said. "When you have three plays in the first quarter and a half and we physically dominated them, it's very hard to regroup.

"They're a good team, and they've done a great job all year of overcoming adversity through all the tough times that they've had, so I'm sure they'll regroup and it'll be a great game. But we definitely sent a message."

The Jets validated themselves, not just Sunday night, but throughout the season.

They'll be the only team in the postseason with a rookie quarterback, but the fact they were able to overcome that liability shows they're an opponent to be reckoned with.

"All that matters is that we are in the postseason," right tackle Damien Woody said. "You earn everything you get in this league. Nothing is given to you." 

RAVENS/PATRIOTS

Just when it appeared the Patriots might be a team that nobody wanted to face in the playoffs, they were dealt a devastating blow Sunday in a season finale that was approached as a hopeful momentum-builder but turned into a challenging obstacle course when receiver Wes Welker, in agonizing pain, was carted to the locker room with a towel over his face after seriously injuring his left knee.

Welker, who was injured when he tried to plant his foot after making a catch, tore both his anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament, a source close to the situation told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter, but is scheduled to undergo more testing Monday. The diagnosis would presumably end his season.

How do the Patriots overcome the loss of Welker, who broke his own franchise record with 123 catches this season and racked up 1,348 yards receiving?

In a year in which it seems there has been a new question each week to define the season, this is the latest. Rookie Julian Edelman will step in -- he did so admirably in Sunday's 34-27 loss to the Texans, with 10 catches for 103 yards -- but there is simply only one Welker. To say this is a damaging blow to the Patriots' championship hopes would be an understatement.

"You're heartbroken for Wes because he's so important to our team, he's probably the heart and soul of our team," cornerback Shawn Springs said.

Little else needs to be said. Springs nailed it.

Brett Davis/US PresswireWes Welker led the NFL with 123 receptions this season.

Welker's toughness and spirit has been one constant in an up-and-down season, and the quietness in the Patriots' locker room reflected that something major had just rocked the foundation of the club. Players talked about turning the page and being excited for the playoffs -- and perhaps the collective group will find a way to channel the mental toughness required to move on -- but the day couldn't have been much worse for them.

It was bad enough to lose a game when leading 27-13 in the fourth quarter, which represented another major collapse. In the Patriots' six losses this season, they have been outscored 65-17 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Add in the loss of the NFL's leading receiver, and any momentum the team had generated last week in a solid 35-7 pasting of the Jaguars was decisively thwarted.

"It's football and guys go down all the time -- on our team, on other teams -- and it sucks, it's unfortunate," tight end Benjamin Watson said. "When you are a team, you have 10 other guys and when one goes down, the other guy fills in and the train keeps on moving. That's what we're going to try to do."

The words were what one would expect to hear, but in other corners of the room, actions spoke just as loudly.

Quarterback Tom Brady, who has been as accessible as ever this season, was presumably so frustrated at the turn of events that he declined to answer questions from reporters. A chair was placed in his empty locker and he was long gone by the time reporters entered the room after a lengthy delay. That left backup Brian Hoyer to do the talking.

Brady will likely clean things up Monday in his weekly radio interview and probably explain that he didn't want to say anything he would regret. It was that type of day.

Perhaps no Welker moment best captures what he means to the Patriots than one from a few weeks ago, when the team was slogging through a listless game against the Panthers and he absorbed a big hit. Springing to his feet, he raised his hands in the air and the quiet home stadium erupted to provide a spark that led to victory.

It was a situation in which one of the smallest players on the team (5-foot-9, 185 pounds) put the team on his back. The Patriots won't be able to count on that any longer, so how does a team recover when it loses its heart and soul?

That's what we'll find out next weekend in the playoffs.

Tom Brady without Wes Welker in 2009

A look at Tom Brady's passing numbers with (including three pass attempts Sunday vs. the Texans) and without Wes Welker in the lineup.

	With Welker	Without Welker
Comp. percentage	68.0	56.3
Yards per att.	8.3	5.9
TD-INT	27-11	1-2
Passer rating	102.9	68.9

The seemed to be gaining momentum heading into the playoffs. Then they lost Wes Welker to a knee injury. Welker's season is likely over; is the Pats', too? Game recap »

Via (www.espn.com)