Wild-card weekend brings some of the wildest games of the NFL playoff carousel. The upcoming games likely will provide drama and excitement the way these have since 2000. The games focused on happened in regular seasons starting with the year 2000.
2000: Dolphins 23, Colts 17 (OT)
Lamar Smith carried the ball a playoff record 40 times for 209 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown run in overtime, for Miami Dolphins. Jay Fiedler overcame three first-half interceptions to lead a comeback from a 14-point deficit in the second half. Miami tied the score in the final minute of regulation.
2000: Saints 31, Rams 28
Willie Jackson caught a trio of touchdown passes from Aaron Brooks as New Orleans built a 31-7 lead in the fourth quarter. Kurt Warner threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter and ran for another that brought the Rams within a field goal. St. Louis forced a Saints punt with 1:51 remaining. Toby Gowin got off a short kick that Az-Zahir Hakim muffed, New Orleans recovered and the Saints had the first playoff win in franchise history.
2002: Steelers 36, Browns 33
Tommy Maddox, the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year, led one of Pittsburgh’s greatest comebacks by throwing three touchdown passes in the final 19 minutes as the Steelers rallied from a 17-point deficit to stun the Browns. Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala’s 3-yard touchdown run with 54 seconds left secured the victory.
2002: 49ers 39, Giants 38
The 49ers trailed 38-14 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter, but scored 25 straight points. Garcia hit Tai Streets with a 13-yard touchdown pass with a minute left, and the Giants botched the snap on a 41-yard field-goal attempt as time expired. At the time, the 49ers’ rally was the biggest in NFC playoff history. Only Buffalo’s 32-point comeback in a 41-38 victory over Houston in January 1993 was bigger.
2003: Packers 33, Seahawks 27 (OT)
Seattle won the coin toss for overtime, and Matt Hasselbeck told the official,
“We want the ball, and we’re going to score.” The Seahawks got the ball, but punted. After Seattle got the ball back, it was Al Harris, a six-year veteran in his first season with the Packers, who scored on a 52-yard interception return. Seattle had tied it with 51 seconds remaining on Shaun Alexander’s third 1-yard touchdown run. Packers kicker Ryan Longwell was short on a 47-yard field goal attempt as regulation expired.
2004: Jets 20, Chargers 17 (OT)
Doug Brien kicked a 28-yard field goal with 5 seconds left in
overtime to give the Jets a victory over the Chargers. The winning drive started on the New York 30 after Chargers rookie Nate Kaeding was wide right on a 40-yard field goal try with 4:19 left in overtime.
2006: Seahawks 21, Cowboys 20
Tony Romo’s bobble on the snap of a field-goal try with 1:19 left led to a
scramble that ended 2 yards shy of the end zone and a yard short of
a first down, preserving a victory for the Seahawks. Romo caught the snap cleanly but fumbled the ball as he tried to place it down. Romo picked up the ball and darted left. He never reached the end zone — or the first-down marker. Romo was stopped at the 2 on a shoestring tackle by Jordan Babineaux.
2006: Eagles 23, Giants 20
David Akers hit a 38-yard field goal with no time remaining to give
Philadelphia a victory. The Giants had overcome a second-and-30 on their tying scoring drive as Eli Manning completed consecutive passes of 18, 14 and 11 yards to Plaxico Burress. But the Eagles drove right down the field, setting up Akers’ winning kick.
2008: Chargers 23, Colts 17 (OT)
Fifty years after the Baltimore Colts won the first overtime game in league history by the same score over the New York Giants for the NFL title, Indianapolis wasn’t so fortunate. It was victimized by Darren Sproles, who rushed 23 times for 105 yards, caught five passes for 45 yards, had 106 yards on four kickoff returns and 72 on three punt returns. Given more playing time because of LaDainian Tomlinson’s groin injury, Sproles ran 22 yards for the winning score 6:20 into overtime.
2009: Cardinals 51, Packers 45 (OT)
Karlos Dansby returned Aaron Rodgers’ fumble 17 yards for a touchdown to give the Cardinals a victory in a wild, wild-card game. The previous high for combined points in a postseason game was 95 in Philadelphia’s 58-37 win over Detroit on Dec. 30, 1995. Arizona and Green Bay combined for 1,024 yards.
2010: Seahawks 41, Saints 36
Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck threw four touchdown passes and Marshawn Lynch scored on an electrifying 67-yard run with 3:22 left to clinch the first playoff victory by a team with a losing record in the regular season. The Seahawks (8-9) held a 34-20 early in the fourth quarter before Drew Brees looked ready to lead a Saint comeback. But Lynch broke a half-dozen tackles for his TD as Beast Mode was born.
2011: Broncos 29, Steelers 23 (OT)
Tim Tebow connected with Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime and Denver stunned Pittsburgh. Tebow had done next to nothing in the second half after a 20-point explosion in the second quarter. But when OT started he found Thomas.
2013: Colts 45, Chiefs 44
Andrew Luck threw three of his four touchdowns in the second half, scored on a fumble return and connected with a wide-open T.Y. Hilton on a 64-yard TD pass to give the Colts an improbable victory after trailing 38-10 in the third quarter.
2013: Saints 26, Eagles 24
Shayne Graham kicked a 32-yard field goal on the final play to lift New Orleans. Graham, with his 10th team after being signed by the Saints less than three weeks earlier, also connected from 36, 46 and 35 yards.
2013: 49ers 23, Packers 20
Colin Kaepernick scrambled 11 yards out of trouble on a third-and-8 to set up Phil Dawson’s 33-yard field goal as time expired. Kaepernick threw for 227 yards, including a 28-yard TD pass to Vernon Davis, and ran for another 98.
2015: Seahawks 10, Vikings 9
Blair Walsh’s 27-yard field goal attempt into the wind hooked left with 22 seconds remaining and handed the Seahawks a victory over the stunned Vikings in below-zero weather that tied for the third-coldest NFL game on record. Walsh became the fourth Vikings kicker to miss a field goal in the past 20 postseasons. Morten Andersen had a 27-yard field goal blocked in the 2004 wild-card round, Gary Anderson missed a 38-yard field goal wide left in the 1998 NFC Championship Game, and Eddie Murray missed a 48-yarder in the 1997 wild-card round.
2015: Steelers 18, Bengals 16
Chris Boswell kicked a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining as Pittsburgh pulled out a victory. Pittsburgh had moved into field-goal position thanks to consecutive 15-yard penalties on the Bengals, one on linebacker Vontaze Burfict and another on cornerback Adam Jones. Burfict dropped his shoulder and hit a defenseless Antonio Brown in the helmet as the All-Pro receiver came across the middle, and Jones lost his cool after getting into it with Steelers assistant coach Joey Porter when Porter came onto the field as Brown was being tended to by trainers. Boswell drilled his fourth field goal on the next snap to give the Steelers their first playoff victory since the 2010 AFC championship.
2017: Titans 22, Chiefs 21
Marcus Mariota led Tennessee to three second-half touchdowns, throwing one of his TD passes to himself , and the Titans rallied from a 21-3 deficit for their first playoff win in 14 years. Only two road teams had rallied from at least 18 down to win a playoff game in NFL history. The Cowboys came back from 21-3 down in the first half to beat the 49ers 30-28 in December 1972, and the Lions came back from 27-7 in the second half to beat the 49ers in December 1957.
2018: Cowboys 24, Seahawks 22
Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 137 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, and Dallas hung on. The loss ended a run of nine straight victories in playoff openers for the Seahawks. The Elias Sports Bureau stated it was the longest streak in NFL history.
2018: Eagles 16, Bears 15
Double doink. Former Eagles kicker Cody Parkey hit the left upright and then the crossbar with a field-goal attempt from 43 yards with 10 seconds remaining, silencing the Soldier Field crowd. Nick Foles had hit Golden Tate with a 2-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 56 seconds remaining.
