The key to the playoffs this weekend was staying away from turnovers. The teams which turned the ball over went home with long faces. That's been the history of the NFL playoffs for years and that was the case this weekend..
On Saturday, the Redskins Todd Collins played very well until Santana Moss gave up on a poorly thrown bomb by Collins. The pass was intercepted by cornerback Seattle cornerback Marcus Trufant who took it all the way back for a score. This was the turning point game and it spelled doom for the Skins. They rallied behind Collins to take the lead in the 4th quarter.
Ben Roethlinsberger engineered a comeback by the Steelers to take the lead late in the Steelers vs. Jags contest, but he fumbled the ball after being sacked and that was his 4th turnover of the game. Jags QB David Garrard then made a 32-yard run on a quarterback draw on 4th down with a little over a minute remaining in the game. This set the Jags up for a game-winning field goal and vaulted them into the next round.
In the first game on Sunday, the Giants pounded Jeff Garcia and he folded under the pressure by throwing a couple of costly interceptions. On the other hand, the Giants Eli Manning shut up the critics and skeptics by completing 20 out of 27 passes for 185 yards with 2 touchdowns and zero interceptions. The surprise of the game was the way backup running back Ahmad Bradshaw got the Giants running game going.
In the final game of the weekend, the Chargers didn't get going until the second half but that was all the time they needed to outscore the Titans. Tennessee was stacked up to stop Landanian Tomlinson and they were doing a good job in the first half, but Phillip Rivers started throwing strikes downfield in the second half.
