Like the German blitzkrieg crushing an outmatched Poland, the NFL’s top seeds showed last weekend that there was no more room in the playoffs for lightweights. The wild card round is usually good for a few upsets and underdog stories, but stark reality sets in come the divisional round.  Very few true underdogs are smiled upon by the football gods, and this year none were.

Last week proved once again that what happens in the regular season counts.  The Jets wanted a rematch, and the got it.  So did the Colts.  The Rams and Vikings were just in over their heads, and the NFC is down to the only two teams in that conference who can actually be dangerous to their AFC rivals. 

We’ll start with the marquee game of the round, the Patriots 20-3 beat-down of the Colts.  Peyton Manning looked like Superman during his record-setting season, but Bill Belichick must have found a good supplier of kryptonite underwear.  The Pats simply have got the Colts’ number.  There’s no other way around it.  This time it wasn’t a Manning meltdown or a particularly poor performance by the Indy defense that got the Colts beat.  New England just pushed them around all day.

Watching that game brought me to a realization about the Colts’ current model for success.  Simply put, it is a fragile one predicated on playing at home in the cozy confines of the RCA Dome.  The Colts just aren’t built to handle bad weather.  If Indy had seized home field advantage, they might have been able to ride their track-meet offense all the way to the Super Bowl, but that’s a thin margin of error.  Seems to me the Colts have got to do one of two things: change their emphasis to defense or build an outdoor stadium.  Otherwise, Colts fans are going to have to get used to exciting home games and abysmal road losses in the playoffs.  Either Manning has got to learn to be a cold-weather quarterback, as Brett Favre did, or the Colts are going to have to get it done on defense.  The Colts looked like they had never played a cold-weather game in their lives.  The offense went into a shell, praying that screens and short dump-off passes to Edgerrin James would be enough to get them down the field.  I’ve never seen a Manning-led Colts offense look so pedestrian.  The elements’ mastery of Manning just took the Indy gameplan and stomped it into the cold Gillette Stadium turf.

Speaking of being stomped into the turf, that’s what Doug Brien did to the hearts of Jets fans Saturday.  As you already know, Brien missed not one but two potential game-winning field goals in the closing minutes pf Pittsburgh’s 20-17 win over the Jets.  Those who pay attention to the Average Joe will know that he keeps close tabs on the karma that football teams and fans bring to themselves, and this one was a classic case of karmic leveling.  You’ll remember that it was a missed field goal by San Diego that opened the door for the Jets to advance to Pittsburgh in the first place.  What goes around, comes around.

But two missed field goals in one two-minute span?  That’s just unheard of, and the Jets are owed something by the gods now.  What they could have done to deserve that is beyond me, but much suffering was foisted upon the Meadowlands denizens by Mr. Brien.  On the other hand, Scott Norwood can breathe easier now, knowing that there can actually be an argument about who is the most hated kicker in New York state.

Pittsburgh is now on thin ice, as far as the breaks are concerned.  The Steelers had better play cleanly against the Pats in the AFC Championship game, because teams don’t tend to get handed third lives, especially by the defending Super Bowl champs.  I’m not saying the Steelers won’t win, but I think we all know what Adam Vinatieri is going to do if he lines up over a game-winning kick.

The NFC Championship presents some intrigue, as Mike Vick gets his first chance on an NFL stage this big.  He has a good track record in the postseason, almost single-handedly beating Florida State in the national championship game as a freshman in college, and being the first visiting quarterback to walk out of Lambeau Field with a playoff win over Green Bay.

Both Atlanta and Philadelphia looked very sharp in advancing to the Championship.  This game should prove to be more exciting than the defensive crusher set to take place in the AFC.  But it’s all preamble to the probable beat-down the AFC champ will lay in the Super Bowl.  I like McNabb and it’s obvious that the Eagles are due some satisfaction after three consecutive home-field NFC Championship game losses.  But sheer curiosity leads me to root for Atlanta, just to see what Vick can do against the superb defense he would face in the Super Bowl.