Los Angeles Sports

  For the first time, a few teams are officially on the brink of elimination from the playoffs (not that there was ever much doubt in Detroit or Cincinnati).  Week 11 also saw key matchups at the top of a number of divisions as well (Bears-Packers, Vikings-Buccaneers, Jets-Patriots) as well as some bruising battles and rivalry games.

AFC Playoffs After Week 11
Byes: Tennessee and Pittsburgh
Wild Card 1: Indianapolis at Denver
Wild Card 2: Baltimore at New York Jets

NFC Playoffs After Week 11
Byes: New York Giants and Carolina Panthers
Wild Card 1: Tampa Bay at Chicago
Wild Card 2: Washington at Arizona

New York Jets (7-3)              34
New England Patriots (6-4)  31 (OT)
The Jets finally got to look at Brett Favre at his best.  Favre was nearly perfect (26-33 for 258 and two touchdowns) as he led the Jets on a game winning overtime drive in New England to take control of the AFC East all by themselves. 

Denver Broncos (6-4)  24
Atlanta Falcons (6-4)    20
Denver scored a late touchdown to win in Atlanta despite missing three starting linebackers, a starting cornerback, and their top six runningbacks due to injury. 

Cincinnati Bengals (1-8-1)    13
Philadelphia Eagles (5-4-1)  13 (OT)
Shayne Graham missed a 47 yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining in overtime and this game mercifully ended in the first NFL tie in six years.  Donovan McNabb will be looking for ice after throwing the ball 58 times.

Green Bay Packers (5-5)  37
Chicago Bears (5-5)           3
Ryan Grant rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown as the Packers destroyed the Bears and assumed control of the tie-breakers and now sit atop a three-team logjam at the top of the NFC North.

Indianapolis Colts (6-4)  33
Houston Texans (3-7)     27
Another week, another tough loss for Houston.  Indianapolis has won three in-a-row and is in prime Wild Card position with their 5-2 record in the AFC.

New Orleans Saints (5-5)  30
Kansas City Chiefs (1-9)   20
The Saints won their first road game of the season over the Chiefs.  Drew Brees was his usual efficient, productive self, going 25/36 for 266 yards, one touchdown and one interception.  Dwayne Bowe had two touchdown catches for the Chiefs.

Miami Dolphins (6-4)    17
Oakland Raiders (2-8)  15
The Dolphins took over second place in the AFC East (they hold a tie-breaker with New England) as they became the latest team to hold the bottom-feeding Raiders without an offensive touchdown.  Rookie Dan Carpenter nailed a game-winning 38-yard field goal with 38 seconds remaining. 

New York Giants (9-1)    30
Baltimore Ravens (6-4)  10
Brandon Jacobs was all the Giants needed to pile up a 20-0 lead after their first three possessions.  They hardly used him after that as they pounded the Ravens front-seven all day, racking up 207 yards on the ground against the NFL's best run defense.  Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 96 yards for Big Blue.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-3)  19
Minnesota Vikings (5-5)          13
It looked as though Tampa Bay wanted to give this one away late, but they were able to bottle up Adrian Peterson (85 yards, 0 touchdowns) and held on to remain perfect at home.  Minnesota falls into three-way tie at the top of the AFC North, but is third due to tie-breakers. 

Carolina Panthers (8-2)  31
Detroit Lions (0-10)         22
Daunte Culpepper lunged for the goal line on a two-point conversion that would have tied the game with 6:05 remaining and that was as close as the Lions would get to their first win and pulling off a massive upset on the road.  Jake Delhomme struggle again and only threw for 98 yards on 10 of 19 attempts.

San Francisco (3-7)   35
St. Louis Rams (2-8)  16
The 49ers picked up right where the Jets left off last week - spending a lot of time in the Rams' endzone.  The 49ers jumped out to a 35-3 halftime lead behind two Frank Gore rushing touchdowns, another from quarterback Shaun Hill, and two more through the air from Hill. 

Arizona Cardinals (7-3)  26
Seattle Seahawks (2-8)  20
Matt Hasselbeck and Deion Branch returned to the line up for Seattle, but they didn't make much of a difference for the Seahawk's offense.  Hasselbeck threw three interceptions.  Meanwhile Kurt Warner continued his assault on the the league, throwing his club record fourth straight 300-yard game and nearly going for 400 (395)!  Anquan Boldin had 13 catches for 186 yards and Larry Fitzgerald had 10 catches for 151 yards for the Cards.

Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3)   11
San Diego Chargers (4-6)  10
The Chargers may have been slowed on the game's final drive by the snowy weather in Pittsburgh, or maybe it was Pittsburgh keeping the San Diego defense on the field for over 35 minutes.  Either way, San Diego held serve in a bruising field-position battle until the game's final moments when Pittsburgh knifed down the field easily for a game-winning 32 yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining.  This is the first 11-10 final in NFL history.

Tennessee Titans (10-0)      24
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-6)  14
Jacksonville jumped out to a 14-3 halftime lead on the strength of Maurice Jones-Drew's two touchdowns.  But Tennessee wasn't ready to surrender their undefeated status and Kerry Collins put together three second half  touchdown drives and the Titans defense pitched a shutout to come back and win. 

Dallas Cowboys (6-4)           14
Washington Redskins (6-4)  10
Tony Romo's return to the lineup resulted in a huge divisional road win, but Romo was far from his Pro Bowl form.  The Cowboys offense didn't do much, but it did feel like they had big play capability again.  However, can anyone catch the Gaints?

Cleveland Browns (4-6)  29
Buffalo Bills (5-5)            27
"Wide right!  Bills lose!"  Familiar?  Brady Quinn lived up to his billing Monday night as the he kept the Browns in the game and positioned them for that 56-yard bomb from Phil Dawson to win it in the games final minutes.

Check out the updated Power Rankings slideshow!