PATRIOTS 28, JAGUARS 3
\nFOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady, Willie McGinest and the New England Patriots outclassed Jacksonville, setting an NFL record with 10 straight postseason victories and sending a warning to the rest of the league.\nWatch out, the Patriots look like champions again.\nPursuing an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title, New England battered the overmatched Jaguars 28-3 Saturday night. Brady, who has quarterbacked all 10 of those postseason wins, tied a playoff career high with three touchdown passes, and McGinest set an NFL postseason mark with 4 1/2 sacks.\nHe and the rest of the defense, even without NFL co-Comeback Player of the Year Tedy Bruschi, who was in uniform but didn't play because of a calf injury, kept Jacksonville from mounting much of a challenge. The Jaguars (12-5) looked like a team making its first postseason appearance since 1999, and one that faced an easy schedule in compiling such a strong record.\nNew England's NFL milestone surpassed the nine straight playoff victories by Green Bay in the 1960s and set up a road trip next weekend to Denver.\nWhile Brady had touchdown throws of 11 yards to Troy Brown, 3 to David Givens and 63 to Ben Watson -- the tight end did all the work on that one -- the defense never let Jacksonville's offense breathe. Cornerback Asante Samuel was particularly active with a 73-yard interception return early in the fourth quarter that clinched it.\nNew England had six sacks, including the 4 1/2 by McGinest, which gave him 16 in the postseason for his career, tying Bruce Smith's league record.\nThe Patriots (11-6) last lost a playoff game in 1999, to the Jaguars. Since Bill Belichick became coach in 2000, they have won three Super Bowls in four seasons, but never played in the wild-card round until now.\nAlthough they sputtered early, the Patriots were plenty sharp in dominating the second half. They haven't lost a playoff game at home since 1978.\n
REDSKINS 17, BUCCANEERS 10
\nWith Joe Gibbs back in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, the Washington Redskins looked like a Super Bowl contender again.\nWell, at least on defense.\nLaVar Arrington's interception set up Clinton Portis' 6-yard touchdown run, Sean Taylor returned a fumble 51 yards for another first-quarter score and the Redskins held on in the NFC wild-card round.\nTaylor was later ejected for spitting in the face of a Bucs player, further depleting an injury-riddled unit that held off two Tampa Bay scoring threats in the closing minutes, including a near catch in the end zone that could have tied the game with just less than three minutes to go.\nChris Simms lofted a perfect spiral to Edell Shepherd on third-and-10 from the Washington 35, but the Tampa Bay receiver lost control of the ball as he was coming down in the end zone. The Bucs asked for a video review, but the call was correctly upheld by instant replay.\nThe victory was the sixth straight for the Redskins (11-6), who advanced to a divisional round game next Saturday at Seattle (13-3). It also avenged a 36-35 loss to Tampa Bay (11-6), a game the Bucs won with Mike Alstott's 2-point conversion run with less than a minute remaining.\nGibbs, who came out of retirement two years ago, took over sole possession of third place on the career playoff wins list for a coach, improving to 17-5 in the postseason, including three Super Bowl titles during his first stint with the Redskins from 1981-92.\nMark Brunell went 7-of-15 passing for 43 yards and one interception, and Portis was limited to 53 yards rushing on 15 carries - stopping his streak of consecutive 100-yard games at five.\n
PANTHERS 23, GIANTS 0
\nThe Carolina Panthers beat the New York Giants at their own game, in their own place.\nSteve Smith scored a pair of touchdowns and Carolina rattled Eli Manning into four turnovers to lead the Panthers to a 23-0 win over New York in the first round of the NFC playoffs Sunday.\nThe Panthers used a stout defense and a strong running game - the same principles the Giants (11-6) used this season to win their first divisional title in five years.\nPlaying nearly as well as they did in their Super Bowl season two years ago, the Panthers (12-5) handed New York its first playoff shutout in 20 years.\nManning was intercepted three times, then fumbled late in the game in front of a nearly empty Giants Stadium. Tiki Barber was held to a season-low 41 yards rushing, while the Giants managed just 109 yards total offense while becoming the first home playoff team to be shut out since 1980 when the Los Angeles Rams beat Tampa Bay.\nDeShaun Foster ran for 151 yards, and Smith had 10 catches for 84 yards. Smith scored once on a 22-yard catch from Jake Delhomme, then ran a reverse in 12 yards for a second score.\nBut the game belonged to Carolina's defense, which was insulted earlier in the week when Osi Umenyiora said the Panthers had the second-best defensive ends in the NFL. The shot at Julius Peppers and Mike Rucker stung, and the entire unit responded.\nAlthough Umenyiora and Michael Strahan combined for three sacks of Delhomme, Peppers and Rucker are the ones still playing.\nCarolina forced five turnovers in all and kept New York's offense off the field. It allowed the Panthers to play a ball-control offense and keep the ball a whopping 42:45.\n
STEELERS 31, BENGALS 17
\nA low hit on Carson Palmer changed everything.\nSteelers nose tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen dived into Cincinnati's Pro Bowl quarterback at the knee during his first pass Sunday, knocking him out of the game with a torn ligament, and Pittsburgh rolled to a 31-17 victory that set up a rematch with the AFC's top team.\nPittsburgh (12-5) will play in Indianapolis Sunday, a chance to show how far it's come in the past month. Defending Super Bowl champion New England will play in Denver on Saturday night.\nThe Bengals (11-6) had boasted after winning in Pittsburgh that they were now the team to beat in the division. Given a chance to prove it with their first playoff appearance in 15 years, they lapsed into some old-style bungling with their leader gone.\nIn his second playoff go-round, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was coolly efficient 14-of-19 for 208 yards and three touchdowns without an interception.\nThe crowd of 65,870 erupted, then went sickeningly silent on the Bengals' first pass play -- one that went down as the longest in Cincinnati playoff history, and the costliest.\nPalmer held onto the ball a second longer than usual, allowing rookie Chris Henry to get open down the right sideline for a 66-yard reception. As the ball left Palmer's hand, von Oelhoffen drove his shoulder into the quarterback's left knee.\nJon Kitna replaced Palmer and kept the Bengals in the game until their inexperience and lack of a Pro Bowl quarterback started to show in the third quarter.\nFirst, the Bengals botched a field goal attempt because of a high snap. Then, Kitna knocked the ball out of his own hand while scrambling, scuttling a drive. Finally, a shanked 30-yard punt -- something out of the old Bungles days -- put the Steelers in position to take control.\nAntwaan Randle El took a direct snap in front of Roethlisberger, ran to his right, turned and threw the ball back to the quarterback. Cedrick Wilson was 10 yards beyond the confused coverage for his 43-yard touchdown catch that put the Steelers up 28-17.
