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NEW YORK -- History says teams that go to the Super Bowl of the National Football League are teams playing their best at the end of the regular season.
If history is right, get ready for a Kansas City-Detroit Super Bowl.
However, with Dallas, San Francisco, Buffalo and San Diego still alive, it could, in fact, be the same old song.
The playoffs begin Saturday with Miami at Buffalo and Detroit at Philadelphia. Atlanta is at Green Bay and Indianapolis at San Diego on Sunday. Then it's on to Kansas City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Dallas the next week.
Detroit, on the road, is a 1 1/2-point favorite. That rarely happens in the playoffs and indicates how far the Lions have come.
Not only did they make the playoffs, they might even make the Super Bowl. Dallas and San Francisco remain the NFC favorites, but Detroit and Green Bay are closer now than they've been all season.
Detroit has won seven straight. Teams that finish on that kind of roll often carry it into the playoffs -- the '85 Bears, '86 Giants and several San Francisco teams, to name a few. But those were clearly dominant teams.
Detroit is certainly dominant on offense, with Barry Sanders running, Herman Moore, Brett Perriman and Johnnie Morton catching.
But the Lions must win three games on the road to get to the Super Bowl, a task that's been accomplished only by the 1985 Patriots, and the Lions are OK at best on defense.
The Atlanta Falcons went to the wire Sunday, edging San Francisco 28-27 and killing the playoff chances of Chicago, Minnesota and St. Louis in the process.
The 49er loss, combined with a 37-13 Dallas win over Arizona on Monday night, cost San Francisco home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Atlanta overcame a record day by Jerry Rice, who caught 12 passes for 153 yards, giving him 942 receptions for his career, ahead of Art Monk's 940, and 1,848 yards this season breaking Charlie Hennigan's yardage mark of 1,746. Falcons placekicker Morten Andersen hit from 52 and 59 yards in the first half to set a season mark for field goals of 50 or more yards with eight.
Few people take the AFC champion Chiefs seriously, so five of the six teams -- scratch Indianapolis, but add underachieving Miami -- may have a shot at the Super Bowl.
Yet Kansas City was 13-3, best in the NFL, and held Seattle to 89 yards Sunday, a week after the Seahawks scored 44 against the Raiders.
Pittsburgh is the consensus favorite.
The Steelers won seven straight after Bill Cowher and Ron Erhardt opened up the offense. They learned a lesson in overconfidence last year by losing the title game at home to San Diego.
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
Chiefs, Lions Rolling as Playoffs Approach
28 December 1995
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