There won't be a Super Bowl rematch

when the AFC and NFC champs meet at Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6. The Seattle Seahawks and New York Jets made sure of that Saturday with victories on the opening day of the NFL playoffs.
Seattle, winners of the NFC West with a 7-9 record, overcame huge odds to take down the defending champion New Orleans Saints with a 41-36 win at Qwest Field. The Seahawks, 10-point underdogs, overcame an early 10-0 deficit to register one of the biggest upsets in NFL postseason history.
Matt Hasselbeck tossed four touchdowns, two to tight end John Carlson who also recovered a late onsides kick attempt to secure the victory. Marshawn Lynch broke tackle after tackle on a 67-yard TD run with a little more than three minutes remaining in the contest to give Seattle a 41-30 lead. Lynch finished the afternoon with 131 yards on 19 carries, the late scoring jaunt giving the Seahawks a 149-77 advantage over the Saints in the rushing yards column.
The loss left New Orleans 0-4 in playoff road games. Quarterback Drew Brees did everything he could to put the Saints in the winner's circle, completing 39-of-60 passes for over 400 yards and two scores.
Seattle now awaits the outcome of Sunday's NFC wild-card matchup between the Eagles and Packers in Philadelphia. A Green Bay win will send the Seahawks to Chicago next Sunday (Jan. 16); an Eagles win means Seattle will face the Falcons in Atlanta on Saturday (Jan. 15).
The Seahawks did not face the Eagles during the regular season and lost at home to the Falcons in Week 15, 34-18. Atlanta was a 5½-point favorite in that contest that went 'over' the 46½-point mark. Seattle has been a great friend to 'over' bettors with a 12-4-1 record to the high side.
A few hours after Seattle snuffed New Orleans' hopes, the Jets used a last-second field goal to upset the Colts on their home turf, 17-16. A scoreless first quarter gave way to a 7-0 Indianapolis lead at the half, courtesy of a Peyton Manning to Pierre Garcon 57-yard scoring strike. LaDainian Tomlinson scored twice in the second half on 1-yard runs to give New York a 14-10 lead with 10 minutes left. But a pair of Adam Vinatieri field goals, one a 50-yarder with just under a minute remaining in the contest, put the Colts back in front by a 16-14 count.
As it turned out, 53 seconds was long enough for Mark Sanchez to pass the Jets down the field and set up Nick Folk's 32-yard kick as time expired for the win. The winning kick was initially set up by Antonio Cromartie's 47-yard kickoff return following Vinatieri's field goal that gave Indy a short-lived lead.
The triumph avenged New York's loss on the same Lucas Oil Stadium field to the Colts in last season's AFC Championship. A two-point underdog to Indianapolis, the Jets saw their spread record move to 10-7 and the final score marked just the fifth 'under' in 17 New York battles this season.
Victory also means the Jets will next face the difficult task of winning in New England next Sunday against the top-seeded Patriots. The Pats were a perfect 8-0 in Foxboro, going 4-3-1 against the spread. New York and New England split their regular season meetings, each winning at home. It was no contest when the division foes met at Gillette Stadium in Week 13, a 45-3 rout by the Patriots as four-point chalk.