Which Teams Have Clinched Nfl Playoffs

The final playoff spots are being claimed and the postseason seedings are falling into place on the last day of the NFL regular season Sunday.

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The top seeds in each conference already had been determined before Sunday’s play began. The Baltimore Ravens had clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed. The San Francisco 49ers had secured the NFC’s top seed. They will have opening-round byes next weekend and home-field advantage through the conference championship games, if they advance that far.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Sunday to clinch the NFC South title. The Dallas Cowboys secured the NFC East crown and the conference’s No. 2 seed. The Jacksonville Jaguars failed in their bid to win the AFC South, handing the division title to the Houston Texans and clinching playoff spots for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills. The Green Bay Packers reached the postseason as a wild-card entry in the NFC. The Bills beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night to win the AFC East, dropping the Dolphins into a wild-card spot.

What was resolved Sunday?

– Cowboys win the NFC East: The Cowboys struggled just a bit in the game’s early going but then took control to beat the Washington Commanders handily, 38-10, Sunday at FedEx Field. They benefited from the Eagles’ late-season downward spiral to secure the No. 2 seed in the NFC. The Cowboys will host the Packers in an opening-round game next weekend, as Coach Mike McCarthy will face his former team.

“The drama of it, I’m sure you guys will love,” McCarthy said Sunday evening. “I will not participate. . . . It’s playoff time. It doesn’t matter who we play, to be honest with you.”

The Eagles lost in the same time slot late Sunday afternoon, so the Cowboys could have backed into the NFC East crown even with a listless performance against the Commanders. But they remained on a roll heading into the postseason.

“That’s the way we wanted it,” McCarthy said.

The Cowboys last won the division two years ago. They last reached the Super Bowl in the 1995 season. Last month, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called the team’s failure to win a championship in the 2007 season, when it went 13-3 with Tony Romo at quarterback, his “biggest disappointment since I’ve been with the Cowboys.” He acknowledged then that this season represents the Cowboys’ best Super Bowl opportunity since.

They have spent this season tantalizing their fans with the possibility of postseason glory. Too often in the past, they have failed to deliver on such promise. They have to hope things will be different this time based on the play of quarterback Dak Prescott, the exploits of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and a sometimes-overpowering defense. The Cowboys are on a 16-game winning streak at home, and now are looking at the prospect of playing at AT&T Stadium through at least the divisional round of the postseason.

“We’re at home,” star pass rusher Micah Parsons said in the Cowboys’ postgame locker room Sunday. “So I feel like we’re the team to beat right now.”

Bills win the AFC East: The Bills resembled a championship team at times this season. Just as often, they looked nothing like that. But they are right back in the Super Bowl-contending mix. They won the AFC East for a fourth straight season and seized the No. 2 seed in the AFC by defeating the Dolphins, 21-14, Sunday night in Miami Gardens, Fla.

The Bills will host the seventh-seeded Steelers next weekend in Orchard Park, N.Y. The Dolphins dropped to the No. 6 seed as a wild card and will travel to Kansas City to play the third-seeded Chiefs.

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“I think that’s a little bit of a microcosm of our season,” quarterback Josh Allen told NBC after the game. “Didn’t play our best ball early on. You know, wish I had a couple throws back early. … This team didn’t flinch. I’m so proud of how resilient this group is.”

It was a typically uneven performance Sunday night for Allen and the Bills. Allen committed three turnovers, throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble, but threw two touchdown passes. He threw for 359 yards and ran for 67 more.

The Bills trailed, 14-7, in the fourth quarter. But they scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 96-yard punt return by Deonte Harty and Allen’s five-yard pass to tight end Dawson Knox. The Bills ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak.

“If you’d told me at the beginning of the year we’re 11-6, AFC East champs, [number] two seed, playing at home,” Allen said, “sign me up.”

The Dolphins, playing without wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and running back Raheem Mostert, could not quite keep pace. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had a touchdown pass to wideout Tyreek Hill but also threw two interceptions, including one to Bills safety Taylor Rapp with 1:13 to play to end the Dolphins’ final chance to craft a tying touchdown drive.

The Dolphins lost their final two regular season games, to the Ravens and Bills.

– Buccaneers win the NFC South: The Buccaneers shut out the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, 9-0, to secure their third straight division title. They finished 9-8, as the NFC South avoided the ignominy of having a division champ with a losing record for a second straight season. The Buccaneers will be the NFC’s No. 4 seed and will host the Eagles next weekend.

Their victory eliminated the Atlanta Falcons from playoff contention. Falcons owner Arthur Blank must decide whether to retain Arthur Smith as the team’s coach after the third straight 7-10 season of Smith’s tenure. Smith left the field Sunday in New Orleans with an angry postgame tirade directed at Saints Coach Dennis Allen. Smith was upset with the Saints’ tactics late in a lopsided triumph for New Orleans.

– Texans win the AFC South, Jaguars eliminated: The Jaguars could have clinched the division title with a victory Sunday at Tennessee. Instead, they lost to the Titans, 28-20, and were eliminated from playoff contention. That completed a stunning late-season collapse for the Jaguars, who lost five of their final six games to finish 9-8.

Sunday’s defeat was particularly excruciating. The Jaguars failed on a fourth-and-goal attempt from the Tennessee 1-yard line in the fourth quarter, trailing by eight points, when Trevor Lawrence extended the ball toward the goal line on a quarterback sneak but didn’t reach quite far enough. The Jaguars also failed on a fourth-and-two try from the Tennessee 33-yard line in the game’s final two minutes.

The Jaguars’ defeat handed the AFC South title to the Texans. They will be the AFC’s No. 4 seed and will host the fifth-seeded Cleveland Browns next weekend. The Texans had clinched a playoff spot with their triumph Saturday night at Indianapolis in what amounted to a play-in game. The Colts were eliminated from playoff contention with their loss.

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The Jaguars’ loss also clinched a wild-card spot for the Steelers and a playoff berth for the Bills. The Steelers had kept their playoff hopes alive with Saturday’s victory at Baltimore, their third straight win with Mason Rudolph starting at quarterback.

– The NFC wild cards: The Eagles will be a wild-card team and the No. 5 seed. The Los Angeles Rams are in as the No. 6 seed. The Packers beat the Chicago Bears, 17-9, Sunday at Lambeau Field to secure the final wild-card spot in the NFC as the No. 7 seed. They reached the playoffs in the first season with Jordan Love as their starter at quarterback after trading Aaron Rodgers, their four-time league MVP, to the New York Jets in the offseason. The Packers’ triumph eliminated the Seattle Seahawks and the Saints.

– The AFC wild cards: The Browns are in as the No. 5 seed. The Steelers are in, either as the sixth or seventh seed. The Dolphins will be a wild-card team.

Which teams were already in?

– Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens clinched the top seed in the AFC with their Week 17 triumph over the Dolphins and had quarterback Lamar Jackson, the MVP favorite, and other key starters sit out Saturday’s loss to the Steelers during a soggy finale in Baltimore. Coach John Harbaugh has said the team is mindful of its divisional-round playoff defeat to the Titans in the 2019 season, the previous time the Ravens were the No. 1 seed, and will try to apply the lessons learned from that. The Ravens are seeking their first Super Bowl title since the 2012 season.

– Kansas City Chiefs: The defending Super Bowl champs were locked into the AFC’s third seed entering Week 18. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes sat Sunday’s regular season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers in Inglewood, Calif. Blaine Gabbert made the start at quarterback for the Chiefs. The Chiefs will host an opening-round game next weekend and then could take to the road for their divisional-round game. If so, it would be Mahomes’s first AFC playoff game on the road.

The Chiefs will need plenty of help if they’re going to host the AFC championship game for a sixth straight season. They have reached three Super Bowls and have won two of them during that run of prosperity. This has been, in relative terms, a season of struggles. Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and Coach Andy Reid have shown their frustration. The deficiencies of the wide receiver group have been glaring. But maybe Reid and Mahomes can summon some of their usual magic for a surprising postseason push.

– Cleveland Browns: They are the No. 5 seed in the AFC and will play at Houston next weekend. With their playoff spot in hand and that seeding locked in, Coach Kevin Stefanski rested quarterback Joe Flacco in Sunday’s game in Cincinnati to finish the regular season. Jeff Driskel became the fifth starting quarterback this season for the Browns following Deshaun Watson, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, PJ Walker and Flacco.

Stefanski is a top contender for the coach of the year award. Flacco could be the comeback player of the year. With their dominant defense and an offense that has become functional behind Flacco, the Browns are dangerous entering the postseason. Flacco could face his former team, with the Browns potentially in line for a divisional-round meeting with the Ravens in Baltimore if they win their opening-round game next weekend in Houston and the seedings hold up otherwise.

– Houston Texans: They won Saturday night in Indianapolis, in what amounted to a play-in game, to clinch a playoff spot. That became the AFC South title with the Jaguars’ loss Sunday. The Texans are in the postseason for the first time since the 2019 season. It has been a dramatic turnaround led by their first-year coach, DeMeco Ryans, and their rookie quarterback, C.J. Stroud.

– San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers had the NFC’s No. 1 seed in hand and sat quarterback Brock Purdy for Sunday’s finale against the Rams in Santa Clara, Calif. Sam Darnold got the start at quarterback. Tailback Christian McCaffrey was sidelined by a calf injury.

– Detroit Lions: The Lions won the NFC North for their first division title in 30 years. They are the NFC’s third seed and will host the Rams next weekend. But they still were in the running for the No. 2 seed Sunday before the Cowboys’ victory, and Lions Coach Dan Campbell played quarterback Jared Goff and other key starters in Sunday’s triumph over the Minnesota Vikings in Detroit. That had ramifications for the Lions, as rookie tight end Sam LaPorta left the game with a knee injury.

– Philadelphia Eagles: The defending NFC champs already had clinched a playoff spot. But they lost to the New York Giants, 27-10, Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J., to finish the regular season on a 1-5 downward spiral since their 10-1 start. That late-season slide dropped the Eagles out of first place in the NFC East. They will be the NFC’s No. 5 seed, as a wild card, and will face the fourth-seeded Buccaneers in Tampa next weekend.

The Eagles could have won the division Sunday if they’d beaten the Giants and the Cowboys had lost to the Commanders. But that didn’t come close to happening. And the Eagles watched quarterback Jalen Hurts suffer a finger injury and wide receiver A.J. Brown suffer a knee injury. They have come undone. They have struggled badly on defense, even after Coach Nick Sirianni handed play-calling duties to Matt Patricia and in effect demoted Sean Desai. Time is running out for the Eagles to address their issues.

– Los Angeles Rams: The Rams already had clinched a playoff spot and they will be the No. 6 seed in the NFC. Carson Wentz started at quarterback Sunday against the 49ers as Coach Sean McVay sat down Matthew Stafford. The Rams will play the third-seeded Lions in the opening round next weekend in a return to Detroit for Stafford.

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