As the National Football League season wound down with a great matchup in the Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons, this postseason inevitably went down as one of the greats.

The playoffs this year have been wonderful to watch. From the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers playing an epic wild card game concluding on “the Throw” to the Falcons dethroning the high-powered Minnesota Vikings in overtime of the NFC championship game to the Broncos walking unscathed into the Super Bowl, this has been a great postseason.

But where does it rank with the greats? Who could forget (if you’re old enough to remember) the 5-0 win by the Dallas Cowboys over the Detroit Lions in an NFC divisional playoff in 1970; the lowest-scoring game in playoff history? What about the “Immaculate Reception” by Franco Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Oakland Raiders in 1972? Kellen Winslow being carried off the field at the Orange Bowl in 1981 when the San Diego Chargers beat the Miami Dolphins in overtime 41-38 is a picture for the ages.

Recently, ESPN ranked the top five wild card, divisional, conference championship and Super Bowl games. I didn’t get to see a couple of the wild card games, but the divisional games were classics.

One of them, which I believe was the fourth best as voted by the espn.com voters, was the 24-23 49ers win against the Lions in 1983. It was a typical Joe Montana comeback: drive the team down with the patented West Coast offense and throw a short post-pattern into the endzone for Freddie Solomon, who was filling in for the injured Dwight Clark.

The Lions, led by Billy Sims, nearly won the game, but Eddie Murray missed a field goal with a few ticks left. Being a 49ers fan for a while, I don’t remember this game. I used to hate Joe Montana because he was too good, but seeing this game and “the Catch” game gave me a new-found respect for him.

If ESPN decides to do another poll next year of the top five of each kind of game, can you not vote the wild card game between the Packers and Niners this year as number one? The wild card has only been in existence since 1978, but the game should have been one played for the NFC championship. Who could not rate a game that high with more at stake?

Look, each coaches’ future was on the line, the Niners finally snapped the Packer jinx, Steve Young made the throw of his life and Terrell Owens made the catch of his life on a play reminiscent of “the Catch” with three seconds left that gave the 49ers the 30-27 win is enough evidence for me to rate the game number one of all the wild card games. However, the game will be tainted because of the no-call fumble by Jerry Rice during the final drive.

In other wild card games, who could forget the Buffalo Bills heroic comeback against the Houston Oilers in 1992 after trailing 35-3 at half-time and winning 41-38 in OT? How about the New York Giants Jim Burt’s crushing hit on Montana that knocked him unconscious in 1986, part of a 49-3 Giants victory?

Only two teams have ever made it to the Super Bowl when they’ve played a wild card game: the Raiders in 1980 and the Broncos in 1997. Obviously, even though the games are great, not many are making it to the Super Bowl.

In the divisional playoffs, you could make a list of great games. One that really stands out is the “Immaculate Reception” game in which Terry Bradshaw of the Steelers threw a pass that did (or didn’t?) deflect off the Raiders’ Jack Tatum and another Steelers player into the hands of Harris leading to a game-winning touchdown.

Last year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos will probably go down as yet another fourth-quarter comeback by John Elway as it will another choke in the playoffs by the Chiefs. With the Chiefs trailing 17-14, the Chiefs were driving. Poor use of the clock, poor time-out usage, poor play-calling and poor coaching prevented the Chiefs from at least forcing overtime.

There have been many more great divisional playoff games, mostly involving the Steelers, Dolphins, and Raiders in the AFC, especially in the 1970s. In the NFC, most have pitted the Cowboys, 49ers, Bears, Redskins, Giants, and Packers in the glory days of the 1980s and ’90s.

In the championship games, two names stand out: Joe Montana and John Elway. Two games also stand out: the 1981 NFC championship and the 1986 AFC championship. The first is dubbed “the Catch” game because of the touchdown pass to Dwight Clark by Montana under pressure that led to the rise of the 49ers and demise of the Cowboys. The second is dubbed “the Drive” because of the 98-yard 5:00 drive Elway and the Broncos embarked on to deny the Cleveland Browns a shot in the Super Bowl.

As far as the Super Bowl, well, there haven’t been many great games. Two of the last three have been “super.” The Cowboys narrowly escaping the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX and last year’s Broncos hanging on against the defending-champion Packers.

Also, the Bills-Giants battle in Super Bowl XXV was a great one because of the missed Scott Norwood field goal that gave the Giants the win in the final few seconds. The 49ers’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII when the Montana to John Taylor TD pass capped a fourth-quarter comeback to deny the Bengals revenge for the loss to the Niners in Super Bowl XVI.

Before this decade, you have to travel back in time to the ’70s when the offenses were in-your-face running and the defenses were some of the stingiest ever. The “guarantee” game when the AFL’s New York Jets finally took down the NFL and the Baltimore Colts is one for the books.

So, now that you’ve watched the Super Bowl, think back on some of the glory days of the NFL’s postseason. Because of those days, these days are possible, making the NFL’s postseason one of the best in the world.

---

Chad Drury is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Marshalltown.