It took a Champ to knock off the champs.
Huffing, puffing, sprinting down the sideline, Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey made the interception that put an end to Denver's years of playoff misery and finished off New England's dominating dynasty.
The record shows that Bailey got caught and knocked down at the 1-yard line after his 100-yard return Saturday night. But his interception of Tom Brady did plenty of damage, setting up the game-changing touchdown in Denver's 27-13 victory over the defending Super Bowl champions.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was a great play by me," Bailey said.
Sure was. It was the highlight of the first playoff game in the history of Invesco Field, which resulted in Denver's first postseason win since John Elway's last game, the 1998 Super Bowl.
Next week in the AFC championship game, the Broncos will play the winner of today's meeting between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
PHOTO: EPA
New England (11-7), meanwhile, will go home, three wins short of NFL history.
The Patriots had five turnovers.
"When you lose, you want to go down fighting," Brady said. "You want to go down playing your best and we didn't do that. We made it easy for them."
PHOTO: AP
It didn't get really easy until Bailey changed the game.
The Patriots were moving the ball well in the third quarter. They cut a 10-3 deficit to four points on a field goal and had moved quickly to the Denver 5 for what could have been the go-ahead score.
But on third down from the 5, Bailey stepped in front Troy Brown in the end zone for the pick. He sprinted down the sideline and when he felt Kevin Faulk swipe at him helplessly about 70 yards into the trek, he thought he had it cinched.
Champions don't go down easily, though, and tight end Ben Watson wasn't quitting. Watson took an angle, and with Bailey slowing and bringing the ball down to his hip, Watson got there, knocked Bailey down and sent the ball flying out of bounds at the 1.
Or maybe through the end zone.
With Bailey lying on his back, grimacing and gasping for air, Belichick challenged the call, saying the ball flew out of the end zone, not at the 1, which would have given New England the ball back on a touchback.
"It was a great effort on his part," Belichick said of Watson.
But did it go out through the end zone?
"Go ask them," the coach said of the officials, who also set up Denver's first touchdown on a questionable pass-interference call in the end zone against Asante Samuel.
It was the kind of call a championship team might have gotten. With no decisive TV angle, though, the Pats didn't. On the next play, Mike Anderson scored his second 1-yard touchdown of the night and gave Denver a 17-6 lead.
"I never saw the guy coming, but I was going as hard as I could," Bailey said of the longest non-scoring interception return in NFL playoff history.
Not that anybody was questioning him. Nor is there any more doubt about who won in the blockbuster trade before the 2004 season, when the Broncos sent Clinton Portis to Washington for Bailey and a second-round pick.
Portis and the Redskins got knocked out of the playoffs Saturday. Bailey and the Broncos are moving on.
"I don't care about what happens tomorrow," Bailey said. "It doesn't matter if it's Pittsburgh or Indy. We got this one."
Trailing 17-6, always reliable Adam Vinatieri, the difference in all three of New England's three-point Super Bowl victories, missed a 42-yard field goal. Shortly after, Brown fumbled a punt return to set up Jake Plummer's lone touchdown pass of the night, a 4-yarder to Rod Smith for a 24-6 lead.
Plummer finished 15-for-26 for 197 yards with the touchdown and one interception.
And while the Denver quarterback won't be mistaken for Elway, or even Brady -- who threw for 341 yards in defeat -- that was the point: As has been proven all year, Plummer doesn't have to do it all for the Broncos to win.
Seahawks 20, washington 10
His head pounding and his day over, Shaun Alexander walked off the field at halftime and flashed the "OK" sign.
He was right.
Despite losing the NFL MVP to an early concussion, the Seattle Seahawks ended their 21-year playoff drought Saturday by beating the Washington Redskins 20-10 behind Matt Hasselbeck and a stout defense.
"I told Matt at halftime that he had to shoulder the load," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "We always put a lot on his shoulders, but I told him that now he had to do a little bit more."
Hasselbeck did.
He threw for a touchdown and ran for another as the Seahawks advanced to the NFC title game next week against the winner of Sunday's game in Chicago between Carolina and the Bears.
Holmgren said he was optimistic that Alexander will be able to play. Alexander, injured in the first 10 1/2 minutes, did not talk to reporters.
The win ended the longest run without a postseason victory by any NFL team -- Seattle had been 0-6 since its last playoff win on Dec. 22, 1984. Next week's game will be the second title game in the 30-year franchise history -- the Seahawks played for the AFC championship after the 1983 season.
"I don't know if it was me. Those other guys stepped up," Hasselbeck said. "It was really a team win today."
Alexander, who scored an NFL-record 28 touchdowns this season and led the league with 1,880 yards rushing, lost a fumble without being hit at the Washington 11 on Seattle's opening drive. He was then hurt with 4:29 left in the first quarter and did not return.
Without Alexander, this became Hasselbeck's game.
Not only did he complete 16-of-26 passes for 215 yards and a 29-yard second-quarter touchdown pass to Darrell Jackson, but he scrambled around the right side for a 6-yard TD in the third quarter.
"I think he was awesome," said wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, one of the few Seahawks with Super Bowl experience. "He loses his starting running back and he's able to overcome that with no problem."
Indeed, Hasselbeck's work helped overcome three costly turnovers -- one that kept Seattle from scoring in the first period, a second that led to a Washington field goal and a third in the fourth quarter that the Redskins squandered.
Jackson had nine receptions for 143 yards despite playing with a bad back.
The Seahawks (14-3) stopped Washington's six-game winning streak. The Redskins (11-7) were inept on offense for the second week in a row -- they had 140 yards in the first three quarters after getting a total of just 120 in last week's win at Tampa Bay.
"That's my responsibility," Washington coach Joe Gibbs said. "Obviously we wanted to be much more productive than what we were in the playoffs. We have to look to see how we can do a better job offensively."
Washington's last chance ended in the final minute when Mark Brunell's desperation fourth-down pass for Santana Moss was batted down by safety Michael Boulware in the end zone.
And had it not been for Seattle's mistakes, the Redskins never would have been in the game against a Seattle defense was able to concentrate on stopping Clinton Portis' running because only Moss and tight end Chris Cooley were receiving threats.
That cut the Seattle lead to a touchdown just 3:01 into the final quarter. Then Josh Scobee fumbled the kickoff and kicker John Hall recovered, but Hall missed a 36-yard field-goal attempt that could have cut it to four.
Brown clinched it with a 31-yard field goal with 2:54 left.
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