The National Football League playoffs for the 2006 season began on January 6, 2007. The postseason tournament concluded with the Indianapolis Colts defeating the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI, 29–17, on February 4, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Participants

Within each conference, the four division winners and the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5–6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth-seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference received a first-round bye. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst-surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5, or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4, or 5). The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games met in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.^[1]

Bracket

* Indicates OT victory

Schedule

Under the new U.S. television broadcast contracts that took effect starting this season, NBC replaced ABC as the network televising the first two Wild Card playoff games. Fox then televised the rest of the NFC games. CBS broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games and Super Bowl XLI.

Wild Card playoffs

Saturday, January 6, 2007

AFC: Indianapolis Colts 23, Kansas City Chiefs 8

Despite quarterback Peyton Manning's three interceptions, the Indianapolis Colts out-gained the Kansas City Chiefs in total yards, 435–126, and first downs, 23–8. Indianapolis's defense forced three turnovers, four sacks, and prevented Kansas City from gaining a single first down until late in the third quarter. The game was never in question despite Manning's turnovers as Indianapolis dominated Kansas City from start to finish to earn a trip to Baltimore.

The Colts opened up the scoring on their first drive of the game with Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal. The next time they had the ball, they drove 68 yards to the Kansas City 2-yard line, but had to settle for another Vinatieri field goal to give them a 6–0 lead. After another Kansas City punt, Chiefs cornerback Ty Law intercepted a pass from Manning and returned it 43 yards to the Colts 9-yard line. But Kansas City failed to get the ball into the end zone with three rushing attempts and came up empty when Lawrence Tynes' 23-yard field goal attempt hit the left upright. After another interception thrown by Manning and another Kansas City punt, the Colts increased their lead to 9–0 by driving 33 yards and scoring on Vinatieri's 50-yard field goal on the last play of the first half. The Chiefs ended the half with 16 total yards and no first downs. This was the first time in the modern era (post AFL–NFL merger) and the first time since 1960 that an NFL team had been held without an offensive first down in the first half of a playoff game.

On the Colts' opening possession of the second half, Manning threw his third interception of the game (and his second to Law), but the Chiefs could not take advantage of the turnover and had to punt. Indianapolis then drove 89 yards in 12 plays and scored with Joseph Addai's 6-yard touchdown run, giving them a 16–0 lead.

Kansas City got their first first down of the game on their ensuing possession, driving 60 yards in eight plays. Trent Green finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tony Gonzalez, and then completed a pass to tight end Kris Wilson for a successful two-point conversion to cut their deficit to within one touchdown, 16–8. However, the Colts increased their lead to 23–8 on a 71-yard, 9-play drive ending with Reggie Wayne's 5-yard touchdown reception. Indianapolis's defense forced three turnovers on the Chiefs' last three drives to clinch the victory.

This was the third postseason meeting between the Chiefs and Colts, with Indianapolis winning both times in Kansas City, the most recent being 38–31 in the 2003 AFC Divisional playoffs.^[2]

NFC: Seattle Seahawks 21, Dallas Cowboys 20