A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Dates | January 7 – February 5, 2006 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 2005 | ||||
| Teams | 12 | ||||
| Games played | 11 | ||||
| Super Bowl XL site | |||||
| Defending champions | New England Patriots | ||||
| Champions | Pittsburgh Steelers | ||||
| Runners-up | Seattle Seahawks | ||||
| Conference runners-up | |||||
| |||||
The National Football League playoffs for the 2005 season began on January 7, 2006. The postseason tournament concluded with the Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL, 21–10, on February 5, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
After scrutiny in the Wild Card and Divisional rounds, the league reversed a two-year policy, and returned to "all star" officiating crews for the Conference Championship games. Since the 2003–04 NFL playoffs, postseason officiating had been done by entire crews from the regular season.[1]
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.[2]
| Playoff seeds | ||
| Seed | AFC | NFC |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indianapolis Colts (South winner) | Seattle Seahawks (West winner) |
| 2 | Denver Broncos (West winner) | Chicago Bears (North winner) |
| 3 | Cincinnati Bengals (North winner) | Tampa Bay Buccaneers (South winner) |
| 4 | New England Patriots (East winner) | New York Giants (East winner) |
| 5 | Jacksonville Jaguars (wild card) | Carolina Panthers (wild card) |
| 6 | Pittsburgh Steelers (wild card) | Washington Redskins (wild card) |
Bracket
| Jan 8 – Giants Stadium | Jan 15 – Soldier Field | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Carolina | 23 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Carolina | 29 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | NY Giants | 0 | Jan 22 – Qwest Field | |||||||||||||||
| 2 | Chicago | 21 | ||||||||||||||||
| NFC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan 7 – Raymond James Stadium | 5 | Carolina | 14 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan 14 – Qwest Field | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Seattle | 34 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Washington | 17 | NFC Championship | |||||||||||||||
| 6 | Washington | 10 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Tampa Bay | 10 | Feb 5 – Ford Field | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Seattle | 20 | ||||||||||||||||
| Wild Card playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||
| Divisional playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan 8 – Paul Brown Stadium | N1 | Seattle | 10 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan 15 – RCA Dome | ||||||||||||||||||
| A6 | Pittsburgh | 21 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Pittsburgh | 31 | Super Bowl XL | |||||||||||||||
| 6 | Pittsburgh | 21 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Cincinnati | 17 | Jan 22 – Invesco Field at Mile High | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Indianapolis | 18 | ||||||||||||||||
| AFC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jan 7 – Gillette Stadium | 6 | Pittsburgh | 34 | |||||||||||||||
| Jan 14 – Invesco Field at Mile High | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Denver | 17 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Jacksonville | 3 | AFC Championship | |||||||||||||||
| 4 | New England | 13 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | New England | 28 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Denver | 27 | ||||||||||||||||
Schedule
These playoffs marked the final season that ABC televised the first two Wild Card playoff games. Super Bowl XL was also ABC's final Super Bowl telecast. In addition to taking over Sunday Night Football during the following season, NBC was awarded the first two Wild Card playoff games, as well as ABC's place in the annual Super Bowl broadcasting rotation. ABC would not broadcast a playoff game again until the 2015–16 playoffs when it started to simulcast the ESPN-produced Wild Card Game.
CBS continued to televise the rest of the AFC playoff games and Fox the rest of the NFC games.
| Away team | Score | Home team | Date | Kickoff (ET / UTC–5) |
TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wild Card playoffs | |||||
| Washington Redskins | 17–10 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | January 7, 2006 | 4:30 p.m. | ABC |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 3–28 | New England Patriots | January 7, 2006 | 8:00 p.m. | ABC |
| Carolina Panthers | 23–0 | New York Giants | January 8, 2006 | 1:00 p.m. | Fox |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 31–17 | Cincinnati Bengals | January 8, 2006 | 4:30 p.m. | CBS |
| Divisional playoffs | |||||
| Washington Redskins | 10–20 | Seattle Seahawks | January 14, 2006 | 4:30 p.m. | Fox |
| New England Patriots | 13–27 | Denver Broncos | January 14, 2006 | 8:00 p.m. | CBS |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 21–18 | Indianapolis Colts | January 15, 2006 | 1:00 p.m. | CBS |
| Carolina Panthers | 29–21 | Chicago Bears | January 15, 2006 | 4:30 p.m. | Fox |
| Conference Championships | |||||
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 34–17 | Denver Broncos | January 22, 2006 | 3:00 p.m. | CBS |
| Carolina Panthers | 14–34 | Seattle Seahawks | January 22, 2006 | 6:30 p.m. | Fox |
| Super Bowl XL Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan | |||||
| Seattle Seahawks | 10–21 | Pittsburgh Steelers | February 5, 2006 | 6:30 p.m. | ABC |