The National Football League playoffs for the 2010 season began on January 8, 2011. The postseason tournament concluded with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, 31–25, on February 6, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This was the first Super Bowl in which the NFC representative was a #6 seed, and only the second time one has made the Super Bowl (the previous being the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL).

This was only the second postseason in NFL history that included a team with a losing record, and the first to occur with a full regular season. The Seattle Seahawks won their division with a 7–9 record, as all four teams in the NFC West had losing seasons in 2010. Only the 1982–83 NFL playoffs, following the strike-shortened 1982 season, had previously included teams with losing records (under a modified 16-team tournament, with eight from each conference, the 1982 Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions qualified with records of 4–5). Six days after winning the division, the Seahawks defeated the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints to become the first playoff team with a losing record to win in the postseason.

In the opening wildcard round of the playoffs, three of the four home teams had fewer wins than the away team. The exception was the Green Bay Packers–Philadelphia Eagles match, where both were 10–6 (the Packers had defeated the Eagles in Week 1 of the season, but were on the road because they were the wild card team). But away teams finished 6–4 this playoff season for wins. This was the second time since the 1979 NFL season where neither of the number one playoff seeds advanced to their conference's respective championship game, the other time being in the 2008–09 NFL playoffs. Also, had the New York Jets also won their conference championship game, it would have been the first Super Bowl between two #6 seeds, let alone two wild card teams.

Unless otherwise noted, all times listed are Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05)

New overtime rules

This was the first time that the new postseason overtime rules were in effect, although none of the playoff games this season ended up going into the extra period. Under these new changes, instead of a straight sudden death, the game will not immediately end if the team that wins the coin toss only scores a field goal on its first possession (the game will end if they score a touchdown). Instead, the other team gets a possession. If the coin toss loser then scores a touchdown, it is declared the winner. If the score is tied after both teams had a possession, then it goes back to sudden death.^[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]

Bracket

Schedule

In the United States, NBC broadcast the first two Wild Card playoff games, then CBS broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games. Fox televised the rest of the NFC games and Super Bowl XLV.

Wild Card playoffs

Saturday, January 8, 2011

NFC: Seattle Seahawks 41, New Orleans Saints 36