TJ's Take on wild-card weekend

Tom Jackson ranks the eight remaining playoff teams and hands out some awards from wild-card weekend of the NFL season.

Updated: January 9, 2006, 12:52 AM ET
By Tom Jackson | Special to ESPN.com

Here's my quick review of everything we saw in wild-card weekend of the 2005 NFL season:

TJ's Rankings of the Remaining Playoff Teams
Team W-L TJ Says
1. Colts 14-2 Rematch with Steelers could be very physical.
2. Broncos 13-3 Rematch with Patriots awaits at Invesco Field.
3. Seahawks 13-3 Await Redskins, who beat them earlier this season.
4. Patriots 11-6 Played strong second half in rout of Jaguars.
5. Steelers 12-5 Bill Cowher's team won at Cincinnati, but were a bit too chippy.
6. Redskins 11-6 Only 120 yards of offense but a win over the Buccaneers.
7. Panthers 12-5 It was Dr. Jekyll this week for John Fox's team in win over Giants.
8. Bears 11-5 Rematch with Panthers should be another defensive tilt.


Offensive player of the week

Panthers RB DeShaun Foster. Carried 27 times for 151 yards as the Panthers rolled up 223 yards rushing in shutting out the Giants 23-0 in the Meadowlands.

Defensive player of the week

Patriots OLB Willie McGinest. Totaled eight tackles and an amazing 4½ sacks in the Patriots' 28-3 conquest of the Jaguars. McGinest now has 16 career sacks in the postseason.

Coaching move of the week

Carolina's ground-oriented game plan kept the Giants' defense on its heels all afternoon.

Tom Jackson is an NFL analyst for ESPN.

Tom Jackson

NFL studio analyst
Tom Jackson, a standout linebacker for the Denver Broncos for 14 years, joined ESPN as its NFL studio analyst in 1987 for the launch of the network's NFL game coverage. Twenty-four years later, Jackson -- the 2009 Sports Emmy award recipient in the Outstanding Studio Analyst category -- remains one of sports television's foremost pro football analysts, drawing experience from both his Hall of Fame playing career and his more than two decades in broadcasting.

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