Some NFL Series Trivia - Divisional Round

The plot thickens and the picks get harder. Gotta love this time of year. Here's some series trivia for this week's playoff games.

Baltimore vs Denver: Baltimore leads the series 6-4, but the Broncos won their last meeting earlier this season in Week 15, 34-17 in Baltimore. Denver leads the series at home 3-1, winning their last two meetings at Mile High. They met in the playoffs once, in the Wild Card round in 2000. The Ravens won that game 21-3 and went on to win Super Bowl XXXV over the New York Giants, They never met in overtime nor has either team ever shut out the other.

Green Bay vs San Francisco: Green Bay leads the series 34-27-1 and is 14-3 against the 49ers since 1989. San Francisco leads the series at home 16-11-1, but the Packers are 6-1 at Candlestick Park since 1989, winning their last three meetings there. They met in the postseason five times. Green Bay leads the playoff series 4-1, winning their last meeting in 2002, 25-15. They met in the NFC Championship game in 1998. Green Bay won that game 23-10 and went on to lose Super Bowl XXXII to the Denver Broncos. They went to overtime once in 1996. The Packers won that game 23-20. The last time Green Bay shut out San Francisco was 13-0 in 1967. The last time San Francisco shut out Green Bay was 35-0 in 1954. Their only tie was 24-24 in 1965.

Seattle vs Atlanta: Seattle leads the series 8-5, winning their last three meetings. Atlanta trails the Seahawks at home 2-4, but the Falcons won their last meeting in the Georgia Dome in 2007. This is their first meeting in in the playoffs. They went to overtime once. in 2002.  Seattle won that game 30-24. Neither team has ever shut out the other nor kept each other in single digits.

Houston vs New England: The Patriots lead the series 3-1 and spanked Houston earlier this season in Week 14, 42-14. New England leads the series at home 2-0. They never met in the postseason, but they did go to overtime once, in their first ever meeting in 2003. New England won that game 23-20. Houston's only win against the Patriots came in 2009 by a score of 34-27. Neither team has ever shut out the other.

Other Thoughts...

    The SEC has now won seven consecutive national championships and eight of the last ten. That's more than any other conference in the BCS era. In fact, that's more than any other conference in the modern era. However, this is nothing new if you count Independents. In the early era of college football, although not a formal league yet, Ivy league schools won every national championship from 1869-1900. From 1869-1922, Ivy League schools won 44 national titles, including ties. Yale has the most during that time with 17 national championships. Although the SEC didn't exist yet, the first team from what is now the SEC to win a national championship was LSU in 1908. Again each of these teams were listed as Independent at the time.

   In Monday's Last Place Update, I said the New Orleans Hornets should win at least two. Although it wasn't mentioned, the one game I thought the Bees would definitely lose was Monday's game against the San Antonio Spurs. New Orleans won that game. They host the Houston Rockets tonight. Can the Hornets win their third straight game for the first time this season?

Have a great day!!