...and then there were 2

I apologize to those keeping track at home for the the tardiness of this post. Though the Vikings had beaten what I believed to be a better team in the Bengals than anyone the Saints had managed to knock off, home field advantage seems to have been sufficient equalizer (both for the Vikings in their win over the Bengals and for the Saints in their win over the Vikings) to have carried the 4th, rather than the 2nd, best team to the Super Bowl for a showdown with the Colts. How the Jets survived to the Conference Championship, beating the Bengals twice as well as the Chargers in San Diego, will forever remain a mystery--unless you believe Nate Kaeding's two misses from inside the 45 and the Bengals' rash of late-season injuries count as sufficiently significant aberrations from regular season performance.

1. Indianapolis Colts (15-2)
2. Minnesota Vikings (14-3)
3. San Diego Chargers (13-4)
4. New Orleans Saints (14-3)
5. Houston Texans (9-7)
6. Cincinnati Bengals (10-7)
7. Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7)
8. New England Patriots (10-7)
9. Green Bay Packers (11-6)
10. Baltimore Ravens (10-8)
11. Dallas Cowboys (12-6)
12. Philadelphia Eagles (11-6)
13. Denver Broncos (8-8)
14. Tennessee Titans (8-8)
15. Atlanta Falcons (9-7)
16. San Francisco 49ers (8-8)
17. Arizona Cardinals (11-7)
18. Miami Dolphins (7-9)
19. Jacksonville Jaguars (7-9)
20. New York Jets (11-7)
21. Carolina Panthers (8-8)
22. New York Giants (8-8)
23. Washington Redskins (4-12)
24. Chicago Bears (7-9)
25. Cleveland Browns (5-11)
26. Buffalo Bills (6-10)
27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-13)
28. Oakland Raiders (5-11)
29. Kansas City Chiefs (4-12)
30. Seattle Seahawks (5-11)
31. St. Louis Rams (1-15)
32. Detroit Lions (2-14)