Movin' On
Posted January 10, 2010, 9:03 PM ET

The NFL Playoffs provided a bizarre weekend of games, with three blowouts and one for the ages.

I was disappointed in the competitiveness of the first three wild card showdowns as the Jets, Cowboys and Ravens won with relative ease. But the 51-45 thriller in Phoenix was the best game of the lot.

I claimed on Friday's radio show that the outcomes of all four wild card games could go the other way....you just never know, when it comes to rematches. The only game I predicted correctly was the Cowboys over the Eagles.....and it figures, that Dallas would snap one of the great streaks of futility in NFL playoff history. More about that, later in the blog.

After all the carnage, we're left with another intriguing weekend of NFL playoff games ahead.

In the NFC, the Cowboys travel to Minnesota to take on Favre and Co., and the Saints welcome the Cardinals.

In the AFC, the cocky NY Jets travel to San Diego and the Ravens play Peyton and the Colts in Indy.

All four games are good ones and just like the wild card weekend, it's anybody's guess, who survives the next round of the playoffs. This road to Super Bowl 44 is as wide-open as I can ever remember....and that's the beauty of the "tournament". Of the final eight teams remaining, you can really figure that any of them could wind up in Miami.

As for the Cowboys, their win was the most historic, as they eliminated a stretch of 4,760 days between playoff victories. I'll miss using that one stat for the opening of my radio show, but I do have something planned for the new open to "PrimeTime with the Packman".

You shouldn't be surprised that I have something up my sleeve for the dumbest fan base on PrimeTime. Stay tuned.

But I'll give the Cowboys and their fans this much....the Boys are playing great football, and they are peaking at the right time. When you throw in the mix that the dangerous Eagles and Packers have been eliminated in the NFC, Cowboy Nation should be excited about the possibility that they could win out and join the Steelers as six-time Lombardi Trophy winners.

For fans that have seen their teams already eliminated, how do you feel about the Cowboys at the Vikings? The over-hyped Brett Favre and the obnoxious Cowboy fans under one roof....choose your poison. It's also a chance for the Cowboys to eliminate another staggering streak.....they haven't won a playoff game on an opponent's home field since January 17, 1993, when they won at San Francisco.

Speaking of streaks, the Carolina Panthers celebrate a four-year anniversary this week. Friday the 15th marks four years since the Panthers' last playoff win....and John Fox wants an extension?

I could have sworn that the Charlotte Observer broke a big story, or at least they claimed it to be a scoop, when they declared that Fox wasn't getting fired and he would be back for next season.

Well, it appears that both ESPN and FOX reported this weekend that John Fox was told last month that Jerry Richardson would allow the coach to opt out of the final year of his deal. I wonder why the local paper was left holding the bag on this story?

Even though it hasn't been announced yet, it appears that Pete Carroll is leaving Southern Cal and the NCAA investigators behind in LA as he heads to Seattle to lead the Seahawks. I wonder if his payroll in Seattle will be as much as the one he was operating with in LA?

That's a big blow for the Trojans and the Pac 10. Pete Carroll has turned the Men of Troy into one of the elite programs in college football, and his departure leaves USC in deep, deep trouble.

After the Trojan hoops program was smacked with NCAA probation, it might be time for the football program to receive their just reward. The Trojans will continue to recruit well with their new coach, but Pete Carroll gave them a "rock star" quality. Given all the rumors surrounding the Panthers' John Fox, I'm surprised somebody didn't mention him for this gig.

As for college football, the season is finally over after a never-ending slew of meaningless bowl games. After 33 appetizers, the main course featured #1 vs. #2 with Bama and Texas. It took all of five plays for the game to completely turn, when the Tide busted up Texas QB Colt McCoy. Bama's 16-point win gave Nick Saban his second BCS title and the SEC their fourth consecutive championship.

The SEC has now won 6 BCS titles and sports a 14-5 record in such games....including a 6-0 mark in the title games. When you consider that the SEC had a 2-3 record after the first three years of the BCS, you realize how much they have dominated the BCS.

While college football is over, the college hoops season really gets cranked up....and it didn't take long for the parity of the college game to take over. This past weekend, 5 of the Top 10 teams lost, including #1 Kansas losing at Tennessee. All in all, 10 of the Top 25 teams lost this weekend.

If you think the NFL Playoffs are wide-open, March Madness could be insane this season.