NFL play-offs: Tom Brady chasing eighth title as Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes challenge

This has been one of the most thrilling NFL seasons on record - but the excitement is only just getting started.

With an extra game on the schedule, this was the longest NFL regular season ever, and it also turned out to be the most nail-biting with a record 34 games being won with a score on the very last play of the match.

Indeed the final play-off berth was only decided with the very last kick of the very last game of the regular season, with the Las Vegas Raiders beating the Los Angeles Chargers in a thrilling 272nd and final contest.

It was a fitting end to a rollercoaster season, but now we enter the play-offs when all that hard work - all that blood, sweat and tears - comes down to just one game.

Win or go home.

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How do the play-offs work?

Like last season, 14 teams have qualified for the play-offs, seven each from the AFC and NFC Conference with the top seed from each being given a first-round bye. They also get home field advantage throughout the play-offs, which can be crucial.

As they sit back and relax the remaining 12 teams will play six knockout games over three days on what is known as 'super wildcard weekend', with two games being played on Saturday, three on Sunday and, new for this year, a Monday night game.

The top seeds enter the fray next week with the format always remaining the highest seed remaining plays at home against the lowest seed, and the next best at home to the remaining team.

The top seeds left for round three, the Conference Championships, will host the games that will decide who goes to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to play in Super Bowl 56 on 13 February.

AFC seedings

1. Tennessee Titans

2. Kansas City Chiefs

3. Buffalo Bills

4. Cincinnati Bengals

5. Las Vegas Raiders

6. New England Patriots

7. Pittsburgh Steelers

Wildcard fixtures (away teams first, kick-offs in GMT)

• (5) Las Vegas Raiders v (4) Cincinnati Bengals (Saturday 21:30)

• (6) New England Patriots v (3) Buffalo Bills (Sunday 01:15)

• (7) Pittsburgh Steelers v (2) Kansas City Chiefs (Monday 01:15)

NFC seedings

1. Green Bay Packers

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

3. Dallas Cowboys

4. Los Angeles Rams

5. Arizona Cardinals

6. San Francisco 49ers

7. Philadelphia Eagles

Wildcard fixtures

• (7) Philadelphia Eagles v (2) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sunday 18:00)

• (6) San Francisco 49ers v (3) Dallas Cowboys (Sunday 21:30)

• (5) Arizona Cardinals v (4) Los Angeles Rams (Tuesday 01:20)

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Can Tom Brady go back-to-back and win eighth Super Bowl?

Tampa Bay's win over Kansas gave Tom Brady a seventh Super Bowl title - in his first season away from New England

Tom Brady is 44, and the older he gets the stronger the case for him not being human grows, as he's continuing to improve and set new NFL records and personal bests.

Brady set a new record with 485 completed passes this season and led the league with 43 passing touchdowns. His 5,316 passing yards not only topped the charts this season but set a new career high.

Despite his advancing years, Brady is openly mocking Father Time as he's throwing better and more often than ever before.

Tampa Bay do have injury issues, though, and have lost wide receiver Antonio Brown after he controversially walked out of a game, but they also have the same team that won the title last year - and as second seeds they have a kind route with two home games guaranteed in the play-offs.

There's been the longest ever gap - 17 years - since the NFL saw a team win back-to-back Super Bowls. And yes, you guessed it, Brady was the last quarterback to do it with the Patriots. With this team he has every chance of doing it again.

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Who are the favourites to go all the way?

Aaron Rodgers has put up an MVP season as the Green Bay Packers earned the top seed in the NFC, just ahead of the Buccaneers, and it looks set up for a repeat of last year's NFC Championship game at Lambeau Field, where Brady and Tampa Bay booked a place in Super Bowl 55.

Rodgers has had his critics for his Covid vaccine stance, but Green Bay finished 13-4 for the season, meaning head coach Matt LaFleur has won more games in his first three years in the NFL than any other coach in history.

With a superstar receiver in Davante Adams, a stout run game and an improving defence, Green Bay believe they can finally make it to the Super Bowl after falling just one game short in the last two years.

Rodgers has all the talent, Brady has all the rings - a rematch would be special.

Over in the AFC, the Kansas City Chiefs are bidding to make the Super Bowl for the third straight year, but this year their 12-5 record was largely down to an incredible turnaround defensively. At 3-4 and with one of the worst defences statistically in history, they then won eight straight with the defence the star.

Patrick Mahomes still finished fourth in the league in passing yards (4,839) and touchdowns (37) but a defence limiting the opposition to 17 points or fewer in seven of those eight wins did the trick. The Chiefs got bullied as they lost the Super Bowl to Tampa Bay last season, but they have toughened up to make sure that never happens again.

Can anyone else win the Super Bowl?

The Tennessee Titans may be the most underrated top seed in NFL history, as they finished 12-5 despite contesting half the season without running back phenomenon Derrick Henry, and set a record for using 91 players because of injuries.

Coach Mike Vrabel did a fantastic job to keep his side going while also missing top receivers AJ Brown and Julio Jones for spells too - but both they and Henry are in line to return for the play-offs.

A week off, and then games at home in Nashville - where they have already beaten the Chiefs and Buffalo Bills this season - means they perhaps should be getting more credit than they are.

Luckily, BBC NFL pundits Jason Bell and Osi Umenyiora are big fans and around to sound out a warning for those not taking the Titans seriously.

"It's all about health going into the post-season," said Bell. "AJ Brown, Julio Jones and the man himself Derrick Henry might be back - if those guys are all on the field together then how do you stop that offence?"

"This is my favourite team to watch," added two-time Super Bowl winner Umenyiora. "I love this football team, I love their culture and I love their identity.

"They're 12-5 and half the season they didn't have a possible MVP candidate in Derrick Henry. The way this team plays, the swagger and their aggressiveness - this team is going to go far, and no matter what, I love watching this team play."

The Buffalo Bills finished strong with four straight wins and now seem a force after a sticky spell in the middle of the season, but if they're to get back to the AFC title game they will have to beat Bill Belichick's resurgent New England Patriots.

The Pats looked something like the dominant force they were in the Tom Brady days when they put seven wins together, but lost three of their last four and rookie QB Mac Jones may not be there quite yet.

Both the San Francisco 49ers, who got to the Super Bowl just two years ago, and the Dallas Cowboys, who eased to the NFC East title, will fancy their chances and meet in one of the ties of the round.

What to watch for in wildcard matches

The 49ers and Cowboys had a huge rivalry in the 1990s

That game between the Cowboys and 49ers is perhaps the major attraction of the weekend.

NFL fans of a certain vintage were brought up on Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice battling it out with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith as they played in three straight NFC Championship games in the 1990s.

And those memories will come flooding back as the two five-time Super Bowl winners do battle for an eighth time - only the Rams and Cowboys have played each other more in the play-offs.

They have not met since 1994 and amazingly this is the first year they've both made the play-offs since 1998. Get ready to roll back the years watching this one.

Fans in Cincinnati will hope the Bengals can win their first play-off game in 30 years as they host this year's 'team of destiny' the Las Vegas Raiders - who may not have anything left in the tank.

Two-time Super Bowl winner Ben Roethlisberger is set to end his fine career after 18 seasons - all with the Pittsburgh Steelers - as they face the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead.

There's also part three of the Bills v Patriots rivalry taking place in more frigid weather up in Buffalo, plus another divisional battle in the first ever Monday night wildcard game between the Cardinals and Rams.

The home teams are all favourites but the away side won four out of six wildcard games last season, and hold a 10-4 record over the last three seasons.

And if the play-offs follow the regular season in the sheer volume of games going down to the wire, we're in for a thrilling ride.

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