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AFC playoff lineup set

Category: Sports Published on Thursday, 27 December 2012 12:01 Written by Associated Press

As for the NFC playoff race, there’s still plenty of intrigue.

Indianapolis finished off its remarkable one-year turnaround by beating Kansas City 20-13 Sunday to grab an AFC wild card. The Colts went 2-14 in 2011, drafted Andrew Luck first overall and now are 10-5.

“We were a confident locker room from Day 1,” Luck said. “There are guys on this team who have never missed a playoff, those guys know how to win, and I think they imparted that on the younger guys in the locker room, and I think it worked out.”

Cincinnati made the playoffs for the second straight year, the first time the Bengals managed that since 1982. They beat archrival Pittsburgh 13-10 on Josh Brown's 43-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining. The Bengals have been around since 1968. This is the first time they'll make the postseason in two straight non-strike years.

Baltimore clinched the AFC North by routing the New York Giants 33-14. Houston owns the South even though it lost to Minnesota 23-6. Denver has the West and won its 10th in a row by romping over Cleveland 34-12. New England is the East champion and beat Jacksonville 23-16.

As for the NFC, Seattle's 42-13 victory over San Francisco muddled the West, but earned the Seahawks at least a wild card. The 49ers lead the division by a half-game and have clinched a postseason berth.

North winner Green Bay's 55-7 rout of Tennessee moved it up to the second seed behind South champion Atlanta. The Falcons have home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs after defeating Detroit 31-18 on Saturday night.

The East lead belongs to Washington thanks to a 27-20 win at Philadelphia, while the Giants fell to the Ravens and Dallas was beaten 34-31 in overtime by New Orleans. The Redskins and Cowboys meet next Sunday, with the winner taking the division.

Washington also can get a wild card, as can New York, but the defending Super Bowl champion Giants need lots of help.

Chicago's 28-13 victory at Arizona kept it in the wild-card chase.