The National Football League playoffs for the 2010 season began on January 8, 2011. The postseason tournament concluded with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, 31–25, on February 6, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This was the first Super Bowl in which the NFC representative was a #6 seed, and only the second time one has made the Super Bowl (the previous being the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL).

This was only the second postseason in NFL history that included a team with a losing record, and the first to occur with a full regular season. The Seattle Seahawks won their division with a 7–9 record, as all four teams in the NFC West had losing seasons in 2010. Only the 1982–83 NFL playoffs, following the strike-shortened 1982 season, had previously included teams with losing records (under a modified 16-team tournament, with eight from each conference, the 1982 Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions qualified with records of 4–5). Six days after winning the division, the Seahawks defeated the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints to become the first playoff team with a losing record to win in the postseason.

In the opening wildcard round of the playoffs, three of the four home teams had fewer wins than the away team. The exception was the Green Bay Packers–Philadelphia Eagles matchup, where both were 10–6 (the Packers had defeated the Eagles in Week 1 of the season but were on the road because they were the wild card team). Away teams finished 6–4 in the 2010 postseason. This was the second time since the 1979 NFL season where neither of the number one playoff seeds advanced to their conference's respective championship game, the other time being in the 2008–09 NFL playoffs. Also, had the New York Jets won their conference championship game, it would have been the first Super Bowl between two #6 seeds, let alone two wild card teams.

Unless otherwise noted, all times listed are Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05)

New overtime rules This was the first time that the new postseason overtime rules were in effect, although none of the playoff games this season ended up going into the extra period. Under these new changes, instead of a straight sudden death, the game will not immediately end if the team that wins the coin toss only scores a field goal on its first possession (the game will end if they score a touchdown). Instead, the other team gets a possession. If the coin toss loser then scores a touchdown, it is declared the winner. If the score is tied after both teams had a possession, then it goes back to sudden death.

Participants

Bracket

Schedule In the United States, NBC broadcast the first two Wild Card playoff games, then CBS broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games. Fox televised the rest of the NFC games and Super Bowl XLV.

Round Away team Score Home team Date Kickoff(ET / UTC−5) TV Wild-card round New Orleans Saints 36–41 Seattle Seahawks January 8, 2011 4:30 p.m. NBC New York Jets 17–16 Indianapolis Colts January 8, 2011 8:00 p.m. Baltimore Ravens 30–7 Kansas City Chiefs January 9, 2011 1:00 p.m. CBS Green Bay Packers 21–16 Philadelphia Eagles 4:30 p.m. Fox Divisional round Baltimore Ravens 24–31 Pittsburgh Steelers January 15, 2011 4:30 p.m. CBS Green Bay Packers 48–21 Atlanta Falcons 8:00 p.m. Fox Seattle Seahawks 24–35 Chicago Bears January 16, 2011 1:00 p.m. New York Jets 28–21 New England Patriots 4:30 p.m. CBS Conference championships Green Bay Packers 21–14 Chicago Bears January 23, 2011 3:00 p.m. Fox New York Jets 19–24 Pittsburgh Steelers 6:30 p.m. CBS Super Bowl XLV Pittsburgh Steelers 25–31 Green Bay Packers February 6, 2011 6:30 p.m. Fox

Wild-card round

Saturday, January 8, 2011

NFC: Seattle Seahawks 41, New Orleans Saints 36

The Seahawks made history by becoming the first 7–9 team ever to make the playoffs and then did it again by becoming the first to win a playoff game, racking up 31 first downs and 474 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch late in the fourth quarter. This marked the fifth consecutive year a Super Bowl champion failed to win a playoff game in the next season.

Two early Seahawk miscues enabled the Saints to build a 10-point lead. First Olindo Mare kicked the opening kickoff out of bounds, giving New Orleans the ball at their 40-yard line. New Orleans then drove to the Seahawks' 8-yard line, but had to settle for a Garrett Hartley field goal after Reggie Bush dropped a pass on third down that could have kept the drive going. Then three plays into the Seahawks' drive, Matt Hasselbeck's pass went through the hands of receiver Ben Obomanu and into the arms of Jabari Greer, who returned the interception 10 yards to the Seattle 35. New Orleans subsequently drove 35 yards in nine plays, aided by a third down pass interference penalty on Walter Thurmond in the end zone, and scored with Drew Brees' 1-yard touchdown pass to fullback Heath Evans, giving them a 10–0 lead.

Seattle fullback Michael Robinson returned Hartley's short kickoff 18 yards to the 43-yard line, and the Seahawks struck back with a 57-yard drive that ended with Hasselbeck's 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Carlson. The Saints countered as Brees completed four of five passes for 53 yards on an 83-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Julius Jones, who had been cut by Seattle early in the season, to again give the Saints a 10-point lead. But Hasselbeck led the Seahawks right back on a 70-yard scoring drive, featuring a 39-yard reception by tight end Cameron Morrah. On the next play, Hasselbeck threw his second touchdown pass to Carlson, cutting the score to 17–14. After an exchange of punts, Jones lost a fumble while being tackled by Raheem Brock that Seattle linebacker David Hawthorne recovered on the Saints' 18-yard line, setting up a 29-yard field goal by Mare to tie the game.

With 1:15 left in the second quarter, Hasselbeck launched a 45-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stokley, giving Seattle their first lead of the game at 24–17. But a 40-yard reception by Devery Henderson helped the Saints drive to the Seattle 3-yard line where Hartley made his second field goal to cut the score to 24–20 as time expired in the half. This was only the second playoff game in which both teams scored at least 20 points in the first two quarters.

The Seahawks increased their lead to 31–20 on their opening drive of the second half, as Hasselbeck threw an 18-yard completion to Obomanu and finished the drive with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams. Then after forcing a punt, Mare kicked a 39-yard field goal to make the score 34–20 with 9:54 left in the quarter. The Seahawks got a chance to build a three-score lead after stopping Jones for no gain on fourth down and 1 on the Saints' 37-yard line, but they could only gain a few yards with their next drive, and a delay of game penalty on fourth down pushed them out of field goal range.

New Orleans got the ball back at their 13-yard line following Jon Ryan's punt, and mounted an 83-yard drive that ended with Jones' second touchdown run of the game, making the score 34–27 with 13:11 left in regulation. Then they forced a three-and-out and got the ball back with good field position on their 44-yard line with Lance Moore's 8-yard punt return. On the second play of their ensuing drive, Brees threw a short pass to Jones, who took it 33 yards to the Seattle 23. But several plays later, Seattle's defense halted the drive at the 3-yard line, where the Saints settled for Hartley's third field goal to cut the score to 34–30.

After an exchange of punts, Seattle got the ball with 4:20 left in the game. On the first play of the drive, Lynch was stuffed for no gain. But on the next play, he took off for a 67-yard touchdown run in which he broke seven tackles en route to the end zone. The crowd in Seattle was so loud during the run that local seismographs recorded it as a small earthquake. This play has become colloquially known as the Beast Quake. With 1:52 left, Brees struck back with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Henderson, but the two-point conversion failed, keeping the score at 41–36. Then Carlson sealed the victory by recovering Hartley's onside kick attempt, enabling Seattle to run out the clock.

Brees completed 39 of 60 passes for 404 yards and two touchdowns. His 39 completions set a postseason record. Jones, who became the first player ever to score a touchdown in the postseason against a team that had cut him in the regular season, rushed for 59 yards and two touchdowns while also catching six passes for 61 yards. Hasselbeck completed 22 of 35 passes for 271 yards and four touchdowns with an interception. Lynch added 131 rushing yards and a touchdown for Seattle, who had not had a 100-yard rusher in any of their regular season games.

This was the first postseason meeting between the Saints and Seahawks.

AFC: New York Jets 17, Indianapolis Colts 16

As he had done several times before, Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri gave his team a fourth quarter lead with less than a minute remaining by making a clutch field goal. But this time it was not enough, as New York managed to avenge their previous season loss to Indianapolis in the AFC title game by winning on a Nick Folk field goal as time expired in the game.

The first quarter was scoreless as every drive by both teams ended with a punt. The game remained scoreless until just over five minutes remained in the half, when Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (playing in what would be his final game in a Colts uniform, as Manning would miss the entire 2011 season because of back surgery) threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garçon. New York responded with a long drive to the Colts' 19-yard line, but with less than a minute left, Justin Tryon intercepted a pass from Mark Sanchez in the end zone to keep them scoreless going into halftime.

New York managed to tie the game on their opening drive of the second half, starting with Antonio Cromartie's 41-yard kickoff return to the 37-yard line. The Jets subsequently drove 63 yards in 10 plays, featuring a 20-yard reception by tight end Dustin Keller, on the way to a 1-yard touchdown run by LaDainian Tomlinson. Indianapolis countered with a 9-play drive to the New York 29-yard line, with Manning completing a 23-yard pass to Blair White and Joseph Addai rushing for 14 yards. Vinatieri finished the drive with a 47-yard field goal to give them a three-point lead. But the Jets responded with a 17-play, 87-yard drive that consumed almost 10 minutes and featured three third down conversions. Tomlinson capped off the drive with his second 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 14–10.

With 5:22 left in the game, Vinatieri's 32-yard field goal cut the Colts' deficit to one point. Indianapolis' defense subsequently forced a punt after three plays, but a running into the punter penalty against them kept the drive going, allowing New York to take more time off the clock and forcing the Colts to use two timeouts. Indianapolis got the ball back with 2:36 left in the game, and retook the lead with a 48-yard drive as Manning completed two passes to tight end Jacob Tamme for gains of 15 and 11 yards, along with a 12-yard completion to White. At the end of the drive, Vinatieri made a 50-yard field goal to give the Colts a two-point lead with 53 seconds left in regulation.