The National Football League playoffs for the 1990 season began on January 5, 1991. The postseason tournament concluded with the New York Giants defeating the Buffalo Bills in an all-New York matchup in Super Bowl XXV, 20–19, on January 27, at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

The league expanded its playoff system from a 10-team to a 12-team tournament, which remained in use through the 2019–20 NFL playoffs. With these changes, three wild card teams (those non-division champions with the conference's best won-lost-tied percentages) qualified from each conference, up from two the year before.

The format consisted of the following: The three division champions from each conference were seeded 1–3 based on their regular season won–lost–tied record. Three wild card qualifiers were seeded 4, 5, and 6 within the conference.

With the addition of the third wild card team, the lowest-seeded division winner would be guaranteed a home playoff game as they would host the lowest-seeded wild-card team in what was now the Wild Card Round; after the introduction of a second wild card team for 1978, all three division winners would receive a bye to the Divisional Playoffs, but the third-seeded team would have to play on the road against either the first or second seeded teams (this all depended on whether the Wild Card Game winner came from the same division as the top seed, as teams were not allowed to play wild card winners from their divisions) and could only host the conference championship game provided that they were the highest remaining seed.

The Divisional Playoffs did away with the previous rule that prohibited inter-divisional matchups. Instead, the lowest-seeded winner from the Wild Card Round would be paired against the top seed in one game, and the second seed would play the other winner with the highest remaining seed hosting the conference championship the following week.

In each conference, the matchup between the 3 and 6 seeds in the wild-card round dictated where the wild-card round winners traveled to for the divisional round: If the 3-seeded team won, they traveled to the 2-seeded team while the winner of the 4 vs. 5 matchup traveled to the 1-seeded team. If the 6-seeded team won, they traveled to the 1-seeded team while the winner of the 4 vs. 5 matchup traveled to the 2-seeded team.

This system was later modified before the 2002–03 NFL playoffs after the league realigned the teams into eight divisions (four per conference). The number of teams in the playoffs remained the same, but now there were four division champions and two wild card teams from each conference. This system was kept until 2020, when the third wild card team was restored, but only the top seed received a bye to the Divisional Playoffs in each conference.

As of the 2025–26 playoffs, this is the last postseason in which all division winners won a playoff game.

Participants

Bracket

Schedule With the expansion from a 10-team to a 12-team playoff system, "wild card Sunday" became "wild card Weekend", with two games played on Saturday and two on Sunday, similar to the Divisional playoffs. From Super Bowl XXV onward, all Super Bowls have since been scheduled for 6 p.m. EST or later, regardless of the local time zone, so the game runs into the primetime hours.

ABC was awarded the rights to broadcast the two Saturday wild-card playoff games. CBS then televised the rest of the NFC games and NBC broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games. ABC also televised Super Bowl XXV.

Round Away team Score Home team Date Kickoff(ET / UTC−5) TV Wild-card round Washington Redskins 20–6 Philadelphia Eagles January 5, 1991 12:30 p.m. ABC Kansas City Chiefs 16–17 Miami Dolphins 4:00 p.m. ABC Houston Oilers 14–41 Cincinnati Bengals January 6, 1991 12:30 p.m. NBC New Orleans Saints 6–16 Chicago Bears 4:00 p.m. CBS Divisional round Miami Dolphins 34–44 Buffalo Bills January 12, 1991 12:30 p.m. NBC Washington Redskins 10–28 San Francisco 49ers 4:00 p.m. CBS Chicago Bears 3–31 New York Giants January 13, 1991 12:30 p.m. CBS Cincinnati Bengals 10–20 Los Angeles Raiders 4:00 p.m. NBC Conference championships Los Angeles Raiders 3–51 Buffalo Bills January 20, 1991 12:30 p.m. NBC New York Giants 15–13 San Francisco 49ers 4:00 p.m. CBS Super Bowl XXV Buffalo Bills 19–20 New York Giants January 27, 1991 6:20 p.m. ABC

Wild-card round

Saturday, January 5, 1991

NFC: Washington Redskins 20, Philadelphia Eagles 6

The Redskins overcame losing two turnovers and a 6–0 deficit to score 20 unanswered points. This game was sweet revenge for the Redskins, who had lost to the Eagles 28–14 in a Monday night game during the season in which the Eagles defense had scored two touchdowns and knocked nine Washington players out of the game, including all of their quarterbacks. The game has become known as the "Body Bag Game" because the Eagles defense had taunted the Redskins by asking if they had enough body bags for their team.

Philadelphia started the game strong as quarterback Randall Cunningham completed a 66-yard pass to tight end Keith Jackson on their third play from scrimmage, giving the team a first down at the Redskins 11-yard line. However, the next three plays resulted in a 1-yard run, an incomplete pass, and a 10-yard sack by Washington linebacker Monte Coleman, forcing the Eagles to settle for a 37-yard field goal by Roger Ruzek. After a pair of punts by each team, the Redskins got the ball on their 21 yard line with 14:23 remaining in the second quarter. Running back Gerald Riggs lost the ball due to a tackle by Seth Joyner, and safety Wes Hopkins recovered it on the Redskins 25. A few plays later, a defensive holding penalty against the Redskins gave Philadelphia a first down on the 2-yard line, but they still could not get into the end zone. First, Washington defender Markus Koch tackled Heath Sherman for a 1-yard loss. Cunningham tried to pass the ball on the next two plays, but his first attempt was incomplete, and on his second try, he was sacked for an 8-yard loss by defensive tackle Charles Mann. Ruzek then kicked a 28-yard field goal to give Philadelphia a 6–0 lead just under five minutes into the second quarter.

Eagles cornerback Eric Allen ended Washington's possession by intercepting a pass from Mark Rypien on their 46. But in what turned out to be a critical defensive stand, the Eagles could not move the ball and had to punt. From this point on, Washington took over the game. Faced with third and 9 on his own 33-yard line, Rypien completed a 28-yard pass to receiver Art Monk, and followed it up with a 23-yard completion to running back Earnest Byner. On the next play, his 16-yard touchdown pass to Monk gave the Redskins a 7–6 lead with 5:54 left in the half. Alvin Walton recovered a fumble from Sherman to end the Eagles next drive. Philadelphia's defense forced a punt, but their next drive fared no better as Cunningham was intercepted by Darrell Green at midfield. A few plays later, Byner lost a fumble that turned into a 94-yard touchdown return by cornerback Ben Smith. It seemed to be a repeat of Byner's infamous play known as "The Fumble" in the 1987 AFC Championship Game, but this time it was overturned by instant replay (George Sladky), as replays showed Byner was down by contact before the ball came out. Washington kept possession and ended up increasing their lead to 10–6 on a 20-yard Chip Lohmiller field goal.

Washington increased their lead to 13–6 late in the third quarter with a 19-yard field goal by Lohmiller. At this point, Cunningham was benched and replaced by Jim McMahon, who promptly threw three straight incompletions before Brian Mitchell returned their punt to the Redskins 45-yard line. Rypien subsequently completed a 47-yard pass to Gary Clark on third and 5, and then hit him with a 3-yard touchdown pass two plays later, increasing Washington's lead to 20–6. Cunningham would return to the starting lineup on the next series, but could not lead the Eagles to any more points.

Rypien finished his first playoff game completing 15 of 31 passes for 206 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. Cunningham completed 15 of 29 passes for 205 yards with one interception. He was also the game's leading rusher with 80 yards, but was sacked five times. Jackson was the top receiver of the game with five receptions for 116 yards.

This was the last game for Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan as he was fired shortly after this game. He failed to reach the playoffs in his next head-coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals and was fired after two seasons, thus failing to win a playoff game as a head coach.

The two teams would meet again in the 2024 NFC Championship game with the eagles winning 55-23 This was the first postseason meeting between the Redskins and Eagles.

AFC: Miami Dolphins 17, Kansas City Chiefs 16

With 3:28 left in the game, the Dolphins capped an 85-yard drive with quarterback Dan Marino's winning 12-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mark Clayton.

On the Dolphins opening drive they reached midfield, but Marino was sacked on third down and Reggie Roby's punt was blocked by Charles Washington, giving the Chiefs the ball at the Miami 37-yard line. After nine plays and a 28-yard gain, the Chiefs scored on a 27-yard field goal from Nick Lowery. Miami responded with a 40-yard drive, with Marino completing a 12-yard pass to Mark Duper on third down and four yards needed to keep it moving. The drive ended on the Chiefs 40-yard line, where Pete Stoyanovich made an NFL playoff record 58-yard field goal to tie the game.

The Chiefs responded with a drive to the Dolphins 30-yard line, featuring a 33-yard reception by receiver Stephone Paige, but it ended with no points when safety Jarvis Williams intercepted a pass from Steve DeBerg. After an exchange of punts, Miami drove to the Chiefs 39-yard line. Stoyanovich attempted another long field goal, this one 57 yards, but this time he missed and the Chiefs got rolling with a 16-yard run from Christian Okoye. Then DeBerg got his team into the end zone with two completions to Paige, the first for 16 yards and the second a 26-yard touchdown to make the score 10–3. Miami later threatened to score with a drive in the Chiefs territory, but Neil Smith forced a fumble from Marino and J. C. Pearson recovered it, keeping the score 10–3 at halftime.

The Chiefs had to punt on their first drive, and Bryan Barker's 44-yard kick pinned the Dolphins back at their own 6-yard line. Miami was forced to a three and out, but Roby's 64-yard punt sent the Chiefs all the way back to their own 30. DeBerg started off the possession with a 26-yard completion to Emile Harry. Following a sack and an incompletion, the Chiefs faced third and 15. On the next play, running back Todd McNair picked up 13 yards on a screen pass, and on fourth down and 2 from the Dolphins 36, Okoye rushed five yards for a first down. Two more DeBerg completions advanced the ball to the 1-yard line, but an intentional grounding penalty moved the ball back 10 yards and the Chiefs ended up settling for a 25-yard field goal from Lowery. Then on the first play of the Dolphins next drive, Duper lost a fumble while being tackled by Deron Cherry, and Dino Hackett recovered for the Chiefs on the Miami 29-yard line. Three runs by Okoye gained eight yards, and then Lowery kicked his third field goal to give his team a 16–3 lead.