Divisional Championship weekend in the National Football League featured four games that were decided by a single touchdown, bumping up the intrigue from the wild card games the previous weekend. Saturday afternoon, the New England Patriots held on to win 27-20 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

On the other side of the coast, the night game saw a wild Hail Mary touchdown finish from Aaron Rodgers go in vain as the Green Bay Packers fell to the Arizona Cardinals in overtime, 26-20. 

Sunday’s games featured a surprisingly close contest between the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks, as the Panthers’ 31 first- half points were enough to stave off the furious rally of the Seahawks to lead to a 31-24 win while Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos scraped past a depleted Pittsburgh Steelers squad to punch their ticket to conference championship weekend with a 23-16 win. 

With these results, the conference championships are sure to produce two closely contested games. 

Peyton Manning and Tom Brady will meet again in the AFC Championship game, this being their 17th head-to-head meeting. 

Manning has endured much criticism this season, but a recent resurgence after recovering from a plantar fascia injury has complemented Denver’s top-ranked defense to propel them to the Championship. Brady’s consistency amid a slew of skill position injuries kept the Patriots afloat, and key players like wide receiver Julian Edelman are now returning from various injuries. The Patriots remain as a force in the AFC and for the 13th time in 15 seasons, this matchup means that one of Brady, Manning or Ben Roethlisberger will participate in the Super Bowl. 

In the other matchup, Cam Newton’s Panthers will face what many people consider the true test of their status as a contender against the offensively dominant Arizona Cardinals. Veterans like Larry Fitzgerald showed that they are more than capable of producing big plays as his catch and run in overtime set up the game winning touchdown for Carson Palmer and the Cardinals. 

Palmer and Newton are both having MVP caliber seasons for their teams, and the teams have lost a combined four games between them this season.  

This matchup is also the first conference championship in which two Heisman winning quarterbacks will face each other. 

Conference championship weekend has three quarterbacks that were drafted first overall in their respective drafts. However, the only one who was not drafted first is Brady (199th overall), and he has more Super Bowl championships than any of the others. 

In fact, Brady has as many Super Bowl losses as the other quarterbacks have combined appearances. Palmer and Newton are each vying for their first appearance in the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium next month in California.  

Brady and New England are looking to defend the Super Bowl title after defeating the Seahawks in a closely contested game last season.

The Patriots won the game on a last second interception but will need more timely plays to win their second straight.

These matchups come on the heels of some other records throughout the NFL playoffs. During wild card weekend, all four road teams won for the first time in history. 

Additionally, the first and second-seeded teams have ended a run of ten consecutive years in which one of them has lost in the divisional championship round. 

Denver and New England will begin play Sunday afternoon and Arizona and Carolina will follow them in the evening in Denver and North Carolina, respectively.