The Divisional Round of the playoffs in the National Football League wrapped up Sunday with a pair of huge upsets as the AFC No. 2 seed, Indianapolis, and the NFC No.1 seed, Dallas, were both sent home for the season.

The Colts, minus last year’s magical run to a Super Bowl title, pulled another January choke job in losing to the San Diego Chargers, 28-24, in the last NFL game ever to be played in the RCA Dome.

This time though Peyton Manning wasn’t the blame for the Colts annual January exit from the playoffs. Manning was 33-for-48 for 402 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions on a day when everything should of went Indianapolis’ way and little did.

The turning point of the game came late in the first quarter as the Colts were driving again, already leading 7-0. With the Colts facing a third down and 10 yards situation from the San Diego 40 yard line, Manning hit Marvin Harrison streaking across the field for 17 yards. As Harrison spun to avoid a tackle, he fumbled the ball which San Diego recovered.

The Chargers took advantage of the turnover as they drove 78 yards in 10 plays to tie the game at 7-7 as Phillip Rivers hit Vincent Jackson on a 14 yard scoring strike.

Instead of being up 14-0 or 10-0 and having the raucous crowd in the RCA Dome really behind the home team, the Colts stood tied at 7-7 apiece as they wasted their only opportunity of the game to shake the pesky Chargers.

The Colts had the ball three other times in the red zone Sunday without scoring a single point. Manning had a pair of red zone tipped ball interceptions and the Colts turned the ball over on down late in the fourth quarter inside the San Diego 10 yard line.

It looked like the Colts were looking ahead to the AFC Championship Game next weekend against New England. I find it hard to believe that coach Tony Dungy wouldn’t have his troops prepared for the Chargers but on Sunday it looked like the Colts were just going through the motions figuring Manning would pull bail them out again.

There was no magic for the Colts this year and any mention of the word dynasty in Indianapolis got flush down the toilet in one of the stalls in the RCA Dome for the last time.

No dynasty would let a team come to their house and beat them up minus their starting QB (Rivers), star RB (Tomlinson), and best receiver (Gates). All three players missed major playing time during the game.

The Colts should be embarrassed about their performance and they are lucky the league doesn’t ask for the Lombardi Trophy and the Super Bowl rings back because Indy looked nothing like a champion Sunday afternoon.

The New York Giants advanced to the NFC Championship game for the first time since 2000 with a 21-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys Sunday afternoon at Texas Stadium.

There will be a Manning playing in a championship game next weekend and one watching the game with his parents in a luxury suite. This time though, Eli Manning will be calling the signals as big brother Peyton will be pounding old fashions and drinking martini’s Sunday at Lambeau Field with his parents.

This was Tony Romo’s second straight disappointing finish to a playoff game, following his flubbed hold of a short field goal in Seattle a year ago. This one is huge because “America’s Team” seemed pointed toward a ninth trip to the Super Bowl, maybe even a sixth championship.

Dallas tied the most wins in team history with 13, but followed it by tying an NFL record with a sixth straight playoff loss. Romo fell to 0-2 and coach Wade Phillips finished his first year with the Cowboys by falling to 0-4 in his playoff career.

There are other dubious footnotes for Dallas, like being the first No. 1 seed in the NFC to lose in this round since the NFL went to the 12-team playoff format in 1990 and being the seventh team to lose a playoff game against a team they’d beaten twice in the regular season; the ’98 Cowboys did it, too.

Saturday’s games went according to schedule as Green Bay and New England held serve on their home turf.

Green Bay got the Divisional Round going with a convincing, 42-20, win over the Seattle Seahawks Saturday afternoon in a snow storm at Lambeau Field. 

The Packers spotted the Seahawks a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter as RB Ryan Grant fumbled the ball away on Green Bay’s opening two possessions. Grant set a team postseason record by running for 201 yards, and scored three times. After its early slips, Green Bay scored touchdowns on six straight possessions as they ran Mike Holmgren and the Seahags right out of town. 

The Packers reached the NFC title game for the first time since the 1997 season, and the largest crowd ever at Lambeau partied. Favre and Driver started the celebration early, tossing snowballs at each other near the sideline in the closing minutes.

Favre joined Joe Montana as the lone players to pass for more than 5,000 yards in the postseason. Earlier this week, Favre admitted he was disappointed that he hadn’t performed better in some playoff games — in fact, he had lost four of his previous five, throwing 13 interceptions in that span.

Coach Mike McCarthy won in his first postseason game, leading the NFL’s youngest team to the next round.

The Seahawks fell to 0-8 in postseason road games since their only win, in 1983 when they beat Dan Marino and Miami in the AFC playoffs. The losing streak includes a loss in the Super Bowl two years ago.

Tom Brady turned in another phenominal performance Saturday night as the New England Patriots sent the Jacksonville Jaguars back home to Florida for the season with a 31-20 win.

Brady was 26 for 28 for 262 yards and three touchdowns as the Patriots advanced to the AFC Championship Game for the second consecutive season. Brady had 26 completions in 28 attempts in setting an NFL record 92.9 percent for regular-season and playoff games.

New England remained perfect at 17-0, matching the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team to go unbeaten from the first game of the season through the Super Bowl.

The old NFL accuracy record was 91.3 percent (21-of-23) set by Vinny Testaverde with Cleveland in 1993. The old playoff record was 88 percent set by Phil Simms in the Super Bowl after the 1986 season. Simms watched Brady best his mark from the broadcast booth.

Add that to Brady’s record of 50 touchdown passes, one more than Peyton Manning threw in 2004, and it’s been a spectacular season for the two-time Super Bowl MVP.

If the Patriots win out and finish the season 19-0, Brady has to be considered the best quarterback ever to play in the history of the NFL.

Not bad for a sixth round pick out of Michigan who would’ve never seen the field if Drew Bledsoe doesn’t get injuried in the Patriots first Super Bowl season.

New England (17-0) hosts  San Diego (13-5) next Sunday at 3 pm at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough with the winner advancing to Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix in February.