NFL 2007 AFC & NFC Conference Finals:
CHARGERS TAKE ON PATRIOTS,
GIANTS CONFRONT PACKERS

"It's a one-game season."

That is the way one of the head coaches involved in this Sunday's AFC and NFC Championship Games describes the finality of the moment.

Win and you're on your way to sunny Glendale, Arizona for Super Bowl XLII on February 3. Lose and it's the sudden beginning of a long offseason.

"Our whole season is at stake and so is theirs," says New England Patriots head coach BILL BELICHICK in describing his AFC Championship Game against the San Diego Chargers. The same can be said for the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game.

"It's a one-game season," says Belichick. "One team moves on. One team goes home."

The championship game lineup is an impressive one, indeed:

* It will be a "Times Have Changed Weekend." Both games are rematches of Week 2 meetings this season (it is the 16th time since 1970 that both championship games were rematches). But both winning coaches say that their opponents are different teams now.

"The important thing for us to focus on is what the Chargers have done in the last couple of months," says Belichick of San Diego. Green Bay coach MIKE MC CARTHY agrees that what happened in September means nothing in January. "We are a different football team than we were in Week 2, and definitely the New York Giants are a different football team," says McCarthy.

* The clubs combine for a .800 regular/postseason winning percentage (56-14).

* The teams are hot, no matter what streak you look at. New England is scalding, continuing on an unbeaten season at 17-0. San Diego has won eight in a row. New York is 9-1 on the road (no road team has ever played in a championship game with that road record). Green Bay has won eight of its nine home games this year.

* In action this Sunday will be the NFL's career leader in quarterback wins and touchdown passes (BRETT FAVRE)…the season TD-pass record-holder (TOM BRADY)…the season sack leader (MICHAEL STRAHAN)…and the running back who has led the league in rushing the past two years (LA DAINIAN TOMLINSON).

So, after all eight winners in the 2007 playoffs came back from a deficit -- the first time that has happened since the 12-team playoff format began in 1990 – here is a rundown of the AFC and NFC Championship Games:

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
San Diego Chargers (13-5) at New England Patriots (17-0) (3:00 PM ET)

Battle of the turnovers?

Of course, the players and personalities on these teams can exert their own game-changing influence on the matchup, but the bottom line to the meeting could be turnovers. San Diego led the league in takeaways (48; with a league-leading 30 interceptions), while New England had only 15 giveaways, best in the league (and only nine interceptions, third-best).

That said, San Diego will face an offense seldom seen in the NFL. The Patriots set the season record this year for points (589) and touchdowns (75) and scored at least 24 points in 16 of their 17 games. Led by the 2007 Associated Press NFL MVP, quarterback TOM BRADY, New England seems capable of adjusting to anything defenses throw at it. Limit the pass (if that can be done) and they go to the run, or vice versa.

Perhaps nothing illustrates this ability more than the Patriots' Divisional Playoff game against Jacksonville. The Jaguars double- and sometimes triple-teamed WR RANDY MOSS, who set the NFL season TD-reception record (23) this year. What did Brady do? Complete 26 of 28 attempts (for an NFL record 92.9 completion percentage) to eight different receivers for 262 yards – with only one pass going to Moss.

The Chargers will come in to their rematch with the Patriots (they lost at New England 38-14 on September 16) somewhat limited. But that concerns Belichick.

RB LA DAINIAN TOMLINSON (knee), QB PHILIP RIVERS (knee) and TE ANTONIO GATES (toe) are hurting. Rivers would be replaced by veteran BILLY VOLEK, who led San Diego to the winning score in the Divisionals.

"They have outstanding depth," says Belichick, citing RBs MICHAEL TURNER and DARREN SPROLES, Volek and TE BRANDON MANUMALEUNA, who can fill in for the starters. "That's why they're in the AFC Championship. If they're on the 53-man roster, we'll prepare for them."

Championship tidbit: Patriots 38-year-old LB JUNIOR SEAU will be playing in his first championship game since 1994, when he was with his opponent this Sunday, San Diego.

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
New York Giants (12-6) at Green Bay Packers (14-3) (6:30 PM ET)

If anyone exhibits how teams can change during a season, it's these two. Back in Week 2 (a 35-13 Green Bay win in New York), the Packers were worried about their running game, and even BRETT FAVRE (who would become the NFL's winningest QB ever in that game) was saying the Pack needed to be able to mix the run in with the pass.

The Giants? Their concern – a big one – was their defense, with new packages put in under new coordinator STEVE SPAGNUOLO. By the end of the Green Bay game, the Giants had surrendered 80 points in the season's first two games.

Going into the NFC Championship, how things have changed! It took five more games for Green Bay to find its running game – in RYAN GRANT, who grew up 20 miles from Giants Stadium (Ramsey, NJ), was a practice squad player/injured for the Giants for two years before Green Bay traded for him right before the season. All Grant did from Week 8, on, was run for 1,130 yards and 11 TDs, including a Packers' playoff record last Saturday with 201 rush yards.

Meanwhile, from a gritty goal-line stand against Washington in Week 3, the Giants' defense began to take form, Spagnuolo's shifting schemes and player rotation up front began to mesh, and New York has allowed only 18.9 points-per-game through the Divisionals since the Green Bay game.

So how will this all pan out Sunday in what is expected to be sub-freezing temperatures at Lambeau Field? You have to think the running game will be a big factor. The Giants can match Grant's production with their own RBs – BRANDON JACOBS, the 6-4, 264-pound freight train who usually needs a good two-to-three guys to bring him down, and elusive AHMAD BRADSHAW, one of the team's two seventh-round draft picks this year.

Giants QB ELI MANNING – looking to become the second consecutive Manning to win a Super Bowl after brother PEYTON last season – has a 100.0 passer rating in each of his last three games, along with eight TDs and one interception. He will go against one of the best corner tandems in the league in AL HARRIS and CHARLES WOODSON, who excel in man-to-man.

And Favre, who also became the career TD leader this year? Who knows what he'll pull this week, from last-ditch shovel passes that set up scores to out-and-out bombs to the Pack's "Big Five" alignment of five wide receivers and an empty backfield. Favre has a strong OL in front of him, was sacked the third fewest times in the league (19, tie), but faces a defense that led the NFL in sacks (53) this season.

Championship tidbit: Packers S ATARI BIGBY speaks for every player in Sunday's championship games when he says, "We're trying to win the Super Bowl. We don't want to mess it up."

NFL WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 5

NFC: 4:30 PM (ET)

SEATTLE 35, Washington 14

AFC: 8:00 PM (ET)

Jacksonville 31, PITTSBURGH 29

Sunday, January 6

NFC: 1:00 PM (ET)

N.Y. Giants 24, TAMPA BAY 14

AFC: 4:30 PM (ET)

SAN DIEGO 17, Tennessee 6

NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS

Saturday, January 12

NFC: 4:30 PM (ET)

GREEN BAY 42, Seattle 20

AFC: 8:00 PM (ET)

NEW ENGLAND 31, Jacksonville 20

Sunday, January 13

AFC: 1:00 PM (ET)

San Diego 28, INDIANAPOLIS 24

NFC: 4:30 PM (ET)

N.Y. Giants 21, DALLAS 17

In the Divisional Playoffs, the division champion with the best record in each conference is host to the surviving Wild Card Weekend team with the lowest playoff ranking. The division champion with the second-best record in each conference is host to the surviving Wild Card Weekend team with the highest playoff ranking. There are no restrictions on intradivision games.

Once teams are ranked for the playoffs, positions do not change:

American Football Conference

1. New England (East Division champion)

2. Indianapolis (South Division champion)

3. San Diego (West Division champion)

4. Pittsburgh (North Division champion)

5. Jacksonville

6. Tennessee

National Football Conference

1. Dallas (East Division champion)

2. Green Bay (North Division champion)

3. Seattle (West Division champion)

4. Tampa Bay (South Division champion)

5. New York Giants

6. Washington

The AFC (CBS, 3:00 PM ET) and NFC (FOX, 6:30 PM ET) Championship Games will be played on Sunday, January 20, and Super Bowl XLII at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, February 3.

The annual AFC-NFC Pro Bowl will be played in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, February 10