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NFL playoff winners have this in common
Published: 1/10/2011 4:58 PM
Last Modified: 1/10/2011 4:58 PM

This is the lesson everyone should have learned during the NFL’s wild-card weekend: When the weather turns cold and stakes are high, you better be able to run the football.

Teams with an advantage in rushing yards went 4-0.

The Seahawks, who ranked next to last in rushing yards among NFL teams during the regular season, outran the Saints 149 yards to 77, thanks primarily to Marshawn Lynch’s amazing 67-yard touchdown run.

The Packers also ranked among the league’s worst ground squads during the regular season, but rookie James Starks ran for 123 yards in helping his team to a 138-82 edge in rushing yards in a win over the Eagles.

The Chiefs led the league in rushing yards during the regular season, but were outrushed 142-108 by the Ravens.

And the Jets, whose identity during the Rex Ryan Era has been run-the-ball-and-play-defense, outrushed the Colts 169-93.

Yet to make their playoff debuts are the Patriots (123.3 rushing yards per game), Steelers (120.3), Falcons (118.2) and Bears (101.0).

Are Tom Brady, Big Ben, Matt Ryan and Jay Cutler so good that their teams can win just by winging the ball around?

I’m not buying it. I’ll stick with the trend and pick whichever teams can move the chains the primitive way.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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