The 2008-09 NFL regular season came down to the wire as several teams battled their way into a few remaining wild-card spots and division titles. You have to appreciate the fact that none of these teams backed into the playoffs, they 
all came out victorious on Sunday.While the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers secured playoff spots with wins at home, the Miami Dolphins had to travel to the Meadowlands and beat Brett Favre and the New York Jets to capture the AFC East division title.
In that much-anticipated match-up between quarterbacks Chad Pennington and Favre, the Dolphins capped their miraculous turnaround season with a 24-17 win.
Pennington completed 22 of 30 passes for 200 yards and two TD’s while Favre struggled; throwing three interceptions in the game.
The Eagles went into their afternoon game against the Dallas Cowboys knowing the Tampa Bay Bucs and Chicago Bears had already lost and that a win would put them into the final wild-card spot. The Eagles responded by blowing the Cowboys off the field in a lopsided 44-6 win.
The stumbling Cowboys turned the ball over 5 times in the loss.
A few of the games came down to final-second heroics from the placekickers.
The Vikings’ Ryan Longwell nailed a 50-yarder with just five seconds on the clock to defeat the New York Giants 20-19 and John Casay buried a 42-yarder through the uprights with just one second left on the clock for the Carolina Panthers 33-31 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Casay’s kick earned the Panthers the NFC South division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs.
In addition to the Dolphins, the biggest surprise teams in the playoffs are the Atlanta Falcons and Ravens who both finished 11-5 with rookie quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco at the helm.
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