MIAMI (Reuters) – The Houston Texans reached the National Football League (NFL) playoffs for the first time on Sunday while the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots both edged closer to booking their spots in the post-season.

The Texans wrapped up the AFC South title with a 20-19 comeback victory at the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday to secure their first playoff berth since joining the league in 2002.

Rookie quarterback T.J. Yates won the game for the Texans with a six yard touchdown pass to Kevin Walter with just two seconds left on the clock.

The conversion sealed Houston’s seventh straight victory and saw them join the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs after they both secured their positions last week.

New Orleans, Super Bowl champions two seasons back, clinched their fifth straight win after quarterback Drew Brees threw two fourth quarter touchdowns to Marques Colston as they won 22-17 at the Tennessee Titans.

Brees threw for 337 yards and his two touchdowns meant he had thrown for at least one touchdown in 40 consecutive games, a record bettered only by Johnny Unitas’ 47.

The NFC South leading Saints would be assured of their playoff spot later on Sunday if the Chicago Bears lost to the Denver Broncos.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants clash on Sunday as the battle for playoff spots in the National Football League heats up.

With four games remaining, 28 teams remain in contention for a playoff spot with only the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers having booked their slots.

It is a tight battle at the top of the NFC East where the Cowboys (7-5) lead the Giants (6-6) by a game. The two teams meet twice in the last four weeks of the season and so everything is up for grabs.

The Giants head to Dallas on a four-game losing streak but the manner of their narrow defeat to the unbeaten Green Bay Packers last week should give them heart.

“It’s a playoff atmosphere the rest of the way and you want to play in must-win games,” said Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

“We know if we win out (the four games) then we are in the playoffs. That’s exciting and something to look forward to. It starts this week with Dallas,” he added.

The Cowboys slipped up last week against the Arizona Cardinals, letting go a chance to put distance between themselves and New York.

MIAMI (Reuters) – If they are not careful, the Miami Marlins could end up being as hated by the rest of America as the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat.

A new ballpark, new name, new manager, new uniforms and some high-profile new players are transforming one of Major League Baseball’s more miserly teams into nouveau riche challengers.

One thing is for sure, the Miami Marlins that take to the field in April will be very different than the Florida Marlins team that said farewell to their old stadium, a shared home with the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, in September.

Baseball never felt right in suburban Miami Gardens where fans were asked to sit sweating in the Floridian heat without any of the special ambience that a MLB ballpark can offer, and the result was the league’s lowest attendance in 2011.

The new air-conditioned home of the Marlins in located on the edge of downtown Miami, features a retractable roof, and promises to attract more fans.

The relocation and rebranding could also be helping to attract top players to come and live and play in South Florida.

“It is going to be totally different,” said All-Star closer Heath Bell, who signed a $27 million, three-year deal with Miami last week. “We’re now the Miami Marlins, people are going to be in the seats, it’s going to be loud and exciting. There’s going to be a buzz.”

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – If any team can stop the unbeaten Green Bay Packers from going all the way this season it could well be the New Orleans Saints, who are starting to look like the team that won a Super Bowl two years ago.

The NFC South-leading Saints (9-3) and NFC West-leading San Francisco 49ers (10-2) are two obvious threats that could deny the Packers a second consecutive trip to the National Football League’s championship game.

While the 49ers have been something of a surprise package this season under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh and lack playoff experience, the Saints have a very familiar look.

Crucially for the Saints, the key partnership between head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees remains intact with the signal caller in record-breaking form.

Brees passed for 342 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Lions and became the first quarterback with over 4,000 passing yards in the opening 12 games of a season, putting him on course to beat Dan Marino’s season record of 5,084 yards with four game still to play.

Some more numbers that indicate the Saints are a team Aaron Rodgers and the Packers should be concerned about meeting in the post-season?

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Oakland Raiders lost sole control of the AFC West after falling 34-14 to the rejuvenated Miami Dolphins in National Football League action Sunday.

With the Denver Broncos (7-5) beating the Minnesota Vikings (2-10), the Raiders (7-5) are now tied atop the division and Oakland could have few complaints about the outcome.

“After a loss like this there’s really not much to say other than we just got outplayed in every phase of the game,” said Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer, whose team showed little fight after trailing 13-0 at halftime. “We just got physically beat which is very discouraging.”

The Dolphins added three touchdowns in the third quarter — Reggie Bush and quarterback Matt Moore running home and then Kevin Burnett returning an interception 34 yards — to put the game out of reach.

“We couldn’t run it, we couldn’t stop the run, we didn’t throw it very well, we didn’t play special teams very well,” said Raiders head coach Hue Jackson.

“When it gets like that, that’s just a bad day at the office. There isn’t any excuse. I’ll take everything on myself.”

The Dolphins, who began the season 0-7, have now won four of their last five games, and while the playoffs remain far out of sight, the team could be helping head coach Tony Sparano to save his job.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – The unbeaten Green Bay Packers can secure their place in the playoffs and take a step towards the ‘perfect season’ when they face the New York Giants on Sunday while the San Francisco 49ers could join them in the post-season with a win over St.Louis.

The schedule has not been kind to the Giants who come off Monday night’s 49-24 mauling in New Orleans and now face the 11-0 Super Bowl champion Packers and the league’s most feared quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

There are numerous ways that Green Bay can make sure of a playoff place with a quarter of the regular season remaining, the most obvious being a victory, but other scenarios include losses for Chicago, Atlanta or Detroit.

But the Packers, who will already be aiming for home field advantage in the playoffs, are not going to be giving much time to calculations.

The elusive unbeaten record of the 1972 Miami Dolphins is a topic that few challengers are willing to discuss and Rodgers is no exception, insisting the motivation, even at this stage, has nothing to do with the record books.

“It is motivating to go out every week and compete better than you did the previous. We have been able to play the way we wanted to play consistently the first 11 games. We will see what happens when we get down this road a little bit,” Rodgers said on Wednesday.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has earned a 5-1 record since taking over the starting role but is still the subject of a raging debate about whether he has a long-term future in the National Football League (NFL).

Tebow led the Broncos to their fourth straight win on Sunday with the team now playing an option offense that is rarely used in the NFL but which Denver coach John Fox has wisely realized works best for his unorthodox quarterback.

Put simply, Denver are bucking the convention in a modern-day NFL that says your offense must be based almost entirely around accurate passing.

Instead, the Broncos are playing to Tebow’s strength by running the ball and letting their athletic quarterback do plenty of the running himself.

During Sunday’s overtime win over the San Diego Chargers, Tebow carried the ball 22 times for 67 yards, the most carries by a quarterback in a game since 1950.

So much for the option offense being unsuited for the NFL, and so much for the ‘novelty’ of Tebow being quickly worked out by opposing defenses.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – Tom Brady threw three touchdowns as the New England Patriots crushed the Philadelphia Eagles 38-20 and Tim Tebow led the Denver Broncos to their fourth straight win in National Football League action on Sunday.

The Houston Texans, playing with a third-string rookie quarterback, held on for a 20-13 win at divisional rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Chicago Bears’ five-game winning streak ended against at Oakland.

Elsewhere, the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons all had scares before securing wins while the Indianapolis Colts, still without quarterback Peyton Manning, lost their 11th straight to remain winless on the season.

Brady was at his best, throwing for 361 yards while his opposite number Vince Young, standing in for injured Michael Vick, threw for a career-best 400 yards in vain.

The Eagles (4-7) started brightly with a LeSean McCoy two-yard touchdown run and a field goal before BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran in two touchdowns to give the AFC East-leading Patriots (8-3) a lead they would not relinquish.

Brady then picked out a wide open Wes Welker with a 41-yard touchdown pass and the pair combined again for a score in the third quarter to put the game out of reach, prompting chants from many Eagles fans to have coach Andy Reid fired.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – The injury-hit Houston Texans, playing with their third-string rookie quarterback, held on for a 20-13 win at divisional rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars in National Football League action on Sunday.

Elsewhere, the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons, all had scares before securing wins while the Indianapolis Colts, still without quarterback Peyton Manning, lost their 11th straight to remain winless on the season.

The AFC South-leading Texans, who lost quarterback Matt Schaub for the season due to injury two weeks ago, moved to 8-3 but suffered another setback as the Pro Bowler’s replacement, Matt Leinart, left Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury.

That meant rookie T.J. Yates had to step in, and with only recently signed backup Kellen Clemens as an alternative, the Texans may well be looking at quarterbacks again this week.

Leinart, making his first start since 2009, completed 10 of 13 passes for 57 yards and a touchdown before his injury and Yates kept things simple, relying on the Texans’ quality running game, as he passed for 70 yards.

Arian Foster’s one-yard run brought Houston level in the first quarter after Ashton Youboty scored on a fumble return for the Jaguars less then two minutes into the game.

By Simon Evans

(Reuters) – The Green Bay Packers, undefeated and looking like a good bet for a second straight Super Bowl title, hope to avoid a repeat of a very different kind when they visit the Detroit Lions Thursday for a Thanksgiving Day clash of division rivals.

The last undefeated team to play on Thanksgiving Day was in 1962 when the defending National Football League (NFL) champion Packers went to Detroit and suffered a shock defeat.

Although Detroit are 7-3, a loss for coach Mike McCarthy’s Packers would still rank as an upset given that Green Bay are riding a 16-game win streak that includes last season’s Super Bowl triumph over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the first NFL player to post a 100-plus rating in 10 straight games in a season and with a receiver corps in outstanding form, the Lions defense will have to produce something special to stop Green Bay.

“The Packers are going to be a tough team to beat,” said former Lion Roger Brown, who played defensive tackle on the 1962 team.

“But if I went out and made a prediction I would say that the young kids with the Detroit Lions are going to try and prove that they were better than the ’62 contingent. I would say the Packers need to look out for them.”