Every 1996 NFL playoff game, three ways: the season race carried on into the postseason, who beat their seeding, and the bracket.
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The same race these clubs ran all season, carried on through the postseason on one scale and on real dates.
Where each club finished the season against how far it went, ranked on record rather than seed.
Who played whom, round by round, which no line chart can say.
Green Bay Packers won the 1996 title from a regular season record of 13-3. 12 teams reached the playoffs and the bracket ran 4 rounds. Every game below is taken from FiveThirtyEight's openly licensed NFL data and the devstopfix results set; nothing on this page is estimated.
| Round | Won by | Result | Opponent | Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wild Card Round | San Francisco 49ers | 14-0 | Philadelphia Eagles | December 29, 1996 |
| Wild Card Round | Jacksonville Jaguars | 30-27 | Buffalo Bills | December 28, 1996 |
| Wild Card Round | Dallas Cowboys | 40-15 | Minnesota Vikings | December 28, 1996 |
| Wild Card Round | Pittsburgh Steelers | 42-14 | Indianapolis Colts | December 29, 1996 |
| Divisional Round | Jacksonville Jaguars | 30-27 | Denver Broncos | January 4, 1997 |
| Divisional Round | Green Bay Packers | 35-14 | San Francisco 49ers | January 4, 1997 |
| Divisional Round | Carolina Panthers | 26-17 | Dallas Cowboys | January 5, 1997 |
| Divisional Round | New England Patriots | 28-3 | Pittsburgh Steelers | January 5, 1997 |
| Conference Championship | Green Bay Packers | 30-13 | Carolina Panthers | January 12, 1997 |
| Conference Championship | New England Patriots | 20-6 | Jacksonville Jaguars | January 12, 1997 |
| Super Bowl | Green Bay Packers | 35-21 | New England Patriots | January 26, 1997 |
The left column ranks this field by regular season record, not by seed number: seeding rules differ by era, so this site uses records everywhere instead. The right column groups clubs by the round they went out in, which is not the same as the number of rounds they won, because a bye carries a club further without it winning anything. The figure beside a name is places moved between the two columns, and part of it is only where a club sat inside its band. Nothing here is a prediction. The data notes carry the whole method.
The races that filled this bracket: AFC Wild Card NFC Wild Card