Super Bowl matchups of the past 10 years:
2011 -- No. 3 Giants over No. 1 Patriots
2010 — No. 6 Packers over No. 2 Steelers
2009 — No. 1 Saints over No. 1 Colts
2008 — No. 2 Steelers over No. 4 Cardinals
2007 -– No. 5 Giants over No. 1 Patriots
2006 — No. 3 Colts over No. 1 Bears
2005 — No. 6 Steelers over No. 1 Seahawks
2004 — No. 2 Patriots over No. 1 Eagles
2003 — No. 1 Patriots over No. 3 Panthers
2002 — No. 2 Buccaneers over No. 1 Raiders
You can see that #1 seeds in the playoffs don't prosper as well as most of us think, although I also think this misleads a bit. Home field advantage is still huge but the SB winner often seems to be the team that "gets hot" at the right time. This often bodes well for the healthier teams, of which I'd say we're probably about 80% on the health scale right now.
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